Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

In her poem The Active Voice, inscribed in the Wellington writer’s walk, Lauris Edmond writes

It’s true you can’t live here by chance,
you have to do and be, not simply watch
or even describe. This is the city of action,
the world headquarters of the verb –

And I think that applies not just to Wellington as a city, but also to this school and our students and staff. Something is always happening, no-one rests on their laurels.

2019 has been a year of action, not just for WGC, but for NZ and in some ways, the world.

We began the year with our new wānanga classes (which replace form classes and provide a targeted pastoral programme), tutorials once a week in every subject for Year 12 and 13, our Kāhui Ako in place (a community of learning, working with Karori Normal School, Northland School, Kelburn Normal School, Brooklyn School and Wellington College) and then the announcement of $25 million for us to build an additional 18 classrooms and extra space for Wellbeing, Learning Services and the staff.  Everything was new and exciting and we all started the year with anticipation and a sense of all the good things that lay ahead of us.

Then came 15 March, a day that was already different because of the huge numbers of students who left school to join the student strike for climate change, but ended as a day of infamy with the attacks on the Christchurch mosques. I suspect that everyone in NZ was affected by this in some way and as a school, we came together in the following week to support our Muslim students and staff and I think we all learned a bit more about what is really important in life – and that kindness and tolerance win hands down, because without them we are nothing.

We had always been a country at the bottom of the world, seemingly far away from the bad things that happened in other countries. That was no longer the case.  We were now front and centre on all the world’s news networks and in the weeks to follow it was our response as a nation that was admired and spoken of, just as much as the atrocities of that day.

Action continued all year. The climate strikes have been ongoing, gaining in numbers each time; industrial action was also taken by teachers for the first time in many years, which resulted in a pay increase that we all hope will see an increase in teacher recruitment and retention in the future.  The work on the new classrooms has been steady but is currently on hold while we wait on a detailed seismic analysis which will clarify exactly how much bracing is needed and where it needs to go – obviously quite important factors when we live close as we do to both a fault line and reclaimed land.

2019 for me, will always be remembered as a year of amazing action – from the posters for Christchurch, to the climate strikes, to the whole school heart we created on the field, to knitting for premature babies, to donating cans for the City Mission when they were in trouble during the year, to supporting our teams and groups at Showquest, Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, Tiaho or on the sports field, our students and staff have stepped up and been prepared to do what was important to make things better for others or show others that they cared.

I have been working on a couple of national reference groups this year.  As my colleagues talk about their schools I am constantly reminded that I don’t experience the hard reality many of them face.  We have engaged students, committed staff and interested parents.  We don’t rest on our laurels and everything we do and change is aimed at improving the experience staff and students have here each day, so that they really can leave one day ready to soar.

Thank you all for your ongoing interest in WGC – it is a school of which you can be incredibly proud.

Julia Davidson
Principal