Camps Bay Primary principal retires

The school held a surprise assembly to honour and bid farewell to the principal, Linda Murray, sixth from left.

Camps Bay Primary School’s Preparatory Campus head, Linda Murray, is retiring after more than three decades at the school

Ms Murray joined the Camps Bay Prep in 1984 as a Grade 1 (then Sub A) teacher and remained at the school until the end of 1995 when she took a break to pursue other interests.

She then returned to the school in 2000.

Over her many years of service at the school, she has held various positions including Grade R and Grade 2 teacher, and she took over as acting head of campus in 2014.

In 2015, when the prep school and the primary school merged, she was appointed as head of department of the prep campus.

At her surprise farewell assembly last Friday, her long-time colleague, Ros Byrnes, thanked her on behalf of the hundreds of staff and thousands of children whose lives she has touched over the last 32 years.

“Thank you, Linda, for sharing all that you are with all of us! Thank you for bringing us your music and the many times you have accompanied choirs, celebrations, concerts and assemblies – you are a true Jack of all trades in assembly, moving with seeming effortlessness from leading assembly to playing the piano.

“You creatively made up songs to support the curriculum. ‘Do the right thing even if it’s hard’ will remain with us always because you put the words to music. Thank you for the strong emphasis you placed on learning through fun. I had the privilege of watching your maths lessons over the past few years when you teach my Grade 2s once a week, and I loved the stories you made up, the side anecdotes and the way you weaved all kinds of little lessons into maths.”

Ms Murray leaves a legacy in the form of work cards, theme books, worksheets, stories, phonics strips and quirky memory sentences at the school.

At the special assembly, pupils and staff presented Ms Murray with 32 roses – each representing a year at the school and gave her a personalised card and book of memories.

Special guests at the assembly included the former head of Camps Bay Preparatory, Nancy Roussopoulos, former Camps Bay Schools marketer Vivienne Ashcroft and former teacher Rieke Pienke.

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