College welcomes new head teachers

Rodney College starts the school year with a new team at the helm.

Principal Dave Ormandy joins the college after 22 years at Rosehill College, in Papakura, where he was associate principal and part of the senior management team for the last three years. The new deputy principal is Sonya Lockyer (see story below).

Mr Ormandy ran the 1850-pupil Papakura school for a term last year and feels there are similarities between it and Rodney College.

“Both are mid decile schools with a good cross section of students, plenty of whom are high achievers with a strong sense of where they are heading,” he says.

He’s impressed with Rodney’s achievements in the latest NCEA examinations, saying that he expects the college to be “head and shoulders” above most others in terms of the number of students scoring above 90 percent in 2008.

“That’s an improvement on the year before, even though the school has experienced some instability in terms of leadership and staffing.”

Mr Ormandy says the results indicate three things.
“Firstly, the students know what they are here for and are getting stuck in; secondly, the staff are teaching them the right things and enthusing them; and lastly, that the school has sound systems in place for tracking achievement. The future’s looking good.

“I’m here for the long term and one of the challenges I see is convincing staff and pupils – and their parents – that I am committed to stability. They’ve seen principals come and go recently so it’s important for them to know I’m here to stay. We’ve moved to the area, and are happy to be living up north again as it is where our families came from.” Mr Ormandy’s father comes from Mangapai, south of Whangarei, and his mother was born in Dargaville where he started his teaching career. The family still has a bach at Whangarei Heads.

Mr Ormondy’s wife, Lyndon, has also joined the staff to teach social studies and economics, as well as being a specialist classroom teacher. Mrs Ormondy was previously head of house at Rosehill College where she taught social studies and history. She was born at Paparoa.

New deputy principal

Rodney College’s new deputy principal is Sonya Lockyer, who formerly taught at Whangarei Girls’ High.

No stranger to the area, Sonya has been commuting at weekends to Wellsford, to be with her Wayne who took over the Four Square in Rodney Street last May.

“It’s something of a relief to be back together again and I’m happy to be at a smaller school which offers me more scope and a wider portfolio,” she says. “It’s also a friendly town.”

Sonya, a mathematician, “loves teenagers” and enjoys teaching boys, in particular.
“They are pretty upfront and don’t mind telling you if you’ve got it wrong. It’s nice to be back in a co-ed school.”

Sonya’s eldest son, Andy, is about to study architecture at Victoria University. Younger son Jamie will remain at Whangarei Boys for his final year.

Rodney College’s new principal Dave Ormondy

Sonya Lockyer