\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah\u2019. She said, \u2018Did it wiggle much?\u2019 I just burst into laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman still bursts into laughter telling the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what made me realise that I still had something in the tank that could carry on and that it was important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019ve got 300 mokos [grandchildren] here and about 50 of them each day give me a hug in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman\u2019s connection with students and staff was obvious on New Zealand Principals\u2019 Day last Wednesday, when schools nationwide celebrated those at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was meant to be a surprise, but a couple of 5-year-olds spilled the beans the day before,\u201d he said of celebrations planned for him.<\/p>\n
Newman played along as students \u201csurprised\u201d him with a special assembly, performing waiata and haka in his honour. Lunch was his favourite: seafood, followed by a \u201cmagnificent\u201d chocolate cake.<\/p>\n
But what set the day apart was a lap of the block, with hundreds of students and staff riding alongside as he made the journey in his wheelchair.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reminds you why you do the job,\u201d he said of the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s not just about the staff, it\u2019s not just about the kids, it\u2019s not just about the community, it\u2019s about the whole lot of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school\u2019s core value, which Newman said he was most proud of, was taking care of one another \u2013 including the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t charge a thing – trips, school fees, kids don\u2019t even pay stationery. We\u2019re running three vans at our own cost to try and bring in about 80 kids a day because they wouldn\u2019t be coming to school otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at what the needs of the kids are and then we cater for those needs as far as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hora Hora Primary School principal Pat Newman. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
Part of what keeps him motivated, Newman said, is advocating for students\u2019 needs amid significant change in education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re being forced to do things for political reasons that have no educational pedagogy by people who know nothing about education and we\u2019re trying to stop our kids being harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He criticised changes to the curriculum, school lunches programme and the \u201cdivisive\u201d approach to M\u0101ori in education.<\/p>\n
The Government says its education reforms are intended to improve achievement and provide better value, pointing to curriculum changes designed to boost learning outcomes and a school lunch programme it says feeds the same number of children at lower cost to taxpayers.<\/p>\n
For Newman, students\u2019 appreciation reinforces why he remains committed to the role despite the challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reaction of the kids shows you that you\u2019re doing the right thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah\u2019. She said, \u2018Did it wiggle much?\u2019 I just burst into laughter.\u201d Newman still bursts into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[64246,9063,22773,5972,8788,272937,11556,111,272936,43,139,69,78214,29192,14726,2202,4062,162551,18937,1869],"class_list":["post-555706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-27year","tag-celebration","tag-comeback","tag-day","tag-highlights","tag-hora","tag-losing","tag-new-zealand","tag-newmans","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pat","tag-principal","tag-principals","tag-remarkable","tag-school","tag-stint","tag-threatened","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555706","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=555706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}