Claire Amos

First up, "de-schooling" is hard, particularly when you have been "schooled" for so many years. Whilst there are no bells, no students and no classes to prepare, there is something very deep within that struggles to shed the internal teacher voice that needs to measure what I have actually achieved at the end of the (school) day. This got me thinking. How do you measure productivity when you don't physically produce anything? How do you feel a sense of achievement at the end of a day of mostly talking and thinking? There is no question that this time for processing and exploration is paramount to making robust decisions, but getting my head around what a good day of thinking looks like (versus a good day of producing handouts, policy and resources) is going to take a little time to work out. Luckily time is one thing we do have.

Today marks my first day on site as a Deputy Principal (woot!) at Hobsonville Point Secondary School...a school which is yet to physically exist. For now our site is a rather expansive commons at Hobsonville Point Primary School. We open our school to students in 2014. Over the course of the year I aim to document (from my perspective) the experience of being part of an establishment team setting up a brand new secondary school. HPSS will be a large open plan school set in the new development on Hobsonville Point. The BOT vision for the school is "to create a stimulating, inclusive learning environment which empowers students to contribute confidently and responsibly in our changing world". Our Mission is to Innovate, Engage, Inspire. So what did 'Day One' look like?  It was in fact a rather interesting mix of the appetite-whetting and the pragmatic. Plans are afoot for some edu-touring - Canada and New York in April to view some "self-directed schools mo...