Wanganui City College assistant principal Kath Kirkwood exudes energy, passion and strength.
She freely admits she is a woman with a mission ... an educational mission.
After 42 years' teaching in Wanganui, 31 of those at City College, she has resigned to go home to the farm, to a new farmhouse and huge gardens to lay out across bare land.
She had also worked in Wanganui at Sacred Heart College and Wanganui Girls College.
City College principal Peter Kaua said he'd heard about Kirkwood before he arrived at the school in 2008, and knew he had a strong woman he could rely on.
"I knew I had someone who really knew the community, knew the whanau, and was going to be an enormous help to me ... and she has been every day."
Deputy principal Doug Ewing described Kirkwood as someone who had a great ability to see where students and staff were coming from. She had an uncanny ability to hook into students who were not behaving their best, working on them over the years and turning them around.
"On many occasions, I remember working with her with a difficult student and hearing her say 'this kid is bright, this kid is a leader, this kid will be a top prefect ... you just watch' and sure enough with her input that is what they became."
But although she is leaving, this is not goodbye - she says she will return as a reliever and stay in contact with most of her students.
Kirkwood cares deeply about boys at risk, 14- and 15-year-olds who have lost their way.
Seven years ago in 2005 she set up project "Tumataara" with funding she worked to get from the Ministry of Education.
"It was my vision to set up this special group of at-risk students. It was all about using the power of the group to do positive group work."
The initiative worked and her pride is evident.
For one day a week the group would be taken to her farm where they would ride horses, dag sheep, work around the farm, discuss their lives, their feelings about school and each other, she said.
"I always cook a huge lunch for them ... food is important.
"These were boys who were really going off the rails and I was determined to pull them back where they could have a life but know they had to work for it.
"It's all about working and knowing where you're going."
Many of these boys became prefects, won school prizes and many joined the school's military academy.
However, there is one path where her stance is tough and uncompromising - drug abuse.
"If a student is taking drugs I intervene, get them counselling, talk with their parents ... I just don't tolerate drugs, it's the single biggest disaster facing young teens today.
"But they have to work with me and unfortunately not all of them make it. There's only so much you can do."
The ethos of Tumataara is like "the village raises the child", she said.
"These young boys are all about physical energy. They need to use it and I am happy to take them to my home and let them work around the farm and ride the horses - it's good for them."
Many of these boys have even stayed and lived for a while with her and her partner, she said.
"I really believe that every child is more than capable of attaining the highest level of success ... I've seen it happen."
She remembers one young boy who, at 14, was so badly behaved he was suspended and sent to alternative education.
A year later he arrived on his own at City College asking to see the principal.
"He asked Peter [Kaua] if he could please come back to school and that if he was allowed he would behave and do his best. Peter allowed him back and at this year's's prizegiving I had one of my proudest moments ... this boy walked on stage and collected several prizes. It was exciting and wonderful."
In the lead-up to the prizegiving Kirkwood took the boy aside walked him into town, bought a new pair of trousers for the big day and got him a haircut.
"I have to say the staff were all very proud. You see that's the beauty of City College, we have such highly qualified staff who all care ... we really are whanau in every sense of the word."
And looking at the wider picture, Kirkwood said the schools throughout Wanganui were all great.
"Each school has special strengths and parents should think about that and not just select what they see as what seems to be the most popular school ... it shouldn't work like that.
"You know Wanganui has an amazing opportunity to market education in this town ... because the schools here are all so good."
The strength of our children was through our schools, she said.
"For education is strength and life."