My Account
Silverdale School’s vision statement, ‘Learn to Journey – Journey to Learn’ is on the wall of principal Viv Collins’ office, along with a great many books, reflecting her belief in the power of education. Viv retires at the end of this term – something she says will be an enormous wrench. However, as she explained to Terry Moore, the best time to leave is when things are going well.
When Silverdale School moved to this site in 2006 there were 139 on the roll and just six teachers – and eight years later we have a roll of 540 and a total of 32 teachers. The school will continue to grow along with the Millwater community. In the last two years there has been expediential growth and trying to keep ahead in terms of the buildings required has been a challenge.
I was appointed as Deputy Principal in 2003 and when the Principal left a year later, I won the position. One of the things I will take away with me from my time here is the experience of designing and planning a school with the community. The Ministry popped up and said ‘get your team together, we are going to build a school’, in 2005. We spent a year consulting with the community and working with the students to find out what they would like to see in the design of a ‘new’ school that nevertheless had a heritage of 140 years or thereabouts. We had to think about what would be needed for the new, burgeoning community and current teaching practices, as well as hark back to our roots, and that resulted in the design of the school. Construction began in 2006 and it was completed in November that same year. One of the challenges and delights of the last 10 years has been building an environment that’s appropriate for our children and for our teaching philosophy. The shift from being a school serving a rural community, to a more urbanised one, has been going on for some years. We still have a country flavour, with animal judging and gumboot throwing at our Country Show Day, but there are less rural families enrolled now. The roll growth is going to continue and will be one of the challenges for the incoming Principal. I once said I would retire when the building programme was complete, but it soon became clear that if I waited until then, I would be leaving as a doddery old person!
One of the things that gives me a great deal of pride is that sense of community that has developed in and around the school – its inclusive nature, with the whole school embracing the notion of being an Enviroschool and the introduction of Building Learning Power, which is about equipping children for 21st Century learning. Part of this is about bringing in electronic devices and developing technological aspects of the school – all our Year 7 and 8s have a device of their own, provided by the school. That principle of equity is key, so that everyone gets the same opportunity. I often talk about ‘the Silverdale family’ and we try to encourage the way that the older students look after the younger ones and have a responsible attitude. Many of our students get involved with community action – a good example is the senior students working with the kindergarten, helping the young ones in their lunch time – it’s a vital aspect that sets our school apart.
Over the years, there have been shifts in teaching, including in the political scene – the introduction of National Standards is a good example, but we always had a series of standards of our own, so when National Standards came in, we carried on pretty much as we had been. In many cases, our standards were higher than the national ones! I think teachers find that the accountability requirements are quite high – we were always accountable, there is no doubt about that, but there is a lot more paperwork now. What hasn’t changed is the joy of teaching; the capacity to provide exciting opportunities for children, and witnessing the shift and change in students that keeps you coming back, day after day. The biggest change among the children is that they come to school knowing a lot about computers, so we don’t have to teach that – it is about sharpening the whole process and focusing it on their learning. The core ‘three Rs’ remain very important: more so in many ways, because those skills build the principles of computer use and walk alongside that development. In my experience the paperless society was a big myth and when you have a power cut, or your system fails, you need to be able to revert back to pen and paper and computation. I hope that things such as spelling homework remain a core part of our school’s fabric, but I will not be influencing that process – although I may be when it comes to my grandchildren!
The value of any school is the relationship you build with your students, staff and the community and if you get those wrong, you’re in trouble. I think I’ve been very lucky in that regard. We have a fantastic group of parents who support us and those interactions will be among the things that I will miss significantly. I will also miss the interaction with great staff, although I have threatened to come back every now and then and do some relieving work. I won’t miss the long evening meetings – they are inevitable and essential, to fit in with the community, but they can be tiring and make it a very long day. In each of the school holidays you would generally be back working around six days out of 10, because accounts still need to be paid and it’s a catch up time when there are not a lot of interruptions. You get two weeks at Christmas if you’re lucky, because you have to get the annual reports off to the Ministry. Teachers make a commitment that goes well beyond the normal school week, because when they are in front of the class, they are teaching, and still have to fit in marking, planning, meetings, school sports commitments and functions. The commitment required is huge, but while it is demanding of your time, you get the wonderful sense of joy that comes from seeing that children are learning. It is so rewarding – it’s one of the best jobs in the world. When young people come up to you later in life and say ‘hello’ and they have grown up and may be working or having families, it’s lovely. I will miss it, quite savagely. You never lose the reason why you became a teacher – it is all about the children and what you can do for them.
I asked myself ‘when is a good time to leave?’ and the answer is, ‘when things are going well’. I made the decision in July, which gave the board plenty of time to get organised for next year. I am getting a number of plans tied up that re-establish the activities that I used to be involved with: I want to play more golf, spend more time with my four grandchildren and I will pick up on some of the craft activities – things like personal painting and designing garments – those things that you put to one side when you’re so busy. I will also be building a beautiful garden for our Gulf Harbour home. We already grow our own vegetables, but the patch will get bigger – a superannuitant’s ‘super garden’. Renovations are also part of the plan. In fact, I think I am going to be busier next year than I have been previously, but a different kind of busyness. I have still got lots of energy and enthusiasm for things. I have never taken a nana nap in my life, and I don’t want to start that yet. Another thing that I would love to do in retirement is to write children’s books, because I find it so satisfying. In a way it would be coming full circle – I started with being immersed in books and children’s development and then moved into teaching – now I’ll be back to being immersed in books and able to read whenever I feel like it. I have a Kindle, but there is nothing like reading a good book, besides, if you read on a computer and fall asleep, it hits you on the head!
I wanted to keep my departure low key and just slide out, but it isn’t going to be like that. My last official day is December 18, but informally I’ll be here until the end of January because there is building happening over the Christmas holidays that I’ll need to keep an eye on. I can remember when I was being interviewed at the end of High School about why I wanted to go teaching and was asked whether it was the vacations or the vocation that appealed – I said the latter, and meant it! I have always known that teaching was where I wanted to be and apart from the odd time at 6am, I have had no doubts that I made the right choice. And I am also certain that I am doing the right thing by retiring at a time when I still want to be coming to school.
