St Francis College principal Seb Spina is stepping away role, says he will miss staff and students

Mr Spina is stepping away from his principal role after spending a large chunk of his career at the college.

After finishing university in 1980, Mr Spina moved back to Sydney to live with his parents and started casual teaching.

At the start of 1985 he began a block at Kingswood High School when he received a telegram telling him he had been appointed as a PE teacher at Leeton High School.

So, off he went on an adventure to Leeton and so began his life here.

"I packed up my little Mitsubishi Sigma and drove out to Leeton in March, 1985," Mr Spina said.

"I was at Leeton High for 14 years teaching PE and sport.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"At the end of 1998 a position came up at St Francis as a curriculum co-ordinator, I wasn't even sure what that role entailed, but I applied and appointed to that position by Sister Lorraine Crowe who was the principal at the time."

Mr Spina worked in that role for five years.

In 2003 when Sister Lorraine finished up as principal he was made assistant principal under Brenda King, a position he held for 12 years.

He was acting principal from 2015 until the beginning of 2017 when he took the role on officially.

In between all of those career accomplishments he married his wife Kate and the pair had three children.

Mr Spina's last official day at work is on Thursday, April 6 and then he will be off on his next adventure.

"I applied for some principal renewal leave, which is a sabbatical, so I'm travelling on a Marist pilgrimage to Israel and Jordan and then to Italy and France ... that's with 29 other Marist educators," he said.

Mr Spina plans to then have some time readjusting to his new life before likely taking up some casual teaching roles in the area, as well as heading off on more travels.

"It's been such a privilege to be principal here," he said.

"We've always been a boarding school and I've loved the opportunity to work with our boarding students and staff.

"Whether it's 10 years of drought, COVID, fires or floods, it hasn't impacted on our boarding and school numbers here. I think that says a lot about our school.

"I've still also got friends and mentors from my days at Leeton High. I've loved both schools."

Mr Spina said there will be many elements of St Francis he will miss.

"I'll miss the staff and the students, there are a lot of good memories from over the years, but there's also been some not-so-good memories and we've gotten through that together," he said.

"As I said, it's been a real honour and a privilege."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: