WHEN students returned to Gilgai Public School for second term of the school year there was one noticeable difference.

Sue Lowe, the woman who handled everything from skinned knees and forgotten lunches through to office management, was no longer there.

After 23 years at the school Sue retired at the end of last term, having seen three generations of students pass through the school gates.

“Actually it’s three days short of 23 years,” Sue said on her last day there.

Back in 1988 Sue was living in Delungra and working part-time at the school library.

Then the opportunity came up at Gilgai.

Before then though Sue had first helped out as a volunteer when her own son, who is now 33, was at school at Goodooga west of Lightning Ridge.

The first school she worked at was at Cassilis, in central west NSW, before she moved to Delungra.

While Gilgai Public School has 58 students at the moment Sue has seen it drop to half that amount in the past.

But she said the school had improved and an increasing number of parents were seeing a benefit in sending their kids to a smaller school.

Sue said she has great memories of the kids and the staff.

“It’s a close caring atmosphere. You know the children and you know the families.”

The changes she has seen over the past 23 years include new classrooms, new covered learning areas, covered walkways and a new multi-purpose hall.

On her last day students came up to her with cards and farewell gifts.

And another sad to see her go was the school’s principal Deborah Halliday.

“Sue has been a fabulous support to the school over many years,” she said.

“She has cared for students, families and staff. She has been the glue that has kept us together.”

Sue said she plans to travel in retirement.

© 2011 Inverell Times

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