Principal Andrew Hunter will retire at the end of the school year after 25 years as principal.
"You don't know when you walk in how long you're going to be there for and I've been very, very fortunate to have had a long career.
"It's become my community. I live in the community and I think all principals want to embed themselves into a community and try to make a difference.
"And that takes time. So it's certainly not a short-term thing.
"I think if you really want to make long-term contribution and change, then that simply does take time."
When Mr Hunter arrived at the school, Balmacewen had about 300 students; now the number is closer to 500.
"Physically, the school has changed a lot.
"There have been ongoing building programmes and the school looks quite different from what it did even 20 years ago.
"The school's grown in lots of ways, but I'm fortunate enough to have had wonderful support, wonderful teachers to work with that just make it all worthwhile."
Mr Hunter said intermediate schools still held a special place in the education system.
"Intermediates are unique and if you understand the role that they play in our system, you'll love them.
"They're just quite specific to the needs of this age group and they're fun. We move quite quickly and it fits the profile of the age group of students that we have, obviously.
"They're high on engagement, high on activity, high on fun and just watching kids grow rapidly over two years."
While there would always be changes forced upon schools by different governments, Mr Hunter said the fundamentals did not necessarily change for good teaching.
"Teachers just need to relate well to their students, make their students feel like they can achieve as well as they possibly can and have some expectations that everyone's going to do the best that they can.
"If you get those things right, the curriculum is of slightly lesser importance because without those fundamentals, nothing good happens anyway."
He described Balmacewen as a "welcoming school", with a big focus on culture.
"We're the last two years of primary schooling for children and that's the time that we really want to put a final polish on a good primary education, so that they're hitting high schools with some confidence and a skill set and knowledge set that will mean that they're going to be successful.
"But the balance, of course, is that while kids are at school, we want them to be taking part in sports or cultural activities or the arts, or performing arts.
"That's where the richness is in schools."
Mr Hunter had some advice for the next principal of Balmacewen Intermediate.
"Get to school early. Don't take yourself too seriously, but take what you do seriously."
