PORT Shepstone High School has weathered many changes and challenges during Peter McKillen’s 11-year tenure as its well-respected principal – and keeping it on an even keel has not always been easy.
“However, I believe it now serves as a good South African school model. If this is the case, then I am satisfied with the legacy I have left,” he said.
Peter, who retired at the end of 2013, was a member of the Port Shepstone teaching staff for 26 years. He taught English first language, a subject about which he is passionate. Even after he was appointed principal, he continued to teach a matric class every year. Although being in charge of a large high school was demanding, he considered himself a teacher first and had a horror of becoming simply an administrator by losing touch with what was happening in the classroom.
“After I became principal I always looked forward to taking my class for a lesson. It was such a pleasure to be able to concentrate on teaching and to take a break from administrative cares for a while,” he said.
His wife, Elsie, a maths teacher and also a longstanding Port Shepstone High staff member, has retired, too, and they look forward to celebrating their retirement by making 2014 a year of travel.
Peter and Elsie’s marriage has made them very aware of the hurtful consequences of prejudice. Born and educated in Northern Ireland, Peter married Elsie soon after obtaining his teaching qualifications at Queens University in Belfast. Because they came from different religious backgrounds, their marriage was frowned upon and they faced so much antagonism that they left Northern Ireland.
“This has made me even more grateful that Port Shepstone High pupils and staff embraced a multiracial ethic so soon and so willingly after schools were opened to all,” he said, adding that he was proud of the vibrant, tolerant, multicultural entity the school was today.
“We have a core of very talented teachers who have always accommodated change so well,” he said.
After leaving Norhern Ireland, Peter and Elsie taught in England for a while, then spent 10 years in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where their two children, Kerry and Paul, were born. Not happy about deteriorating health care and education in the country, they decided to move to South Africa and Peter completed a five-year stint at Christian Brothers’ Colleges in Gauteng.
“We had moved around a great deal and were looking for stability and a permanent home,” Peter explained. He and Elsie knew they had found this almost as soon as Peter took up his appointment as a teacher at Port Shepstone High. Right from the start they were warmly accepted by the South Coast community, a community they have come to love.
“We are grateful for all the South Coast has given us and our family.”
For Peter, teaching is a vocation rather than a nine-to-five job. “Teachers don’t always realise the huge impact they have on young developing minds.”
Serving as principal involved even more responsibility. As well as concerning himself with the welfare of all the pupils and teachers during school hours, he and Elsie attended as many sports meetings and extramural events as possible. Keeping in touch with so many former pupils and watching them succeed in their chosen fields are ample rewards for this dedication.
Now that he and Elsie have retired they will have more time for their many interests and activities. They hope to travel more and to explore South Africa. Peter has been a member of a service club since he was 25 years old. He was a Bulawayo Round Tabler and has been a Port Shepstone Lion for 22 years. He appreciates the social contacts a service club provides and likes to know that he is doing some good in his community.
A keep fit enthusiast, he played soccer until two years ago and likes to jog and garden.
The first day of the 2014 school year was a day of mixed feelings. For him the start of a new school year was always exciting. The arrival of some 300 new pupils, all with so much potential, seemed to invigorate the school and to offer new challenges to the teaching staff.
While he found himself missing the first-day excitement, it was exhilarating for him to know that his retirement had officially started and that he and Elsie could start planning their ‘year of travel’.
