Marianne Pankhurst hopes to continue Bowen Public School's positive culture as principal

Mrs Pankhurst said she is looking forward to welcoming the new students, spending a full year at school.

She was previously the deputy principal and instructional leader and officially took over the new role in the last week of term 4 of 2020.

However, she has experience in the new role after spending the past year as relieving principal after former principal Scott Olsson left for personal reasons. She was also the relieving principal before Mr Olsson arrived after former principal Rob McPherson left.

Mrs Pankhurst has been a teacher for 28 years and started teaching in 1993 ranging from preschool through to year 6.

She said her goal was always about "trying to really improve outcomes for kids and [seeing] them learn and grow".

"You know you are making a difference, it's really that connection with people," she said.

Mrs Pankhurst grew up in Orange and went to university in Bathurst before moving to the Greater Sydney area.

When she returned to Orange with a husband and three children she spent three years working as an itinerant teacher and also worked at Calare Public School before moving in 2017 to Bowen, which was one of the schools she worked at as an itinerant teacher.

Mrs Pankhurst said her previous role at Bowen Public School involved working closely with teachers and working with students to improve their outcomes.

"It had the most amazing culture of anywhere I worked," she said.

"It's a place I knew had such a positive culture, the staff really work well together and back each other."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: