Marcus Cooper took over the reins at the start of the year, bringing with him more than 20 years in the education field.
He said it had been easy to slot in at Geraldine High.
"The place was in pretty good nick when I got here. The kids are great kids, they are what I would call really down-to-earth rural kids.
"I’m really happy to be here in this community and in South Canterbury as a whole. I’ve been really chuffed and surprised at how vibrant South Canterbury is as an outsider coming in and I’ve been welcomed by a wide number of people."
Mr Cooper said he was surprised at the size of the school when he applied for the position.
"I thought it would be a little bit smaller, being a rural school.
"My last school was East Otago High School which is about 45 minutes north of Dunedin. There was a bus that went from Palmerston into town so a lot of the kids would go to the town schools.
"There isn’t a town bus as such here that will take those kids away.
"I’m really happy with the type of education here because it’s not your urban-type school. It’s a little bit naive and country-like which makes it a really safe place for kids to just be kids."
Mr Cooper said he expected to have a similar roll number going into next year.
"We’re sitting at 600 at the moment with students that have through natural attrition drifted off.
"There’s a natural intake and extraction of families moving into the district so it’s pretty steady."
He said he was very happy with the current size of the school.
"We do have 20 out-of-zone enrolments which generally get reasonably full but we’ve never reached the top of it yet, I think the size of the school is a good number.
"We’re not too big that we’re bursting at 30 students in each class and with that we get to know every kid’s name."
Sporting opportunities were a big goal for next year, he said.
"Adding a new gym will be significant for us.
"We will be pushing a number of sporting opportunities for our kids here at Geraldine, trying to raise the profile of sport here and break down any barriers that the kids might have whether that be financial, transport, etc.
"One thing that parents had said when potentially moving their kids into Craighead and [Timaru] Boys’ High was the perception of better sporting opportunities in town, so we’re going to make that not an issue."
Academics would also be a big focus, Mr Cooper said.
"We’ll be pushing academic achievement for our students and making sure they get their personal excellence whether that be through tutorials, homework clubs or by celebrating the successes of those students.
"We’ll lift the bar in the space but I think that’s every school’s goal.
"We also want to focus on continuing to build a better connection with the local community."
