Rae's 36 years of service at Makoura

A CLASS ABOVE: Longtime teacher Rae McKenzie resigns this term after 36 years at Makoura College, during which time she helped found and run the Wairarapa Teen Parent Unit. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Rae McKenzie is stepping down as head teacher at the Wairarapa Teen Parent Unit at Makoura College after working for most of the past four decades at the Masterton school.

Mrs McKenzie, whose 36-year tenure was officially celebrated on Tuesday, had been working at Makoura College since first starting at the school as a remedial reading teacher in 1977.

She had completed primary training at Harley Street School and also worked a brief stint at Masterton Intermediate School before starting at Makoura College.

She rose through the ranks at the college, while also bringing up three children alongside husband Peter, and was working as assistant principal in 2002 when she saw "a number of our students go through their pregnancies at college, and run in to difficulties once they'd had their children".

She said a unit was then being launched at a Rotorua school and "one girl in particular" at Makoura College had sealed her ambition to help establish a similar scheme for teenage schoolgirls from throughout Wairarapa.

Mrs McKenzie said about 25 young mums "on average" have passed through the unit each year and graduates had gone on to land jobs in the hospitality and retail sectors, capture degrees or work as teachers, lab technicians or police officers.

"But they don't have to be in the top careers to be successes - that is measured by the benefits their education brought to their children and how happy they are today. I call those girls successful too."

Mrs McKenzie said volunteers had been vital and funding a challenge during the early stages of the unit, which Lindsay Gribben, former chairman of the Makoura College Board of Trustees, had been instrumental in founding.

The unit grew to also comprise a creche offering spaces to the children of women enrolled at the centre and any other parents from within the wider community, she said.

Several of her own six grandchildren had been at various times enrolled at the creche, she said, which was a top quality facility that also was essential for the success of teen mums at the unit.

The Ministry of Education had, since the establishment of the Wairarapa unit, discovered the absolute value of the programme and today were far more generous with resources and funding.

"I think teen parent units are a wonderful invention and the ministry's finally recognised it. They've finally said they are successful for teen mums and the funding is there at last. It's how every school should be, they get one-on-one tuition and care and it's a one-stop shop for all the services to come in and out. It's great."

Mrs McKenzie said she was looking to invest time in other projects from next year and Sue Smith, who has been working at the unit for the past six years, will replace her as head teacher.

"Nothing is on the table for me just yet but there are a number of things in the wind - time will tell. My life in education has been excellent.

"It's been good for me and it really has been my life. I will miss it because I've been very lucky with Makoura, where I have been given every opportunity to succeed and try what I wanted. I've really done better than I ever would have thought."