The sign on principal, Pat Newman’s, office wall reads: ‘I plan to be a curmudgeon when I grow up and I’m making very impressive progress.’ This may be a perverse intent of the far north principal, but ask the little girl who features in another picture. She may have quite a different opinion. Pat Newman is lifting her up onto the jumping platform at school camp. It’s hard to reconcile the word ‘curmudgeon’ with the man who cares so much for kids. You don’t go far to hear this sentiment repeated. You hear it from his teachers, his kids and his colleagues. It is what lifts this giant amongst principals to another level amongst his fellow professionals. He is the one the younger, less experienced principals call when they need advice and mentoring. He’s the one who walks the dark valleys with them when their relationship with the Board turns pear-shaped or when they are feeling especially isolated. He’s also the first to chastise them if they do something foolish that could possibly impinge on the rights of a single child. Pat Newman is not a man universally loved for all of his views.
Just ask any Minister of Education or Secretary for Education who’s held office in the last twenty years. His veins pump overdose levels of Southern Irish Catholic justice and fairness; Mix that with a potent dose of bristling Māori righteousness and the result is a man who is fiercely staunch, who carries mana amongst his peers, who is widely respected and who will stop at nothing to fight for fair outcomes for all. Some describe him as a walking almanac of all things educational. His extensive knowledge of educational legislation, policies, regulations, guidelines and compliance issues is legendary. Even more importantly he knows exactly how they all apply. This knowledge of Pat’s also means he has been a frontrunner when it comes to elections for various representation roles such as the Teachers’ Council, the NZEI and his local Te Tai Tokerau Principals’ Association over which he currently presides. He also did a stint on the NZPF executive and was its
Getting ready for a game
Pat Newman, in contemplation
President for a two-year period. Pat Newman felt very at home in Wellington, so close to the houses of parliament. The cut and thrust of politics has always attracted him and he thrives on the hurley burley of political debate. He is most fearless when he thinks that government policy or new regulations will intrude on children’s learning opportunities. All his motivations to act emanate from what, as a professional, he believes is best for the children. He doesn’t hold back, whether it is national standards, legislation changes, new Acts, changes to the Teachers’ Council, ERO or indeed any related education body, the public will hear Pat’s views loud and clear if he cannot see advantages for children and their learning. It is his belief that he has an ethical duty to speak out on behalf of children who don’t have their own voice. Pat also attracts staff who are unafraid to voice their opinions.
‘My staff will argue over issues,’ he said, ‘and what I have to remember is that I employed them all!’ The staff may not be shy to voice their views but they are also very supportive of each other. I spoke to a beginning teacher who was on a release day. ‘I have only been here less than a term,’ she said, ‘and I love the school. The kids are awesome, bright and engaging and I feel so supported here.’ I couldn’t help but think this young beginning teacher was off to a flying start in her teaching career and I don’t think she could believe her luck either. Pat’s school is a low decile school and against the trends, is also a growing school. He has a massive building programme underway with four new classrooms due to growth and a further six that need replacing due to their age and other related issues, making them effectively unusable. The new block has a way to go before it is ready to open but Pat has planned the whole building programme around modern
The symbolic art work adorning the school hall
We shoot for the stars at Hora Hora and if we miss then we at least get the ball in the hoop!
The old and the new mix seamlessly at Hora Hora – This is now the school hall building
Hora Hora School main entrance
learning pedagogies. The new block will incorporate shared Milne. This year the school has engaged the services of CORE spaces including kitchen facilities. ‘I want to bring cooking into Education to align the school’s Māori and Pakeha values. the curriculum,’ he says. ‘It is a great applied One of the school’s values that has skill which also teaches the kids maths persisted for the last seventeen years is and science.’ Cooking is about measuring that ‘We look after each other.’ ‘A Doctoral ingredients, mixing them in certain ways and student did a huge study on the culture applying heat. In the course of this process, of our school,’ says Pat proudly. ‘It was changes are made that are observable and all about creating a community of care in from which the kids can extrapolate scientific education,’ he said. One practice that sets facts. It’s a very pleasurable activity with rich Hora Hora school apart is the partnership learning attached. it has with a local iwi under the ‘Whānau Another critical area of focus for Pat Ora’ scheme, to address the community’s Newman’s school is transforming it into a health issues. ‘One morning a week we have bicultural environment. To this end, Pat a full practitioner nurse and a podiatrist volunteered to involve himself in the Māori who run a clinic in our old dental clinic,’ Achievement Collaborations (MACs) PLD he said. ‘Anyone from the community can programme as a facilitator. Some 78 per come and the service is free. Diabetes is cent of the children in his school identify a growing problem for the community as Māori and he wants to give every one of and by offering free access to treatment them the very best start he can. To meet this we are supporting our community to be goal successfully, he knows all of his Māori healthy,’ he says. kids must feel comfortable in his school so Another day each week the ‘Nit Busters’ that they can take full opportunity of all the programme is run from the school. This Pat Newman, proud to be caricaturised learning opportunities that come their way. is one way to keep nits from spreading by Webb Part of that means the school must reflect throughout the classrooms and hopefully the needs of the community at large and that also includes our will help to eradicate the problem altogether. Pakeha kids, he says. Pat is not one to complain about a lack of funding. ‘It’s all about Over the years the community has been engaged in debates priorities,’ he says, ‘and you have to be a bit creative sometimes.’ over issues such as the school’s vision and establishing practices He is keen to expand his bilingual units in both the senior in the school consistent with the research findings of Dr Anne school and new entrant to year six. He finds it hard to find
Swimming classes at Hora Hora
Moving with the times – 10 new classes for Hora Hora
Swimming’s over!
suitable teachers fluent in Te Reo. To help overcome this problem he arranged for Te Reo classes to be made available three hours a week, as a night class. It takes thirty weeks to learn the basics of the language. ‘Sixteen of my teachers and twenty parents have taken up this option,’ says Pat. ‘I reasoned that parents who wish to have their children in immersion units need to be more fluent in Te Reo themselves.’ Pat is proud that his Board of Trustees supports his direction with the Māori language and has agreed that the next permanent teacher appointed to the school staff will be fluent in Te Reo. There are positive side effects of bilingualism beyond preservation of the Māori language. ‘Children who are bi-literate also grow in fluency in their native tongue,’ he says. Hora Hora has its challenges with the socio economic status of the neighbourhood being at the lower end, but Pat tries to look at the individual needs of each child and respond accordingly. One thing we can be certain about: Pat Newman will stand up and fight for the needs of those kids, no matter what the cost.
A restful painting adorns the principal’s office wall
The real Pat Newman helps one of his students up onto the jumping platform at school camp
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