I had the absolute pleasure to meet Ruby Love-Smith properly and to sit down with her and talk about her journey through education and her involvement in local politics and where she would like to see herself in the future.

I say many times that this is the best part of the job and this chat just consolidated that! Our young people get a hard time in the media at times, and I just don’t see that media representation playing out at Hagley. Of course, we see times where students are unmotivated, distracted, late and grumpy - we are a secondary school. What I also see though are students going about their day achieving goals, learning new things, helping others and engaging with community and special interests. Ruby is a great example of this.

We took a long time to meet. Ruby's mum and I had been in email contact thanks to another staff member who knows Ruby. She suggested I reach out and make contact about Ruby attending the Peer Support Camp in Hanmer before school starts. That in itself doesn’t sound unusual but it is. Ruby hadn’t officially enrolled and was thinking about moving to Hagley from her previous school, where she had been since Year 9. Ruby and her mum thought the camp was a good idea and I was doing the final preparations for the camp and looking forward to meeting her in person. Then, in a rather unfortunate turn of events, I tested positive for Covid (I had even packed my car ready to leave for the camp in the morning) and missed the entire camp. According to one staff member it was the best camp they have run! I hope it was a joke!

Fast forward a few months and Ruby’s mum reached out to say that Ruby was working for Tracey McLellan, the Banks Peninsula Labour party representative, if they held the seat, and wanted to say thank you for recommending the camp to Ruby as she was able to start the year with friends or familiar faces in all of her classes. This is a key point for the students and families of new students that read this newsletter. It will be a big deal to go away when you don’t know anyone, but the benefits are there!

This led to Ruby and I catching up about the work she is doing in politics. She explained that she joined the Labour party two years ago with the election campaign of Tracey McLellan. The work at that time was around Smokefree Aotearoa 2025, school lunches and advocating around Pay Equity. Two years on and Ruby is part of Young Labour and is the Women’s officer and on the executive team.

Her love for advocacy may well be attributed to her first experience of this as a student of Redcliffs Primary School. It was the first time she saw that if you don’t like something you should do something about it, and Ruby and a big group of others did! She spent her last two terms on the new site so she lived this experience from start to finish. Stressful I am sure, but what a learning experience.

Ruby explains herself to me as always being aware of social issues - she and a friend decided on a bit of a whim to put their names down through the Labour party website and started volunteering. She describes this as a meeting of like-minded people and the ability to have a platform. Essentially, she met people who cared the way she cares.

Her role as a Youth MP for Tracy McLellan involves engaging in the community of young people, hosting in-person events and targeting youth for data collection.

I am always interested in the people who act as role models and shape our young people. Ruby, maybe predictably, mentions Jacinda Ardern. Personally, after talking to Ruby, I can totally see why. To Ruby, Jacinda gave hope, and she is real and authentic and her track record of the lowest death rate through Covid is what should be focused on. Ruby’s mum is also a key role model for Ruby. Her mum is a part-time nurse and her time spent not working at that job sees her working within her community. Things like supporting their neighbours and generally helping out. I can totally see from listening to that why Ruby is so proud of her mum.

Ruby’s future is a bright one, no doubt. She would like to study Law next year and she can see herself advocating for women and young people. She isn’t sure where she will go with politics and is keen to enjoy and be fulfilled by what she is doing rather than what the title of that work may be.

Ruby’s advice to students thinking of moving to Hagley is don’t let not knowing people be a barrier. Class sizes aren’t that big and everyone is really friendly. This, to Ruby, is what makes this school special.

Ruby was off to Parliament the week after we caught up and the pictures with this article show how well she suits Parliament. All the best for your incredible future, Ruby. I can’t wait to watch from the sidelines!

Rowan Milburn

Principal