Principal farewelled with a special guest

Harvey Primary School has farewelled principal Colin Brand who this week moves to Esperance after 12 years in the community.

Mr Brand, along with his wife and vice-principal Teresa Brand, will be moving to Esperance where he will take on the principal role at Castletown Primary School.

During Mr Brand’s time, the school received a number of awards including excellence in public education, which recognised the school for outstanding achievement from its students and its role as a safe and supportive environment.

Mr Brand said he was particularly proud of the five trips to Canberra, fundraised by the community.

“To pull the community together to raise money for kids in a little community like Harvey, to send them, is pretty fantastic,” he said.

Mr Brand said he was also proud of the connections the school has made with the wider community, partnering with the Harvey RSL, Scitech and the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Foundation.

As part of the farewell during an assembly on March 31, Mr Brand was presented with an aerial picture of the school with the kids on the oval forming HPS and a special guest was invited by the Harvey Aboriginal community.

In a thank you for Mr Brand’s work at the school, Aboriginal community elder Leslie Ugle invited actor, television presenter and childhood friend of Mr Brand, Ernie Dingo, to attend the farewell.

Mr Brand said it was an emotional reunion with Mr Dingo who he had gone to school with and had not seen in about 20 years.

“It was a really nice thing he did and a really nice thing the Aboriginal community did for me,” Mr Brand said.

“I’ve taught from Esperance to Derby and everywhere in between, Harvey’s a very hard place to leave.”