Newlands Primary is a school that is proud of its whakapapa and excited about its future. Celebrating 120 years in 2026, principal Shirley Porteous has marked the occasion with a new book, The History of Newlands Primary School. What started out as a “wee principal’s project” in 2020 transformed into a massive, multi-year endeavour that has become a milestone in and of itself. NZ Principal met Shirley at her school to talk about the book, learn about the Newlands Primary, and hear about her principalship journey.
Winding up in Wellington
Shirley was born, raised, and trained in Dunedin. She moved north in the 80s to start her education career, landing a teaching role in the rural town of Masterton. Despite dreams of working in Wellington, she decided to head further north — this time, all the way to London.
Shirley worked across a number of different education settings in the UK, and was recognised for her leadership in a senior teacher role, all while satiating her travel bug. She returned to New Zealand after six years overseas and eventually settled in the Wellington suburb of Newlands. Shirley was ready to make her dream a reality.
She joined St Teresa’s in Karori as the Assistant Principal, became teaching Deputy at Ridgway School in Wellington, then was a walking DP at Fergusson Intermediate in Upper Hutt, before taking on principalship at Greenacres School in Tawa. Dream: realised.
As a community local and mother of a student who had just finished up at Newlands Primary, Shirley kept her ear to the ground for any opportunity to become principal of her neighbourhood school. When school principal Robyn Arthur decided to retire in 2019, Shirley put her name forward and managed to lock down the job to start at the beginning of 2020 — only for a different sort of lock down to ensue mere weeks later.
New year, new school, new normal
2020 was a pretty rough time to start leading a new school, but Shirley never once felt alone.
“The team here was just phenomenal,” Shirley says. “I was so lucky to have a very experienced and capable leadership team here when I arrived. I was able to really lean on them in terms of providing learning online so I could focus on my job, to keep everybody calm, and lead from the front with all the decisions that had to be made and the things we had to quickly put in place.”
Shirley wasn’t the only Wellington principal leading people they barely knew through one of the most challenging things they had ever experienced. She had two other colleagues who were new to their schools in 2020, both of whom had been first-time principals in Tawa.
“Having support from those close colleagues in the early days was essential. We were all experiencing the same daily uncertainties brought on by the global pandemic when we were only eight weeks into a new job. We really supported each other and figured out how we were going to navigate all of this unknown together.”
“I think [Newlands Primary] got through really well,” Shirley tells me, “and now we’ve got gorgeous tamariki who started in 2020 leaving this year. They are the ones I know the best because we’ve been through so much together.”
Connecting with her school’s whakapapa
Shirley struggled in the early days of her principalship at Newlands Primary with a sense she was missing out on a time of critical bonding with her new school.
“I was seeing the teachers doing all this amazing online stuff but not really getting to connect with anybody, and not really getting to know the school,” Shirley recalls. She set herself “a little project” to build her bond with the community, the whenua, and the whakapapa of Newlands Primary by exploring its history.
Shirley sent a call out to staff and whānau to see if they could find photos at home or had any information about the school’s past that they could share with her.
“I got some emails back from family saying, ‘I think this is a great idea! We don’t have anything, but it’s a great idea!’ So I started hunting and just getting information organised here and there, and soon it had more legs than I could manage. Fortunately, I went on a sabbatical at the end of 2024 and really got stuck into the research and I’m pretty thrilled to have seen it through.”
A poet, passionate communicator, and self-described history nut, Shirley set herself the deadline of 2026 to have the book ready to publish in time for the school’s 120-year anniversary. In May this year, the school community came together to recognise the amazing contribution Shirley has made to Newlands Primary.
A mad passion project that turned into a 60-page book
Back in her office now, Shirley stepped up to grab a copy of the book to show me. “I wanted it to be like a school journal too, with lots of photos and info bubbles that our kids can learn from for years to come.” Shirley puts it on the table with both disbelief and pride in her eyes. “The school will have this forever now,” she tells me.
The History of Newlands Primary School is a truly remarkable achievement, complete with a foreword from long-time Ōhāriu MP, Greg O’Connor. Shirley has laid out everything from the suburb’s history and the school’s first pupils to its centennial celebrations and COVID years. The book doesn’t just document the school’s heritage — it captures what is so special about its evolution and the essential role it has played in creating and serving the Newlands community of Wellington. Here’s an extract from Shirley’s conclusion.
Newlands School has a proud 120-year history, with strong foundations based on the commitment and dedicated mahi of the people who came before. The long-held metaphor for our school ‘Te Rito o te Harakeke’ is woven throughout everything we do. Just as the heart of the flax bush is protected by the leaves that surround it, our school will continue to nurture Newlands tamariki through generations to come.
A space to belong in
For many principals, the ability to affect how a school feels takes centre stage alongside the students, staff, and learning. For Shirley, this means creating “a place where everyone wants to be.”
“We’ve created a school where tamariki really feel they belong, that they can enjoy, and that they can be proud of. And for my staff, together we’ve worked out what we value around here and we keep each other accountable . . . we are there for each other.”
Shirley says it’s really important to be measured and to give your staff the space to experiment with changes.
“We have worked out where we are going as a school, and are not just being driven by what’s happening in the wider educational landscape, but what’s important to this community.”
“You know, they are like my class,” she says with a wink. “I want to bring out the best in my staff, just like I used to try and bring out the best in the kids I was teaching. Because it’s not about me, right, it’s about our team; it’s about the kids; it’s about our community.”
Trusting your team
Shirley’s deputy and assistant principals deliver consistent leadership at the school whether she is around or not. It’s this trust and confidence in her team that’s allowed her to take on additional leadership duties as the President of the Wellington Regional Primary Principals’ Association (WRPPA). She tells me her school is in a good shape, with a growing role and an engaged community but, as a regional leader, Shirley’s contending with “a feeling that’s out there of things being pulled out from under us”.
“I have to put things into action for my staff at school, but I’m also trying to give the WRPPA network support and guidance for what they can do as well. I am very much focused only on what people need to know — so I really try to cut out the noise for them.”
“It’s my job to make sure that I can interpret the latest information and share what’s most helpful,” Shirley says, referring to her staff and WRPPA members. “Other people have to be in the eye of the storm, but we don’t need to be.”
Insights from the outside
Shirley’s clarity in her leadership priorities has not happened by accident — it’s something she is constantly working at. A key part of her own professional development is a close relationship with a leadership coach who, interestingly, has nothing to do with education.
“I think you can always, always grow as a leader,” Shirley says. “My coach has never worked in education or led a school, so my coaching’s not about how to do my job or the actual mahi, it’s about how I can actively support my team, connect with them, to be a stronger and more effective leader, and make this the best school it can be.”
“I want this to be a place that our community continues to be really proud of.” Shirley says. “This was once just a school on a hill in cleared farming land, you know. Now there is an awesome and really diverse community that has grown around it and I am really honoured to be part of that.”