By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
IT WAS a fittingly celebratory farewell for Wallarano Primary School’s long-standing principal David Duff last month.
In a special assembly on 25 July, the principal’s 15-year reign was ended with a student flashmob dance, a mass Mr Duff impersonation by the student body and wacky musical animations that superimposed his head and his beloved dog’s on wildly flaying bodies.
The animations had been created in a state-of-the-art film and radio studio – one of Mr Duff’s aspirational legacies for his students.
The Noble Park school has unquestionably flourished since Mr Duff walked through the door with the folkloric words to staff: “Treat every child like they are mine and we will get along fine.”
At the time, Mr Duff commented the school finances were just enough to buy a slab of beer.
Since then much of the school has been rebuilt, including the studio, a cavernous school hall, drama room and playgrounds.
Its enrolments have nearly doubled to 670.
Mr Duff told the Journal that from day one he didn’t want to lead an ordinary school but the “best school”.
He’d made it his job to know every child’s name. “When I say hello and address them by their name, it makes them feel 10-feet tall.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re an older kid in trouble the day before or a shy girl hiding behind their mum.
“It’s about respect.”
But it isn’t all about making kids feel happy. Mr Duff was determined to make students learn, so they could be successful participants in society.
The school’s culture of academic excellence, built on appointing quality staff and teachers, includes state literacy awards, a national numeracy award, teacher-of-the-year and best Victorian educational support team.
A self-confessed victim of “white line fever” in his football playing days, Mr Duff said “a bit of competition” was a good thing.
“Being a winner is good but it’s also good to learn how to be a loser. It builds resilience to try again.
“We don’t want kids giving up because they’re not fantastic at something and don’t want to experience failure.”
The school’s thriving arts scene was a chance for all of its students to be “successful at something”.
“For some kids the academic things are going to be a struggle. We have to offer sport, music, drama and visual arts to build their confidence for the things that are harder.
“I want the very best for every child here, that they’re confident and will take on challenges. I don’t want them to be limited by what country they come from or what suburb they live in.”
Mr Duff said as a child all he wanted to do was play sport for the rest of his life, preferably for Essendon Football Club.
He was led into physical education teaching, which in turn “rolled along” into running schools.
Last month, he was in the final throes of a month-long farewell tour of each of the school’s classes, called ‘Date With Mr Duff’.
He was wondering what he was going to do post-retirement, beyond an impending world trip.
“It’s my second home,” he said of his extraordinary school.
