“This is an excellent school, I think I’ve hit the jackpot.”

It is her first stint as a principal after 27 years on the job as a teacher.

In her time she has won five excellence in teaching awards and worked at five high schools throughout NSW.

Mrs Dixon and her husband moved from Taree to Griffith in mid January and they are pleased with the tree change.

“The students here are really polite, but the whole town’s polite,” Mrs Dixon said.

“When I first started teaching in 1987 I worked out near Dubbo, and then after living on the coast for so long I’d forgotten how friendly and community oriented country people are.

“I’m very impressed with Griffith as a town.

“When it hits 40 degrees here you can come back and I might not be as happy,” she joked.

She is looking forward to working with the teaching staff, some of whom have been on the job at Wade High for more than 20 years.

“On the coast, that’s unheard of.

“This will be a great chance to work with staff who are really committed to changing kids’ lives.”

She couldn’t speak highly enough of the team dynamic.

“We’ve got some awesome, hard-working, committed teachers who run lots of programs.”

Mrs Dixon is equipped with quite the repertoire, as she's trained to teach history, English, drama, Japanese, religious studies and most of the social sciences.

Language is imperative to Mrs Dixon, not just because her experience lies in English literature teaching, because she believes that students learn more effectively in a positive environment.

“If you get bagged out, that’s the stuff that stays with you, so it’s really important that we frame everything in a positive way.”

The school has been successful in incorporating Positive Behaviour for Learning into the classroom, playground and community.

“All staff frame every conversation with a student in a positive way, and ask students if what they’ve done is safe, responsible and helping them learn.”