Tumuaki Richard Edmundson: a significant legacy
By Ken Bye
Ex-Linwood College students visiting Te Aratai may struggle to remember where the gym was, or the drama room, or even the tuck shop, but they cannot help but be impressed by the design of the campus that now occupies the site. The new school is a physical tribute to the leadership of Principal, Dick Edmundson and the commitment of the team with which he worked to overcome all challenges and create a ‘school of the future’.
Challenges and opportunities
As an ex ‘insider‘ who has had the opportunity to experience at first hand the way secondary schools in the Tomorrow’s Schools era are managed, I believe it takes a very special person to shoulder the responsibility of being a secondary school principal and be successful in the role. The principal is the public face of the school; fingers are pointed in their direction when things do not go right – yet they must manage a series of complex relationships which ultimately affect their ability to bring about the changes they wish to implement. Dick proved himself to be a master at managing these complex relationships. He needed to be, as the challenges he faced during his time at Linwood/Te Aratai were enormous. When he arrived at the school in 2016, it was at a low ebb. Its roll had declined significantly over the previous five years and, in a way, it had lost its identity. It was a school known especially for its music and its drama yet, courtesy of the 2011 earthquake, it lost its hall, its main performance base, for a significant amount of time, and key staff changes also had an impact. The buildings were tired, and although planning for a complete rebuild was underway, the nature of the Aldwins Road site seemed to be a physical representation of the school’s malaise.
On arriving at Linwood as its new Tumuaki (Principal) Dick had to deal not just with one challenge, but three. He needed to address the reputation of the school in the community, the attitude of the students towards the school and learning, and also help shape what the new Linwood College would actually look like. Then a fourth was added: the transfer of the entire school to the vacant Avonside Girls’ High School site for the duration of the rebuild.
Such a list would daunt most people. Yet Dick came well prepared to face these challenges. He has always wanted to be in a position to make a real difference to the lives of young people and leading Linwood at a crucial time in its history offered a unique opportunity. And he already had a special connection with the school, having taught there in the late 1980s and 1990s. To him, it was a special place, a truly rich educational environment. And, of course, there he met Linda, who was in the Social Science Department, and she became his wife. Dick knew what the school had been, and was determined to restore its position as an educational ‘lighthouse‘ for eastern Christchurch.
Dick came well prepared for the job. After leaving Linwood, he was Assistant Principal at Aranui, and went from there to be Principal at Hornby High School. He worked assiduously to build relationships with schools and groups in the community to make Hornby a school of choice and to improve student achievement. Finally, Dick was a key player in the planning of a major rebuild of the Hornby High School campus. The plans were signed off at about the same time as the Principal’s position at Linwood was advertised. The timing was just right, and Dick’s range of educational experiences fitted him perfectly for the job as Linwood’s new Tumuaki.
Preparing the ground
For Dick, the challenges he would face at Linwood were best defined as opportunities – opportunities to re-shape the bricks and mortar of the school, its culture, and its reputation in the community. Where to begin? Dick’s approach was not a linear one. He realised that the key to creating a new Linwood was actually he tāngata, he tāngata he tāngata: the people, the people, the people. The key, he believed, was rebuilding trust at all levels. He had to find out what the students, the staff and the communities, of which Linwood was a part – especially those who had tended to turn their backs on the school – wanted in a school of the future. What were their concerns? What should the learning experience of students who went there be like? What should the design of the school be like to help engage students and improve their learning? From May to August 2016, Dick, often accompanied by Linda Rutland, Chair of the Linwood-Te Aratai Foundation, and some senior students, frequented supermarkets, shopping centres and farmers’ markets throughout the Linwood catchment. 1300 people shared their ideas on what the Linwood College of the future should be like. The messages were clear – and in a way unsurprising. Amongst the most important were that the new school should:
- Foster a love of learning by nurturing individual excellence and offering a wide range of educational opportunities
- Embrace diversity
- Create a safe, caring environment, physically and emotionally
- Be a resource that is available for the whole community
This community feedback helped shape the educational brief that was used for the development of the new school and to create its ethos. To quote from Te Aratai’s website: Te waka eke noa: we are all in this together. The school would be a place:
Where everything we do is designed to develop learning, mauri ora, well-being, and a growth mindset. Our learners know who they are and seek out who they can be.
The ‘old school’ on the Aldwins Road site was officially farewelled in April 2019 and demolition began. For more than two years, the school operated from the former Avonside Girls’ High School site on Avonside Drive. For Dick, this was a blessing. The site had a peaceful feel, courtesy of the trees and green spaces. Learning could continue without the distraction posed by an adjacent construction site. Managing the move and the return was a small price to pay for this relative tranquility.
