Trinityhouse Little Falls welcomes an old face into a new position this year as Karen Cammell takes up her position as principal of the preparatory school.
Cammell began her career in education 34 years ago when she studied at the Johannesburg College of Education, Teachers Training College, which has now been incorporated into the University of the Witwatersrand.
Cammell chose the vocation as at the time she was only offered three career choices of being a teacher, secretary or a nurse. Looking back, Cammell can say she did not need to have any other options as she believes she has a calling to teach.
A decade later, Cammell joined the Trinityhouse family and was one of seven individuals to help start Trinityhouse Little Falls in 2012. In her second year, she became deputy principal of the preparatory school. “It was never my plan to be principal. I thought I would be the senior deputy principal but God has another plan for me,” she added.
Although she does regret that she doesn’t teach anymore, she makes sure she still has interaction with the pupils at break time. “If I don’t get hugs from the children I know I’ve had a bad day,” Cammell said.
Since her promotion, she’s noticed the children have a respect for ‘the person where the buck stops’ and she tries to tell them little things about herself to remind them she is still human. Recently, she shared with the children that she was a bad singer but it did not stop her from turning up her car radio and singing loudly on her way to work.
As principal, Cammell wishes to achieve a ‘family feel’ at school and have a positively motivated staff, who, she says, are the lifeblood of the school. A mother of three children, who have all been through the Trinity school system, Cammell wants to continue to have the holistic child leave the Trinityhouse gates.
