Ms French (40), who has been acting principal since Judy Clark finished in July to go to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, was recently ap-pointed to the top job.
It is the first principal's position for Ms French, who has been teaching for 19 years, although she has had a senior management role for 15 of those years.
She was brought up in Liverpool and moved to London, where she taught when she left university.
She and her partner fell in love with New Zealand during a holiday and decided to emigrate.
She taught in Auckland for two and a-half years before gaining a teaching job at Ardgowan, on the outskirts of Oamaru, three years ago.
Curriculums were different in different countries, but they could be easily learned, she said.
Ms French's partner looks after the couple's two young daughters, aged 8 and 6, while she is at work, and the girls were already beginning to get "little Kiwi accents", she said.
Describing herself as quite an organised person, - "I'm very good with lists" - Ms French said she was managing to balance administration work with teaching.
"It's working out really well."
She enjoyed being a teaching principal, as her great love was being in the classroom.
Her year 3-5 class were "gorgeous", she said.
Ardgowan School, which has a roll of 63 pupils, was an "absolutely fantastic" school and Ms French wanted to continue encouraging community in-volvement.
She said she had done enough travelling and she was very settled in North Otago.
She had never had such a nice view from her workplace as the rural Ardgowan landscape.
