Avondale Intermediate

Rota Carrington

Principal, Avondale Intemediate

Rota Carrington was born into an Army family and they lived in several places including overseas before settling in Henderson. The army has had a major influence on his life, first joining as an 18 year old then remaining as a Territorial for 16 years, finishing as Commanding Officer of the NZ Army Air Corps. Rota finished his schooling at Rutherford High School. After training at North Shore Teachers College Rota has only taught in West Auckland Schools. His first year was at Ranui Primary, a school that became significant in his development, largely through the then principal Beryl Brownlees. “After four years overseas living in England and playing rugby in France I received a telegram in Sri Lanka from Beryl, ‘Hear you’re coming back stop do you want a job?’ “It made up my mind for me so the day I arrived back into Auckland I started at Ranui again.” From Ranui Rota moved to Henderson Intermediate, then to Swanson Primary and then as deputy principal at Glen Eden Intermediate School. And then in 1994 Ranui’s name appears again as Rota returned to take up his first role as school principal. “It was a wonderful time; but then I was approached to go into the corporate sector in personal development for an Australian company. It only took a year for me to realise that teaching was my thing.” In September 1996 Rota returned to teaching as principal of Peninsula Primary School where he had taught as a second year teacher. “The opportunity to come to Avondale came along. Avondale presented a wonderful challenge — classic, who moved my cheese? stuff. Peninsula was going well but I couldn’t get Avondale out of my mind.” “We’ve had a huge ride of change here at Avondale! We use the analogy of a waka — which we are all in together — we all need to be in the same waka, facing the same direction, all paddling at the same time. “Once we had our vision clear, from that came curriculum redesign, a strengthening and belief in our school culture and values, and the energy for what we can do for our students. On top of this we are building a new school over the next 18 months and we are about to get the facilities to match our dreams and the dreams of our students.” Rota is from Whakatohea Iwi and proud to be one of the few Maori Principals in mainstream West Auckland Schools. He was also a member of Pita Sharples kapa haka cultural group, Manutaki, for a number of years. Rota is married to Donna Soljan who is deputy principal at Glen Eden Primary. Rota has two sons.