Saying goodbye to a career filled with purpose and meaning

When she walks out of school for the last time in 58 years this August, Ann Kearns will look forward to travelling and spending time on her pastimes of watersports, yoga and cycling.

And she can do so with a sense of pride in knowing that she always got the best from her students, encouraging them to push their boundaries and achieve their true potential. Ann is retiring as principal of An Grianán NS, Mount Temple, a post she has held for the last four years since the retirement of her predecessor Ambrose McGowan.

"There is sheer joy in knowing I'm finally leaving school after 58 years. I've been in school since 1967," she joked, speaking of her own time in education followed by 42 years spent teaching and in leadership.

She spent 31 years in An Grianán NS, where she held the post of teacher for 27 years, deputy principal for 12, acting principal for two and principal for four.

As she prepares to bid farewell to a successful career, it is clear that Ann is extremely passionate about children's education and ensuring they reach their full potential in an inclusive environment.

"I pride myself as a teacher that I always seem to have the knack to be able to push every child to the edge in a very positive way, and have every child working at their absolute maximum capacity. And this is when children are at their happiest, when they're really creative. Every child has strengths, you just have to give them the opportunity to find their strengths," she said this week.

Having spent time as both a classroom and resource teacher, and having led the special education team within the school, Ann says that one of the biggest changes she has seen throughout her career has been the increase in the amount of supports for children with additional needs.

"When I started teaching in this school, we had one shared learning support teacher between three schools. Now we have four fulltime learning support teachers in this school and we have seven SNAs (special needs assistants).

Ann added that one of the things she is most proud of is that An Grianán is a really inclusive school.

"We have a lot of children getting a lot of help, but there is no stigma attached. Our inclusivity is seamless. If there are children with additional needs in your class, they bring a gift to your school. When you have children with additional needs, it enriches your school and it helps us all to be more inclusive and more aware of everybody's differences," she said.

Ann believes that children learn best when they can be creative.

She also believes that a collaborative learning approach can help to build children's confidence in their own abilities.

"I am passionate about collaborative learning where you put children into groups and they can all bounce off each other, everybody has a role. A child who may not be very academic can have a tremendous input into a group. A child who might be dyslexic and might struggle with reading and writing might be the absolute most intelligent person to know how to solve a problem. I love setting up children in groups and giving them a task, and they are all so engaged, and learning is effortless. It's enjoyable, and then everybody's self-esteem is improved because they are all contributing," enthused Ann.

Another of her passions is the environment and one of her lasting legacies to the school is the creation of a fabulous garden, complete with an outdoor classroom with seating for 36, raised planting beds, a pond and a willow arch.

"I had this vision that I really wanted to create an outdoor learning space for the school, so this would be a place where the children could learn about, and we could improve, biodiversity, we could learn about sustainability. We could learn about nature firsthand and not just learn it out of books, so now we have a pond that the children dug themselves and we have frogs in the pond, and newts and dander flies and butterflies. We have improved biodiversity here, there are so many species of butterfly and insects," she said, adding that the parents' association raised all the money the project, which took three years to complete.

The garden also includes a path with inlaid stepping stones, with each child painting their own stepping stone for the path.

"We wanted to bring a digital learning aspect into this whole project so we created a school blog. This is an ever-evolving, learning experience, where we started off with the children designing the garden - the planning of it, the actual work, and now we're adding to it and we have the digital aspect," explained Ann.

During her tenure as principal, Ann also started up a student council and the Wellbeing Warriors in the school. And having gained her qualification as a yoga teacher after completing a four-year course with the Irish Yoga Association some 20 years ago, she was also delighted to introduce yoga to the school. She also introduced Brain Gym, a physical education motor skills programme.

Last year, the school started up a traditional music band - Ban na Cheoil An Ghrianán - and Ann said they have a great relationship with Moate CCE. She said they had great help from Karen McCormack, who has been teaching tin whistle in the school for the last three years, and there are now 20 children in the school playing a variety of traditional music instruments.

As she bids farewell to An Grianán, Ann said the love and respect she had been shown by the children, staff, board of management, parents, and wider community has been overwhelming and will leave a void in her life.

Mother to Stephen and grandmother to Sarah-Jane, Ann lives in Athlone and is now looking forward to spending time on her many hobbies, as well as enjoying some travel, with a long trip to India high up on her list.

"It has been the greatest privilege to teach and lead in this wonderful school. I'm deeply grateful for every opportunity that helped me grow into the role of principal," she said. "Alongside the joy of the endless summer that now awaits me, there's also a real sense of loss. I'm saying goodbye to a career that has filled my life with purpose and meaning."

"For the first time in a long time I will have the gift of time. I'm looking forward to perfecting the art of doing nothing, as well as doing everything that takes my fancy," she said.