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How long have you been an educator, and where did you train?
I have been an educator for 32 years. I originally trained in the UK at a specialist teacher training college. In that time, I taught all age levels from 3-year-olds to 13-year-olds. I have held many varied leadership roles, including curriculum lead, special needs coordinator, gifted and talented coordinator, multicultural leader, international schools coordinator, enrichment leader, assessment for learning facilitator, team leader, and deputy principal.
When did you become the principal of Sandspit Road School?
I started at Sandspit Road School in January 2024.
What’s the best thing about being an educator and principal?
The best thing about being an educator is definitely the kids! Seeing their eyes light up when they realise they can do something is the best thing! There’s no better reward than seeing a student’s confidence grow as they experience success.
The best thing about being a principal is that you get to make a positive difference. I love working with the team at Sandspit Road, and together we are helping our tamariki (children) experience things they haven’t done before, such as the e-pro8 challenge and the dance curriculum. When students share great learning with me, we take a photograph of them and their work and send them home. We get such positive responses from our parents.
Another upside to being the principal is being able to participate and contribute to the wider educational field. One of my passions is assessment for learning and developing agency with students whilst they are in school. This has led me to be on the executive committee of the New Zealand Assessment Institute. This supports the work we do in school, and the work we do in school also supports the NZAI.
What’s special about Sandspit Road School?
The people. It’s always the people who make a school special. Without the people filling it it’s nothing more than a building. The Sandspit Road School people are wonderful. Our students are awesome, and we have a really diverse school community. The staff go above and beyond for the tamariki. It’s the people who bring joy to the job.
Is there anything you’d like improved in the education/school management sector?
Oh, there are so many things I’d love to see happening in the interests of our tamariki. It would be wonderful to have dedicated specialist arts teachers in school. I think the arts often get overlooked. I’d love to be able to have specialist teacher aides in schools to support the needs of our diverse learners. My hope is that as a school, we see strength in our diversity and see our differences as opportunities for learning from one another. I truly believe that together we can make a difference.
How is the relationship between Sandspit Road School and its immediate local community?
We have a great community. We have seen participation in events grow this year. At the beginning of the year, we introduced Whaanau/Family Fun Festival, where whanaau and staff met, there were games, performances and an inflatable slide. It was a great way to start the year.
We had a great turnout at the end of our dance curriculum unit. Families got to see the dances their children had been working on, and they also had an opportunity to join in! It was fantastic.
We recently held our Maaori Whaanau hui. We had 10 families come, which is a great improvement from just one last year. Our community is important to us. We are continually striving to do things better, and we want to hear from our families. We have a small but mighty PTA who do wonderful things to support our school and help our tamariki experience wonderful events such as trips to the wetlands, trips to the zoo, etc.
We have a strong network of parents who support school EOTC events, sports, and camps. Without our parents, we probably couldn’t participate in as many things as we do.
