Waitakere SDA School

Kay McCallum

Principal, Wiatakere SDA School

Kay lived and grew up in Mt Roskill and has never lived much further then a chain away from that home all her life! After attending Balmoral SDA School and the Auckland SDA School at Mangere, Kay had two years of schooling at Epsom Girls Grammar and then enrolled at the Auckland College of Education to become a primary school teacher. “My first school was Halsey Drive Primary School in Lynfi eld where I stayed for 3 years followed by one year at Glenavon School in Blockhouse Bay. I was then obligated to apply for a position and I recall sending off 120 applications – jobs often went on the basis of experience and I was obviously reasonably inexperienced – before I secured a role at Southern Cross Primary. That was a real eye opener and I learned heaps including how to be a teacher!” It was during this period that Kay earned her degree the hard way, after school. Five years at Southern Cross was followed by seven years at Wesley Primary School in Mt Roskill, “and then in 1994 I moved from being a scale A teacher and took a sole charge principal’s position at the West Auckland SDA School then based in Blockhouse Bay. After six years we moved (I’ ll never move a school again!) to our present site (in Corban Avenue, Henderson) and changed our name to Waitakere SDA School. “Growing up in a Christian environment our school characterises a family with the older children caring for and mentoring the younger ones. As in a family the children have a say in what we study and how we do it. Sometimes when you teach children how to think, they outwit you which in one sense is cool, because it’s part of what education is about. We try to remember our Christian connection in everything we do.” Kay, Belinda, Fay and Grandma lead the 43 children at the Waitakere SDA School and the others tell me that Kay’s a wonderful person to work with.