ROBYN Leggatt has captained her country in hockey at the 1984 Olympics and been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. But she believes her greatest legacy will be in touching lives in 42 years as a teacher.
"If I had to pick which is the highlight legacy of my life, it's got to be education," she said.
"Yes, it's wonderful to compete at the highest levels and yes it's important to Australia's psyche but... education is something where you really have an impact on people's lives and you really make a difference and that's been my driving force, to try and make every kid have the best opportunity they can.
"I feel really satisfied that I did the best I possibly could.
"That makes me feel happy and sad that it's over. I see that as the most important thing I've done in my life."
Mrs Leggatt retired as principal of Swansea High at the end of last term to deal with an urgent family matter.
She took four weeks off at the start of the year - leaving it in the "good hands" of Toronto High deputy principal Andrew Pesle - and returned for six weeks to oversee the transition to remote learning.
"I probably would have retired within the next 12 to 18 months, that was my plan, but this has just brought it forward a little bit," she said.
"I was very sad in the last week and really struggled because the staff and kids weren't there, so there was not any ability to say thank you and a formal goodbye... but I will come back at an assembly and say my goodbyes."
Mrs Leggatt said changing practice in response to COVID-19 will be one of the most memorable experiences of her career, which began in 1978.
"We've never seen anything like this and I believe it's going to be transformative," she said.
"If it goes for the four to six months that they were anticipating to begin with, I don't think education could go back to kids sitting in a room with a teacher talking.
"We've been trying to move away from that - and have been successfully - for a decade, but I think kids are going to demand more ownership of their learning. The way teachers teach will have to change."
She encouraged families not to feel too much pressure at home.
"If you don't get 100 per cent of the work done it doesn't matter," she said.
"If... the kids remember this as being a time they spent with their family, in the big scheme of things, of life, it's probably not going to be a huge deal."
Mrs Leggatt said she thinks education "is going to be a really exciting place to be in the next couple of years" and hopes to eventually return in some way.
She plans to drive a campervan across the state, to visit schools performing exceptionally well.
"One thing we don't do very well as a system in NSW is we don't share best practice well enough," she said.
"What are they doing? I'm going to find those schools, ask them and do a blog and share what they're doing so it's not a secret.
"There's lots of principals who are humble and unassuming, who don't want to boast or say what they're doing, but there's lots of them out there doing such wonderful, fantastic things."
Mrs Leggatt herself has been credited by Swansea parents as helping to lift the school.
She said the students' performance in NAPLAN had been particularly gratifying.
"The number of kids who have achieved at or above expected growth has grown significantly," she said.
"We've been on an incremental journey of continual improvement."
When students protested last October after a teacher made comments about the relevance of a woman's clothing in sexual assault, the school displayed a message, 'We support student voice'.
Mrs Leggatt wrote to families the "comments made by the staff member were wrong" and "we support students standing up when they believe behaviour is not right".
She said while she felt for the teacher who was entitled to her opinion, the students also "had a right to say they didn't think that's okay".
"That has helped inspire those girls to be stronger with their voices in the way life moves on," she said.
"You can't only say that they have a voice when it does not matter - and that's the line I took, for good or bad."
Mrs Leggatt also oversaw the school's 50th anniversary and continues to live in the suburb, where she regularly sees school families.
Her daughter helped her on Good Friday to paint her mantra on an existing mural, about how evil triumphs when good people do nothing.
She hoped to remind students of their ability to create the kind of school they wanted to attend.
"I reckon I must have said that 4000 times in my time there.
"I'm going to miss the people, that's going to be hard. I just love the complexities of school, it's always a challenge."
