Mr McKinlay (44) has completed his first term at the helm of Elmgrove School at Mosgiel.
He was previously principal at Grant's Braes School in Dunedin.
Apart from some ''little tweaks'', he has not changed much at the school.
He has spent time building relationships, both within the school and with pupils and their families.
''You have a lot more conversations with people about how we do stuff and who does what.''
Some aspects of running a school, such as finance and property, were largely consistent between schools.
Mr McKinlay said every school ran programmes that few people knew about unless they or their children were involved.
He was impressed with a bike repair workshop run at the school, which was innovative and helped pupils to broaden their skills.
He had been able to lend his expertise to help establish a new literary programme which he had been familiar with from Grant's Braes.
He said he was impressed with the way the school made the most of its space.
The roll of the decile 7 school was ''healthy'', with about 265 pupils.
He expected it to reach 300 by the year's end.
Mr McKinlay was also impressed with the school's board of trustees, who possessed a well-balanced mix of backgrounds and professions, he said.
