Wah gwaan

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My first Headship was in Croydon, South London. As I stood at the gate welcoming our students to school, large numbers of them greeted me with "Wah gwaan, Sir?” I didn’t know what that meant. Equally I'm sure they were as confused by my "Kia Ora" and "Morena."

As I was walking into school after the last student, I saw our assistant caretaker Winston at the door. Winston was a Jamaican man and had been at the school for 34 years. I asked him what “Wah gwaan” meant. He said "Sir, it means what’s going on?"

Winston taught me some other 'patois' phrases that I might hear:

"Mi see yuh likkle more den"- “I’ll see you later then”.

"Weh yuh ah seh?" - “how are you doing?”

"Bless up" – “Blessing to you or good luck”.

"Wah gwaan me bredren?” “What’s going on my good friend?”

I learned so much from Winston in my time there.

I asked Winston if he had ever been to a classroom to see the teachers teach. He laughed and said, "Me?" I said, "Yes, you Winston." He said, "Bredren, I clean them, ain’t no place for me"

I found out we had 16 support staff - caretakers, grounds people, canteen and cafeteria staff and administrators - that had never seen a lesson being taught. I think that anyone coming into a school should be able to ask any adult what the teaching and learning is like in the school. So, I took small groups of these staff into lessons and we had tea and coffee afterwards and talked about what they had seen.

My last group were our caretakers: Steve, Vish, Michelle and Winston. I waited for them at reception and they were all there except for Winston. I asked Vish where he was and he said, “He lives around the corner and had to pop home. He will be here.” Steve then said, "Here he comes, Sir." I turned around to see Winston walking up the drive. He was wearing a blue, three-piece suit with a bright red tie and black Oxford brogues. He was wearing a black trilby hat and he had a notebook in his hand. He had gone home to get dressed into his smartest clothes. I could feel my eyes well up as he walked towards me. He hugged me and said, "Bredren, it’s important. Learning is important. The students are important. It’s an honour to see our teachers work!"

As we went into classroom after classroom, the students and staff looked at Winston with a mix of confusion, awe and wonder. They didn’t call him Winston, they said, "Sir, you look amazing." Winston had written notes to every teacher saying thank you for having him and one thing he liked in their class. He handed the notes to the teachers personally at lunchtime. They were all very moved by it.

The students all saw Winston in a different light. They realised that he had made an effort to show them respect and that they were worth getting dressed-up for. Students started putting rubbish in the bins and they would run pass Winston in the playground and say, "Morning, Sir."

When we talked, he would often say, "Every child, every chance, every day."

I called Winston in to my office in the second-to-last week of the school year and asked him if he would be happy to be at Senior Prizegiving to present the awards to the top scholars in Years 12 and 13. He said, "Sir, it would be an honour but I don’t need to do that. I took home the biggest prize ever this year!" I asked him what he meant. "After 34 years, it’s the first time that I have been seen," Winston replied.

Who doesn’t want to know that we notice them and value them? My Uncle Bunny would say, "No person, no task, no opinion too small."

We were all so much richer for seeing Winston, for hearing him, and for accepting the huge love he had for the school, and all of us in it. I leave you with Winston’s words when we would end a conversation. We would shake hands, and he would say, "Waak pan mi bredren duh yuh ting an stay bless."

Stay bless whanau

Receive the light and pass it on

Glen Denham
Headmaster