Returning to Warrnambool East Primary School on Thursday brought with it a sense of familiarity for Vicki Jellie.
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The Australian of the Year award winner was principal for a day at the school she attended as a child.
Ms Jellie said while some classrooms and facilities remained the same, areas at the school had grown and its programs had expanded.
“It’s lovely to come back,” the Peter’s Project founder said. “What a great place, and what great teachers. It’s fabulous. It’s not about sitting down and learning from a book anymore. There’s so many integrations. It’s amazing.”
Principal Michelle Bickley-Miller said it was great to have Ms Jellie on board and said the role schools played was “vastly different” to when they were young.
“The pressures are different and the learning is different,” Ms Bickley-Miller said. “Schools are no longer educative in the formal sense but very much about bringing up young citizens for the future and learning about what it is to be a good citizen. That’s really important.”