Hero photograph
Suhaylah with homework students
 
Photo by Leoni Combrink

Staff Profile: Suhaylah Richards

Ros Jackson —

Suhaylah Richards is a Mathematics Kaiako at Hagley College, having returned to Christchurch from Auckland after 20 years away.

Suhaylah assisted the Muslim community to set up two Muslim schools in Auckland, Al Madinah and Zayed College before she moved back to the South Island. Suhaylah’s two children came to Hagley as senior ākonga and both appreciated that they could express their Muslim culture and other people were accepting of it. Suhaylah was passionate about educating the whole whānau and became involved with the Somali Homework Centre as a teacher. This ran in the evening and was organised by the Somali community who rented the classrooms from Hagley. It was only a matter of time before the Homework Centre became part of Hagley and it has been running as a whānau-based education centre ever since. The programme caters for early childhood through to adult classes and has just had a new Diversity Services Manager appointed, Ben Gresham. Suhaylah has seen real value in the programme, assisting young refugees to gain skills which aid them in transitioning to further education, seeing them blossom and become successful as good global citizens in our community and across the world.

Suhaylah works closely with the Muslim community and in the past has been invited to parliament to represent the community to celebrate Eid. Unfortunately this year’s event was a video event because of COVID-19.

Suhaylah loves working in the Maths department, led by Jon Crampton who is a caring leader and is always looking out for her. Her work and love of learning has kept her at Hagley since 2005 and we hope she will continue to add to her ākonga's learning, and her own learning, for many years to come.

Suhaylah really values the diversity of Hagley and the inclusiveness she experiences every day.