Principal Jenny Nelson gets to know the names and faces of every student at Endeavour Christian College. Photo: Jacynta Hunt.
When Endeavour Christian College (ECC) principal Jenny Nelson walks around the school, every student says hello with a bright smile.
At the beginning of 2024, Ms Nelson joined the ECC team, bringing her 30 years of experience as a school principal.
The leader said cutting-edge education and connection with students were her top priorities, with a brand-new prep facility completed and a large sporting oval on its way since her appointment.
Unlike a traditional classroom setting, Ms Nelson said the new prep facility featured play-based learning, nature-play and inclusive learning areas.
“I’ve always been interested in looking at how to engage students further in learning and staying on the cutting edge of what’s happening in the education world,” she said.
“We wanted to be able to provide the best possible facilities and to be able to offer an engaging program.”
The new sporting oval, which the principal said would become the largest in Cooktown, will allow students to engage in more athletic activities throughout the year.
It will also mean that the annual sports day can be conducted at the school, rather than borrowing Cooktown State School’s oval.
“The wonderful thing is, for our students that are interested in athletics, all of our sporting programs can be conducted from the oval now,” she said.
“It has a wonderful viewing area for parents and lots of parking.
“That’s one thing the oval will allow us to do, is we’ll be able to hold more events with our families and invite our community into the school a lot more.”
Along with her role as the principal, Ms Nelson said she taught some Year 7-12 classes, read stories to primary-age students and greeted the prep students in class each morning.
In Cooktown, she fell in love with the tight-knit community and opportunities to connect.
“You get to know everybody’s name and you get to be part of the community; you’re not so busy in your office, so you can actually interact with the students,” she said.
“One of the things we’ve started to adopt is ‘every face has a place’, so [that means] every student belongs.”