A new identity
The most controversial change made under Dick’s leadership was the decision to change the name of the school from Linwood College to Te Aratai College. To some former students, this decision masked the proud history of the previous school that had been so important in their lives. Yet, as Dick noted, the name of the school was something of a misnomer. It was located in Phillipstown not Linwood and an early draft plan of the school had as its working title, Opawa Post-Primary. The decision to change the name of the school came after consultation with Ngāi Tūāhuriri, who gifted the name Te Aratai to the school. Translated as ‘Pathway to the Sea‘, the name recognises the location of the school as adjacent to the trail linking Ngāi Tūāhuriri with its key local food source, Te Ihutai, The Avon/Heathcote Estuary. The change in name also offered the opportunity to re-launch the school in the eyes of the community, suggesting a new start, a new identity that would preserve the best of the old with the innovative new. And so, a new school was born, along with a new logo and new uniform.
The culture of the school and its performance had to be addressed. Under Dick’s leadership, there was a determination to embrace the ethnic diversity of the school, with a particular emphasis on incorporating Te Reo and the Māori world view as part of school life and learning, so, for example, the school now has its own karakia, Timatanga. Dick realised that students needed to see what was possible for them as individuals and have processes and programmes in place to help them set goals and achieve them. He consciously publicised role models in assemblies and encouraged students to think flexibly about their options post Linwood: what about a Gap year and some time at Camp America, for example? He realised that for student attitudes and performance to change, the school needed a simple strategy that all staff followed. Working with the curriculum leaders, the mantra ‘assessment for learning’, was adopted. Students completed manageable tasks and received constructive feedback on a regular basis. This simple approach helped develop a ‘can do‘ attitude as well as providing a pathway for future progress, so that students are more likely to succeed in the high-stakes assessments which are a feature of life for senior secondary students.
A tangible legacy
Dick spent eight years as Tumuaki of Linwood/Te Aratai College. So, what is his legacy? Under his leadership, a fabulous new school was built on the Aldwins Road site. Architecturally it is an impressive and attractive yet functional building. Students learn in an environment that has the essentials of the past with some of the best of the new, incorporating the ideas of the community expressed in the consultation process. Dick wanted the new school to make a statement, and it does. It is a bespoke build, with high design and construction values that show ākonga that they are valued, and intended to encourage them to work hard and think about what might be possible for them in the future. There are flexible learning spaces, encouraging individual and small group work as well as traditional classroom spaces. Classroom walls facing the corridors or external spaces are often made of glass, giving the school an open feel. Gone are the long corridors and closed off classrooms that were sometimes trouble-spots in the old-style schools. Both students – and staff – are ‘on display‘ for much of the school day. ‘Slacking off‘ is harder to do un-noticed. The school has an international-size basketball court, designated practice rooms and an impressive auditorium so that the Linwood’s proud history in the performing arts can be fostered. The quality of the new school was recognised in 2023 by the awarding of the Educational Architecture Award to the school’s architects, Architectus. The judges’ comments encapsulate the results of the community consultation Dick had painstakingly led.
Te Aratai College is a rebuild of the former Linwood College. It succeeds through its design emphasis on student success and broad community engagement. The campus layout is characterised by clear spatial planning that includes a civic space, dual courtyards, and an ‘avenue of learning’. The design, which acknowledges the multicultural makeup of the school, successfully fosters a sense of community by offering a well-considered balance of privacy and openness and by injecting sunlight through strategically placed windows. Durable, low maintenance materials were selected, a nod to the site’s challenging ground conditions.
Dick wanted a school of the future that had a visual sense of ‘wow’ – and the architects delivered.
The culture of the school reflects its multicultural nature and its adoption of the ‘Māori way‘, meaning that there is a distinct ‘whānau feel’ to it. Student leaders and senior students are encouraged to work with junior students and mentor them. To improve communication between the school and its whānau, deans ‘roll‘ with their year level, so that they can really get to know the students and their families, making school/family communication a much simpler process. ‘Rushed parent evenings‘ became a thing of the past; whānau were encouraged to spend quality time with teachers so that a genuine dialogue about learning could take place.
If the success of a school is judged by its roll growth, Te Aratai thrived under Dick’s leadership. Between 2016 and the start of 2023 (Dick’s last year at the school) the roll increased by 82%, the increase being spread across the school’s catchment, from Linwood and Woolston to Sumner, Mt Pleasant and Lyttelton. The school has already outgrown the space provided by Stage One of the rebuild.
Of course, Te Aratai still has its challenges, and Dick is the first to admit that. The economic and social climate has put pressure on many families, naturally affecting student attendance and performance. Yet the school has a proud tradition of offering pastoral support where it is needed, and this continues. And then there was covid, and learning from home. These challenges make the new school, with its attractive environment, the whānau approach and the inspirational stories that became a standard for Dick at assemblies, even more important in encouraging students to pursue their dreams; who would have thought that a team comprising Te Aratai students would successfully compete in successive Coast to Coasts, for example?
Dick has been one of the most important Principals in the history of Linwood. The first Principal, Basil Wakelin, got to start a new school, on a new site and establish a school culture. Dick got to thread his way through the myriad complexities of the recent past so that a school of the future – as desired by its community, emerged. Te Aratai College on Aldwins Road is his tangible legacy.