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Celebrating 50 Years of Innovation

Mike Fowler —

Hagley is regarded as an innovative place, which was reinforced at our '50 Years of Hagley' celebrations held over the weekend of 14 - 16 October. What isn't as well known is that our history of innovation goes back nearly 50 years.

The school and its innovative direction seen today can be clearly traced back under the leadership of Principals Brent Ingram [2015 - 1991], Roz Heinz [1991 - 1976], and  Ian Leggat [1975 - 1971].

Ian set Hagley on a very new direction from the conventional coeducational state school it had been previously. If we are to look for the origins of what has firmly become part of Hagley’s DNA for the last 45 years, we look at what in their time were radical innovations introduced by Ian, including programmes running day and evening, adults and adolescents learning together, a diverse range of courses, and no uniforms.

Roz Heinz expanded community education and programmes for speakers of English as a second language.

We see innovation in the specialist schools which Brent largely developed, where students could immerse themselves in what they were passionate about: like fashion, cuisine, early childhood education, dance, drama, or most recently animation, among many others.

In 2016, a major innovative step is the development of our partnership programmes with the University of Canterbury to help students transition successfully into tertiary study.

This is the Hagley way, it’s about saying ‘Why not? Why can’t this happen?’

That ‘why not?’ approach still sits at the heart of what we have been over the last 50 years, what we are now, and the Hagley of the future.

It's fair to say that innovating is a Hagley tradition. It’s a different tradition though – it’s a tradition of opening up opportunities that are right for each student, of Hagley teachers wanting the best and doing the best for each individual student. In fact, the same sentiment is there in the words of 1970s Principal Ian Leggat published in the anniversary publication about the last 50 years of Hagley, who wanted his staff to work together to make school a better place for all pupils, where school was about instilling a desire to learn for their own satisfaction.