New high-school post

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 14

New high-school post

The appointment was announced yesterday of New Zealand’s first associate principal of a secondary school—one of several such posts being created by the Department of Education to cope with the needs of very large secondary schools.

The first appointee to such a position is Mr D. Rathbone, a senior inspector of secondary schools for the Depart-

ment of Education’s southern region, who will take up a post at Burnside High School in Christchurch at the beginning of next year, when the school is expected to have a role of more than 1700. Mr Rathbone, who was bom in Timaru, was educated at Otago Boys’ High School, the University of Otago, Auckland Teachers’ College, and Auckland University. He taught at Auckland Grammar i School from 1955 to 1960 before taking a post as head of [the language department at Te Awamutu High School I from 1960 to 1966. From 1967 to 1968, he was sent to Nepal, as a specialist language teacher, by U.N.E.15.C.0. He has held his post with the Department of Edu- ! cation since his return from overseas.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Rathbone emphasised what he said was the importance of all schools, particularly large schools involving their students in their own learning organisation. It was not enough just to expect pupils to go along to school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., he said. They had to have a commitment to the school, which came through involvement and participation, so that each pupil felt he counted for something. Mr Rathbone said that Bumside High School was particularly fortunate in its degree of community involvement. “It is truly a school of its community and as such is more fortunate than some other city secondary schools,” I he said. 1 Asked if he considered that

the criticism of large secondary schools as impersonal institutions was justified. Mr Rathbone said that new administrative and organisational changes for large schools would ensure that no pupil or teacher felt “lost in the mass.”

"There are several large secondary schools in New Zealand. The question of whether there will be additional ones developed will depend on the success of the administrative and organisational changes,” Mr Rathbone said.

These changes would necessitate the closer involvement of all concerned—parents, teachers, pupils, and the general community.