Hamilton - Day 3 The Leadership Journey

Today we had the opportunity to hear from actual administrators in the New Zealand schools. The first speaker, Marcus Freke, Principal of Vardon Primary School, shared his personal educational leadership pathway. Mr. Freke gave us background information about the New Zealand school system, as well as the issues facing New Zealand school principals.

After morning tea, we heard more fascinating personal stories from educational leaders about their pathways and aspirations. One speaker that struck a particular chord with me was Caroline Gill from St. Peter's Private School. She is a dance and drama instructor currently in the educational leadership program. She really focused on the importance of the arts in student learning which is reminiscent of the A+ Initiative that my school uses to incorporate the arts into the curriculum creating authentic learning opportunities for students. We also heard from Donella Cobb, a Professional Studies Lecturer and Bex Clements, Deputy Principal of Hinuera School. Several of our speakers spoke about their OEs (overseas experiences) which have assisted them in gaining a more global perspective.

The final speaker of the day was Dr. Rachel McNae who took leadership in a slightly different direction. Her perspective on leadership dealt with fostering student leaders in the schools. She took us through an exercise in which we came up with ways we see, hear, and feel student leadership in our own schools. Then working together, we organized those ideas into meaningful groupings, but not without quite a bit of discussion.

Tomorrow is our last day in Hamilton, and we will spend the morning visiting schools here in town.