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Secondary Schooling – The Otumoetai Way Patrick Purcell
Deep in the heart of suburban Tauranga sits Otumoetai College, a co-ed secondary school of nearly 2,000 students. As you pass through the front gates of ‘Oats’, as it is affectionately known by the students, you feel the pride this college has in its people and its reputation. Throughout the school, the walls are adorned with visual memories and mementos of grand sporting achievements, high performing cultural groups, outstanding academic achievements and graduating classes that have since left the school. This acknowledgement of past and present achievement links two of the school’s core values; high expectations and a sense of belonging. I had the pleasure of speaking with a number of staff at the school, including long-serving principal Dave Randell. Randell has twenty-nine years of principalship behind him, the most recent sixteen of them leading Otumoetai College. Before embarking on a tour of the vast school campus, I asked him about his leadership style and his vision for the ColIege. To manage one of the largest schools in the country I would imagine is a challenge, so I asked Randell how he does it. “There are a few key things I try to focus on,” he said. “Staff wellbeing and being visible are two of them. It would be easy for me to sit
in my office all day reading emails, but I wouldn’t be doing my job very well. Every morning tea and lunchtime, I stand out in the quad and have a chat to the students. I also try to get to as many school activities as possible, whether it’s weekend sports, prizegivings or performances. That’s what parents, staff and the students want. They want to see that their principal cares about what’s happening in the school, and I do care.” Another of Randell’s strategies is empowering others through a solution focus. “I love it when people come in my office with an issue so that we can discuss it. I like to ask them questions like ‘how can we work it out?’ rather than saying ‘this is what we’re going to do’. I think principals need to be able to trust their staff with responsibility and authority. It’s also important to show enthusiasm and to have a sense of humour in order to survive the job. I never like finishing a meeting on a sour note, so I like to congratulate staff and celebrate success in the school,” he said. This positive approach and use of humour has rubbed off on many of his staff, including Social Studies teacher Alan Kirkby, who for years has started every one of his classes with a joke or two, some of which have become legendary in the school. “It gets the students in a positive frame of mind before we get
Principal Dave Randell checks his emails while acknowledging that being a principal involves a lot more than just desk work
Building relationships with staff and students is a key part of Randell’s style
into learning, and sometimes they even laugh,” chuckles Kirkby. the need for print-outs, and the students like being able to revisit Randell handed me a small booklet he’s authored himself past content easily,” said Media Studies teacher Ellen Rombouts. entitled ‘Teacher Wellbeing: Remember to Given the school’s commitment to technology, Remember’. “I have something I call a Randell I was keen to know the school’s views on Rule. You come first, your family comes second, the Minister’s most recent announcement to your job comes third. My staff ’s responsibility establish ‘On-line Schools’. Randell’s response is inspiring, enthusing and delivering so that was emphatic. In his view, technology can never my students feel safe and confident. It’s my replicate the relationship between student and job as principal to make sure they are in the teacher. He shared with me the experience of right space to be able to do this. It only takes his own son who had taken Physics through small things to make people feel better about the Correspondence School and found the themselves and their jobs. We have ‘Thankful lack of face-to-face interaction with the teacher Thursdays’ where five staff get certificates each limited his learning. “Teachers are facilitators week and Friday wine draws for the more for learning. Once upon a time, their role was informal moments. It’s about acknowledging simply to regurgitate facts, but this has changed. An award, presented by his the work your people do, especially when a lot The job is now about collaborating with the staff, to celebrate principal of it can go unnoticed,” he said. students and coming up with new methods and Randell’s impressive career Long-serving English teacher Ed Weston strategies. They get our young people wanting later confirmed Randell’s emphasis on wellbeing and said of to discuss the subject in order to further their learning. Those his principal. “He’s certainly an innovative leader. More than anything though, he’s very supportive of his staff. I think we’ve come a long way under his principalship,” Weston said. Technology is prominent at Otumoetai. Students have access to more than 1,000 computers which are an integral part of the College’s pedagogical approach. “Technology isn’t going away,” says Randell, “so we might as well use it responsibly as an asset for our students’ learning.” Some ninety-six per cent of the school’s parents have access to a computer, so the school has made a strategic change to its mode of information dissemination from print to digital. “Feedback I’ve had from parents about our digital shift has been very positive”, says Randell. “They can read daily notices, access information about their child’s learning, and in general get more involved in their child’s education in a constructive way.” The school also uses Google Drive to create ‘virtual classrooms’ so that students can Social studies teacher Alan Kirkby explaining one of his trademark access all of the classroom content from home. “It does away with jokes
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interactions are irreplaceable,” he said. Technology can also bring its own problems. Through some high profile suicide cases we are acutely aware of the negative contribution social media channels, for example, can make to cyber bullying, cyber stalking, and other harmful behaviours. Not surprisingly, the presence of mobile phones in schools was a topic at this year’s international forum at Otumoetai’s sister school Morioka Chuo High School in Japan. Randell takes four head students to the forum each year. “The majority of the participating schools ban or strongly limit them [mobile phones], whereas I’ve gone the other way,” Randell explains. “I believe, if used appropriately, mobiles can be great learning devices. In regards to cyber-bullying, we have a ‘Cyber Society’ group of students who actively promote safe use of technology and all students sign an agreement of ‘proper use’. We provide advice and guidance to students and parents on this topic through our newsletters and in-class advocacy,” he said. Technology isn’t the only ‘modern’ approach embraced by
boost the achievement of our Māori students,” he said. The latter of these programmes is based on the concept of a journey towards success that is both dynamic and continuous, building from the school’s current situation to where it aspires to be for Māori students. Through learning new theories and practices for teaching, the programme hopes to make schools places where both Treaty partners can enjoy success in education. “We have inspiring teachers of Māori language and culture in the school and groups such as Kapa Haka have grown from strength to strength. We recently did a survey [on Māori students], and the results showed our Māori students are largely feeling valued and experiencing success, both culturally and academically. We know it’s something that now needs to be maintained, and we’re confident of doing so,” Randell explained. Otumoetai’s values are not just words painted on an outside wall. ‘Belonging and Connecting (Kotahitanga)’, ‘Growing Strong Relationships (Whanaungatanga)’, ‘Life Long, Life Wide Learning’, ‘High Expectations (Tu Maia)’, and ‘Serving
Junior students taking a break while the seniors are busy studying!
