Glen Eden Intermediate

Terry Hewetson

Principal, Glen Eden Intermediate,

Terry Hewetson is a disarmingly easy person to talk to which is probably why he studied to become a teacher/ educator/principal in the first place. Terry has been principal of Glen Eden Intermediate School(GEIS) for sixteen years and with his predecessor Russell Fletcher having served there for twenty three years you get some sense of the values the school is founded on. While Shakespeare’s, “To thine own self be true” may be the ethos, the children’s-created mission statement, “To be the dream school where everybody loves to learn”, is truly choice. Growing up in the West, Terry qualified through North Shore Teachers College, actually commencing in the last year the college was based in Richardson Road, Mt Roskill. From there he taught at numerous West Auckland schools before starting to make a name for himself at Lincoln Heights. ‘I’ve always been passionate about art, science and written language. I worked with Elwyn Richardson at Lincoln Heights in creativity and with special abilities children.’ After Green Bay Primary, Terry became deputy of Water Lea School (Mangere), Lincoln Heights and Royal Road School and then began his stints as a principal at Three Kings Primary School. Over a ten year period he was principal there, at Colwill School in Massey and at West Harbour School, also in Massey. And then in 1990 Terry moved to GEIS. Terry completed his undergraduate education degree through Massey University in 1982 and went on to secure his Masters in Educational Management from UNITEC in 2003. He received an ASB APPA Fellowship in 1997 and has been the recipient of two Sir Woolf Fisher Scholarships, in 2002 and earlier this year. ‘One of the things you learn from this type of international travel is that our classroom environments are second to none and our ability to utilise resources and making them work for learning is very impressive. Secondly, we live in a world where we meet similar teachers who are doing the same thing but differently and you can take the best, enhance it and apply it. Finally, the open collegiality with teachers all around the world is fabulous and often the discussions about educational issues are in fact societal issues.’ Terry is married to Sandra who is the principal at Western Heights and they have two adult daughters.