Talking to Durham Community School Principal Will Pidden, it’s easy to figure out that he’s not a native Mainer – the British accent quickly gives that away.

Pidden, 48, is originally from Canberley, England, a town about 35 miles southwest of London. Pidden came to Maine on a kind of circuitous route, getting involved in sailing in his home country before moving to the U.S. and finally settling on Maine because of its proximity to the ocean.

He and his wife, who is American, live in Yarmouth with their two children, a freshman and a senior at Yarmouth High School. Sitting in his quiet office just a week away from the start of the school year, when the halls will be bustling with activity of students from kindergarten through Grade 8, Pidden took a few minutes to speak to the Tri-Town Weekly about his life and his career.

Q: What brought you to the United States in general and Maine specifically?

A: I used to do a lot of sailing and I got connected with some (sailing organizations) that were based in the United States. That was sort of my initial connection. My wife and I were living in England at the time and (I realized I wasn’t going to make a career out of sailing, so) I transitioned into education. (We moved to the U.S. and settled) in different parts of the country, Florida, Rhode Island and San Francisco. A school I had gone to in the U.K had a connection with the University of Southern Maine, they would do some exchange programs, so I became familiar with that. And my wife had been living in Boston, so we were looking for a place to settle down. We wanted to be by the ocean and live in a more rural state, so we chose Portland.

Q: Where were you before Durham?

A: I worked in the Portland schools for 10 years. I was at King Middle School as a teacher, teaching strategist and then as an assistant principal. We went (back) to the U.K. for a year and I studied elementary education.

Q: What do you like best about Durham?

A: I like the strong community and I like the K-8 component (of the school). There are some times when it’s challenging, you get stuck in the process (saying), “How am I going to help this child?” but that’s equally what I like about it – it starts and ends here. If we’re not being successful, you can’t blame the other elementary school, you can’t blame the middle school, it’s us. As a community, I find it’s a very grounded, hard-working community where they value education.

Q: What did you do over the summer?

A: We (school principals) work most of the summer. But we get a couple of weeks off and we went and did some hiking up to Mount Desert and Baxter (State Park).

Q: What can the kids expect on the first few days of school?

A: We try to focus the first few days on a balance on getting children enthused, getting them over their nervousness (about going back to school). One of the downsides of a 10-week break is that they want to come back, but they become more nervous about it. They’ve forgotten how successful and happy they are at school. It builds some anxiety. So we really try focus the first few days on reducing anxieties, getting children reconnected with school and each other and establishing or reestablishing good norms and routines so they are settled moving into the year.

Durham Community School Principal Will Pidden came to the United States by way of England. He has been the principal in Durham for 10 years.