Education options seen as essential

By Tom Clarke

It is "absolutely essential" that parents and care givers have educational choices for their children, says Marg Scott who has just been appointed executive principal of Kristin School in Albany.

She says it is important that communities offer a range of educational options so people are able to select the kind of environment they want their young people brought up in.

"I think it's absolutely essential that there is a choice," she says. "It would be really sad if we tried the 'one-size-fits-all' approach because that's the last thing New Zealand needs."

Mrs Scott says Kristin has an incredibly strong academic profile and is "certainly a little different" from the school she is now at, Papanui High School in Christchurch, where she is principal.

This is a community school, she says, with a lot of young people who do extremely well academically, but also with many students who come from quite disadvantaged backgrounds.

Kristin will be a challenging school, she says, and will offer very different challenges from Papanui.

She is committed to continuing the academic emphasis for which Kristin is known, epitomised by the work it has done with the Internationale Baccalaureate, an international qualification with a broader academic programme than the New Zealand bursary examination.

But she admits she had to think about the "elitist" label which is often attached to the school.

"Some people may see it as elitist, but I don't see it like that at all. I see it as being a wonderful opportunity to do something that is a bit different."

Mrs Scott says all schools say that they focus on learning, but some are doing it in a way that does not produce the same outcomes as a school like Kristin.

Mrs Scott is joining Kristin at the beginning of next year. She has a master of educational administration and was recently appointed to the executive committee of the Secondary Principals' Association.

She has been at Papanui for the last eight years and was previously assistant principal at Mairehau High School in Christchurch.

She has also spent two years with the Education Review Office, and 10 years in Dunedin at Kaikorai Valley High School and Otago Girls' High School.

She replaces Dr Stephen Codrington who is returning to Australia to become headmaster of Prince Alfred College in Adelaide.

Until Mrs Scott joins the school it will be under the leadership of acting executive principal, Mike Gifford, a former associate principal.