Kelso High principal Mick Sloan to attend course at Harvard University after winning Public Education Foundation scholarship

Mr Sloan, who has been principal of the school since 2015, was named a winner of the Public Education Foundation Principals Scholarship, which will see him jet off to the United States to attend an intensive six-day program at the Boston university.

The Kelso principal has described his upcoming opportunity as both "unique" and "humbling".

"The Public Education Foundation is an organisation that supports students and staff in public schools. Each year they do three scholarships for principals across Australia, to spend an intensive six-day graduate certificate in leadership at Harvard University," he said.

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"It's an unique opportunity and it's a bit humbling, to be honest. I think just going to Harvard will be incredible. Obviously it's world renowned.

"Harvard has such an amazing reputation as an education institution. But also, their graduate school of education is a world leader.

"I'm excited about the prospect of learning and spending time. I'm really excited about spending time with international colleagues."

Mr Sloan said attending the program will be a great opportunity for him to come back home and share what he has learned with his fellow colleagues.

"My leadership team is incredibly capable but inexperienced. We've had an 80 per cent overturn in staff since I've arrived," he said.

"We've got inexperienced but highly capable head teachers. I just think sharing the expertise with them is going to make a difference.

"I'll also share this information on a much broader scale. We've got the Denison College and our secondary principal council network.

"I'm the secretary of the regional council network. We've got principals from Lithgow to Condobolin in our patch and the idea will be that we will model our program on the theory, evaluate and then share it with other principals.

"That's really exciting and the philosophy of the Public Education Foundation is sharing knowledge to benefit for every body."

Mr Sloan is set to fly out of Australia on Monday, June 27, and will spend several weeks in the United States, taking in the sites of some major cities including Washington, D.C. and New York City.

"I'm really looking forward to a northern hemisphere summer. Even for just for a few days," he said.

"We'll go to Washington D.C. and New York. I've been to America back in 1995 but I'm excited to be in New York on July 4 for Independence Day. It'll be nice to spend some time there.

"Obviously the main focus going is the learning but who doesn't love travelling."

The program Mr Sloan will be participating in will help improve learning and life opportunities for his students.

"Ultimately, it's about improving learning and life opportunities for students," he said.

"That's what we're about at Kelso and I think we do a really good job at providing opportunities for our students.

"We've got a lot of students working. I think our students are great citizens of Bathurst. We've got a really good alumni. If I can bring back one thing that helps the students, it'll be well worth it."

Now in his eighth year as principal at Kelso High, Mr Sloan previously spent time at Narromine High School, Orange High School, Blayney High School and Canobolas Rural Technology High School.

Came here in 2015 started as campus principal. 12 months relieving as college principal.

He also spent 12 months as the relieving Denison College principal.

"I really enjoyed that, developing a really close, working relationship with Ken Barwick and the other people from Bathurst High," he said.

"My heart is here at Kelso. I really love the place, I really love the kids and we have really great staff.

"We're in a really good place at the moment. There's lots of thing happening external but we're in really good shape.

"I'm really fortunate to have wonderful colleagues, great leaders, staff that care for each other and great students."

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