News of Wilson\u2019s death was announced yesterday afternoon<\/a> in an email to parents from board of trustees chairman Hamish Hopkinson.<\/p>\n\u201cIt is with enormous sadness that we have to inform you of the sudden and unexpected passing of our beloved principal Nick Wilson,\u201d the email said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe passed away on Saturday evening due to a sudden medical event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tributes to Wilson online said the death of the \u201cgreat man\u201d was an \u201cenormous shock\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly saddened by [Wilson]\u2019s sudden passing,\u201d one person wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cNick was a dear long-time friend and someone connected to so many happy memories growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said Wilson \u201ccared about his school very much\u201d. <\/p>\n
Auckland-based Labour list MP Camilla Belich wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cDevastating news for the Ponsonby Intermediate and wider Auckland school community. Nick was a fantastic principal and will be sorely missed. <\/p>\n
\u201cThinking of his family, friends and the staff and students of Ponsonby Intermediate. Moe mai r\u0101 e te rangatira.\u201d<\/p>\n
Approached today, Hopkinson said the school board was preparing a tribute to Wilson, which would be released soon. <\/p>\n
Today\u2019s email to parents and caregivers said counselling support services would be available all week, which students could refer themselves to or parents could apply for their child to attend. <\/p>\n
Details for a celebration of Wilson\u2019s life were still being finalised, and the school was working closely with his family. <\/p>\n
The assistant principals asked parents to ensure their child knew what tomorrow entailed so they could be prepared \u201cfor the many types of emotions that may arise over the day and weeks ahead\u201d. <\/p>\n
At least two other schools have shared tributes to Wilson, with one offering support to its own students due to Wilson\u2019s close connection. <\/p>\n
The principal of nearby Richmond Road School, Jacqui Yearsley, said former students \u201cthrived\u201d at Ponsonby Intermediate under Wilson\u2019s leadership. <\/p>\n
In a letter sent to parents today, Yearsley said staff were aware of Wilson\u2019s passing and prepared to help students with the loss. <\/p>\n
\u201cTwo of our principals from the Inner City Principals group are supporting at Ponsonby Intermediate today and will let us know how else we can support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further north, Tinopai School said it had a \u201clong-standing connection\u201d to Wilson\u2019s wh\u0101nau and was flying its school flag at half mast today. <\/p>\n
A Ministry of Education statement said its traumatic incident team would be supporting the school for as long as needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts are with the family, staff, students and wider community at this very difficult time,\u201d a ministry spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The ministry\u2019s traumatic incident team supports schools and early learning services to respond to serious events, helping ensure the safety and wellbeing of students and staff while returning operations to normal as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
It also provides advice on managing the emotional impacts of traumatic incidents, communicating with families, communities and the media, and connecting schools with other support services where needed.<\/p>\n
The Year 7 and 8 school has a roll of about 580 students.<\/p>\n
An earlier \u201cprincipal\u2019s message\u201d on the school\u2019s website from Wilson said the school offered a personalised approach to middle school teaching, designed to give children a wide variety of opportunities across the curriculum using the school\u2019s specialist teaching model.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students at Ponsonby Intermediate always come first. You can expect your child to be well taught, well looked after and, in partnership with you, they will receive the best possible education over their two years with us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Ponsonby Intermediate, we ensure our students enter the next stage of their lives with a positive self-image and that they look back on their time with us as an important and engaging one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel Maher is an investigative reporter covering Auckland issues and education. She started at the Herald as a breaking news journalist in 2022, before joining the Auckland team this year.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAs a school we know the news of Nick Wilson\u2019s passing will hit differently across the community. \u201cAs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,806,51,3952,1259,634,62821,154910,34535,111,43,139,6933,69,6744,26890,34293,29192,1230,4062,1321,1516,3767,24994,1886,61,701,6038],"class_list":["post-433017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-community","tag-death","tag-grieving","tag-intermediate","tag-mourns","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nick","tag-nz","tag-place","tag-ponsonby","tag-preparing","tag-principal","tag-reopen","tag-school","tag-services","tag-staff","tag-students","tag-sudden","tag-support","tag-to","tag-tomorrow","tag-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433017","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=433017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}