As teachers go, Sacred Heart Primary School principal Marett Smith has been nothing short of a colossus for the profession. The north Longford town school’s flagbearer for the past 30 years, Marett, or Ms Smith as she was more affectionately known last week called time on a career that was not just ahead of its time but effective in delivering a school that has fast become the envy of villages and towns countywide. READ MORE BELOW PHOTO Last Thursday marked the culmination of those exploits as pupils, parents and staff paid tribute to their long serving principal with a special ceremony inside the school’s state of the art assembly hall. “Today we salute you,” said Deputy Principal and the man chosen to fill her head teacher’s shoes, Francis Gray. “You are the primary reason that ordinary students down through the years have dreamed to do extraordinary things.” Mr Gray said his outgoing colleague’s hard work, dedication and loyalty to a profession she has dedicated over four decades to provided the backdrop for scores of pupils under her tutelage to “dream big to surpass their wildest dreams”. The high-reaching beliefs Marett passed down to the hundreds of pupils who filed through the doors of Sacred Heart Primary School were values the woman at the centre of last week’s celebration upheld closely throughout her distinguished career. Having graduated from Our Lady of Mercy College, Carysfort, Marett’s first teaching post would arrive in September 1981 at Mullahoran NS. Subsequent propitious spells at Killoe NS and Bunlahy NS would follow before she would settle in Granard and in so doing become the first female principal of a boys school in Co Longford. In 1999, a decision to amalgamate the school with Granard Convent Girls' School coincided in another piece of history, this time with Marett becoming the first lay principal of an educational facility she has remained front and centre of ever since. In laying claim to Marett’s involvement in the roll out of Cumann na mBunscol in
PICTURES | Longford school bids emotional farewell to ‘extraordinary’ long-serving principal
Caption: Marett Smith, who has retired as principal of the Sacred Heart Primary School, Granard cutting the ribbon on the school's new extension Picture: Shelley Corcoran
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Caption: Francis Gray, Marett Smith and Fr Simon Cadam Picture: Shelley Corcoran
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Caption: Marett Smith, who has retired as principal of the Sacred Heart Primary School, Granard pictured with her husband Mel Picture: Shelley Corcoran
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Caption: At the Sensory Garden Pool at the Sacred Heart Primary School, Granard were Amelia Clarke, Jack Flood, Marett Smith, Francis Gray, Thalia Smith, Carmel Shaughnessy McKeon, Fr Simon Cadam and Saoirse O’Donnell Picture: Shelley Corcoran
