Swanson School

Bruce McLachlan

Principal, Swanson School

Bruce was born in Waihi when his school-teaching father was doing his country service. Apart from the brief time they lived there Bruce has always lived in West Auckland and he’s proud to be a Westie! “I went to Blockhouse Bay Primary where my mother had been a pupil and then to Lynfield College. With Dad having been a teacher we always had teachers around and I can’t remember wanting to be anything other than a teacher. I always wanted to make a difference however idealistic that may sound and I love children and developing their potential.” Bruce attended Auckland Secondary Teachers College after completing his master’s degree in history. Coincidentally, by this stage his father was one of his lecturers. Bruce’s first school was Waitakere College where for fourteen years he taught history and social studies in that school’s fine Social Sciences Department. “It was an exciting time. I worked alongside Joy Eaton, now principal of Henderson High, in a time of significant curriculum development.” Bruce then took a year off from full time teaching, trying drain-laying, lawn mowing, building and worm farming, before the local principal invited him to take on a class at Swanson School. That was thirteen years ago and today he is the principal. He initially progressed to deputy and then left Swanson for four years to be principal at Hay Park School in Mt Roskill, however, when the Swanson principal job came up in 2004 Bruce was the successful applicant. “I love learning and I am excited about our future. We lead an ICT cluster with the aim of enhancing pedagogy in the classroom. We are working with a new draft curriculum which extends the foundations of numeracy and literacy to also include citizenship and values. Swanson School is well over a hundred years old – we started in 1888. This area was famous for kauri millers and old photos of Swanson railway station show double tracking in use as recently as the 1950s! Someone once wrote a paper suggesting that primary children had more fun than secondary children. I think they’re right and we certainly have a ball at Swanson School; great staff, great community and most of all great children!”