Staff of Otumoetai College having some well-deserved down time
Otumoetai College. Recent property developments have seen the school’s art block transformed into a ‘state of the art’ learning space complete with a stunning new foyer or ‘art exhibition area’, from which ascends a staircase giving entry to a world class flexible learning space and innovative learning environment. “I think these classrooms are the way forward,” says Randell. “Rows of desks have no place in today’s environment other than maybe for exams,” he opines. “I love the idea of people sharing ideas, using others’ strengths. Innovative learning is a mind-set which you have to get people used to. Some of us have taught on our own for the last 40 years, in a box . . . In this school we’re looking at taking a few walls out, making the rooms flexible, and getting some colour in there.” Lifting the academic achievement of Māori has been a focus for the current government since it came to power in 2008. There are good reasons for this because after 170 years of colonisation Māori linger at the bottom end of education, economic and health achievement statistics. Every public school in the country has now been challenged to focus on their Māori cohort of students and find ways to make a positive difference to their academic fortunes. With around twenty per cent of the College’s students identifying as Māori, Otumoetai faces a tough challenge. Randell has wasted no time in turning his attention to the challenge and has implemented two very effective programmes in his College. “In the last three years we’ve been running programmes including ‘Success for Learning’ and ‘Kia Eke Panuku’ to try and
the Community (Moho Ao)’ are living values in the College and Randell is determined to model them. He calls them ‘The Otumoetai Way’. He leads by example which is why I observe him at the morning tea break connecting with a group of junior girls who had just emerged from a maths class with their latest test results. They were pleased with their results but even more uplifting was having them acknowledged and celebrated by their principal. “[The Otumoetai Way] is our school’s culture and what we hope people see and experience when they come to this college,” he explained. “We’re a proud school. We believe in success. In fact, at every assembly I remind the students that success is not an option, it is an expectation, but with that expectation must come a passion and a desire to excel. We have a special ethos about who we are and if you talk to past students they tend to have fond memories of their time here,” he said. The ‘Otumoetai Way’ would not be complete without a component of community service. For one day every year the students put away their study books and laptops and go out to work. Every student is expected to volunteer their labour for the day in service to their community. On a larger scale, every two years a group of students travels to Mexico to provide labour for housing construction sites for the poor. It’s about reaching out and making a difference. Randell’s commitment to high expectations is manifest everywhere, including in the school hall, which doubles as an
Rows of desks have no place in today’s environment other than maybe for exams
exam room. There, students cannot escape the prominently displayed notice boards on which are inscribed the names of the school’s highest achieving students from school leaders and students achieving excellence in NCEA qualifications to high achieving sports alumni including Black Stick Samantha Charlton, Black Caps’ fast bowler Trent Boult and silver medallist Olympic canoeist Luuka Jones. They provide inspiration and are role models for the current students. Education has gone through radical changes since Dave Randell first began teaching, but he believes that these are exciting times for students. “I came from a system where I put students in rows and gave them knowledge to regurgitate. They had very little say. Today, the opportunities are endless. We offer fifty different sports here and we encourage young people to have an opinion and to find out things. We give our students
a lot more trust and responsibility these days, and they thrive on this,” he said. One way the school entrusts its students is empowering the head students and student executive to plan and organise the annual school ball. They are allocated $40,000 for the event and have free reign to create a celebration of their choice, provided of course the very high school standards are not breached! Randell says, despite the challenges, the satisfaction of striving to meet individual student and staff learning needs every day means the job is never boring. He says if he had a choice, he wouldn’t do anything else. With the college increasing its achievement levels in so many areas all the time, Randell and his staff must be commended for their work. Without doubt, I believe the families of Otumoetai College feel that their children are in safe hands.
Otumoetai College has a strong sporting history and students are encouraged to get involved
Magazine covers created by students cover the walls of this classroom
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