the Bay of Plenty<\/a>, and the rest was history.<\/p>\n\u201cI was a first-time principal in 2002, in my mid-40s, so 23 years later? That\u2019s where I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he started, Tauranga Special School had 52 students. Today it has about 120.<\/p>\n
He said at times it could be a challenging environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt tests all your fortitude, all your knowledge and experiences, but you learn from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look past the disability, they\u2019re human, and we treat them as normally as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said during his tenure, there had been a massive number of highs, but some definite lows \u2013 especially losing students or staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sad side of the job is the passing of some students while they\u2019re enrolled with us.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to look at all the wonderful things about those people, and then that boards you up, and you move on, but you don\u2019t forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tauranga]()
Tauranga Special School principal Barrie Wickens. Photo \/ John Borren <\/p>\n
He told the Bay of Plenty Times the most important thing about working at Tauranga Special School was to have empathy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nature of the students has changed in 23 years. They are far more challenging, but you build the teams around you, and that\u2019s where you get your strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wickens said he would have loved to make it to the 25-year mark, but it was his time to step away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been the tumuaki principal and I love it with a passion, but I\u2019ve resigned because it\u2019s time, my wife has retired, so it\u2019s time to spend time with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wickens said he planned to spend more time play golf, fishing, and touring around New Zealand in his caravan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do the big Ninety Mile Beach [Snapper] Bonanza fishing competition. It\u2019s a five-day event, but it\u2019s always during school time. So next year in March, I\u2019m registered.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he couldn\u2019t \u201cwalk away\u201d from education completely, however.<\/p>\n
He planned to continue working part-time, using his mentoring skills to help other principals, senior leaders, support staff and teachers.<\/p>\n
He said he had loved his 23 years at Tauranga Special School \u201cimmensely\u201d. <\/p>\n
Tauranga Special School deputy principal Dale Megson has worked with Wickens for eight years, and will take over as principal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always put students and families first. He\u2019s a problem-solver and he thinks outside the box,\u201d Megson said of Wickens.<\/p>\n
He would miss Wickens\u2019 generosity the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had a really long legacy with our school, and he\u2019s been involved in a lot of its progress over the last 23 years. It\u2019s grown so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole school community will miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The special school offers therapy, support staff and teaching for students aged 5 to 21 with a diverse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[34309,74,89872,6097,111,43,139,69,29192,4062,1962,3057,1227,89873,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-130038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-34309","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-barrie","11":"tag-down","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-principal","17":"tag-school","18":"tag-special","19":"tag-steps","20":"tag-tauranga","21":"tag-wickens","22":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}