Tyler Redway
RECEIVING a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service towards primary education, Mount Gambier’s Pauline Kenny said it was a wonderful thing to happen but the medal was for so many people in her life.
Born in Mount Gambier, Mrs Kenny was one of almost 1000 people across Australia, including three from Mount Gambier, to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours list released on Monday.
Speaking to The Border Watch, Mrs Kenny said she started as a netball coach at the age of 16 while living in Adelaide and having aspirations to become a teacher.
Unfortunately, her living situation at the time would not allow her to progress in the field.
“I had wanted to be a teacher but because of the circumstances of my great aunt and uncle who brought me up, you had to pay a bond in those days and they would not have been able to manage it,” Mrs Kenny said.
“I forgot all about that and then trained as a secretary where I worked for 12 months then in a chemist for four years.”
After her first child started school, Mrs Kenny joined the mother’s club of St Joseph’s Primary School in Hectorville, Adelaide, where she became the president of the group in her second year.
“I also offered to help out with any sport they would like done, then the principal got up and said I had offered to take over sports day,” she said.
“It was massive because there were about 500 kids at the school.”
After a few more years of progressing in multiple sports as a coach, Mrs Kenny was asked to assist students in the classroom with maths and language.
After a while as a class assistant, Mrs Kenny was requested to begin training in teaching by a former principal of the school.
“I started doing it part-time while doing bits and pieces to do three years of training,” she said.
“From 1972 I was getting paid a little bit and then in 1976 I got full registration and taught Year 7.”
By 1986 she had been made Principal at St Joseph’s Memorial School in Norwood and she later became Principal at St John the Baptist Catholic School in Plympton.
In 1997 she returned to her birth-town when she became Principal of St Paul’s Primary School and was part of the precursor work that enabled the school to amalgamate with Tenison College in 2001.
In 2017, Mrs Kenny received a Shining Light Award from Tenison Woods College for her service towards education and the Sunset Community Kitchen.
With the desire to do something for the community beyond the school community, Mrs Kenny was part of the founding group which established the community kitchen 13 years ago.
“We came up with the idea to follow up on what happened in Adelaide and Ballarat providing food for people,” she said.
“We had a couple of open to the public [meetings] and in the second meeting they voted unanimously to give it a go.”
Mrs Kenny said one of the highlights of her career was receiving a Certificate for Education Administration just before she began as a principal at St Joseph’s Memorial School in Norwood.
“It stood out to me because I wanted my own kids to see you can do anything if you really want to in the end,” she said.
“The other shock and highlight was being recognised down here as a Citizen of the Year [in 2015].
“It just blew me away because I came down to a new community to get on with life and what I was doing, then suddenly something like that popped up.”
