Sherralee Fisher, 40, from Newcastle, gave up a career in finance to become a teacher and is being fast-tracked into a leadership role in a NSW public school.

She was one of 50 people selected to be part of the NSW Department of Education’s FASTstream program that starts next year. With a Bachelor of Education with Honours degree from the University of Newcastle and extensive work experience under her belt, she can look towards becoming a school principal within 10 years under the program.

She will teach at Kearsley Public School next year after completing her four years of study and working as a casual teacher at Mount Kanwary Public School this year.

When I met my husband, I was just 16, and within three years, we were building our first home. Study for me was on the back-burner. I had started working fulltime, and would often be working several jobs, with the goal to be financially secure so that we could provide well for our family and future.

For more than 10 years, I worked for a large financial institution alongside many inspiring leaders. My main role was in compliance. I dealt with things such as taking our processes online, reducing workloads, new document management systems, reviewing advertising materials, breach reporting and the handling of dispute resolution matters. I believe the skills, experience and knowledge helped shaped the person I am today – but I had a strong sense of wanting to do something else. I’d always had an interest in teaching, but it remained unfulfilled.

When an opportunity arose to take a redundancy, I eventually decided to take it and began volunteering at my children’s primary school. It was a real lightbulb moment for me. Seeing the kids pulled at my heartstrings and also made me realise that I could make a real difference to their lives.

With my youngest at school in 2017, I started to realise getting a degree in primary school teaching was achievable. Naturally, there were self-doubts, and I sometimes wondered whether I should pursue formal financial qualifications. But my heart said ‘no, you need to be a teacher’.

I took on the degree the following year and achieved honours. I have just completed a thesis on teacher-student communication and I am looking at getting it published.

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