{"id":85933,"date":"2025-10-18T07:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T07:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/85933\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T07:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T07:37:15","slug":"sunlive-kaimai-school-gains-new-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/85933\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – Kaimai School gains new principal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Jackson recently stepped into bigger shoes \u2013<\/a> or gumboots \u2013 as Kaimai School\u2019s new principal. He\u2019s twelve days into the role, having embarked on his new chapter at the beginning of Term 4.<\/p>\n

Kaimai School has a roll of 68 students from Years 0 to 8, four teachers, and two teacher aides. But small numbers doesn\u2019t do the rural school justice, said Jackson.<\/p>\n

But small, rural <\/a>schools are what Jackson loves \u2013 his last post was principal at Piripiri School in the King Country. Before that, he was a teacher and team leader at Te Kauwhata Primary for four years and before that he taught at Jean Batten School in Mangere, Auckland, for three years.<\/p>\n

Jackson said when you start any new role \u201cthe focus is on making connections and building relationships with staff, students, and families\u201d.<\/p>\n

To do that, he\u2019d been walking around the school more, \u201ctrying to be out and about, not get stuck in the office too much\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Mahlia

\nMahlia Meldrum 7, Principal Matthew Jackson, Lincoln Marshall 8 and Edward (Teddy) Jackson 8. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, Kaimai School <\/a>hosted their annual gala and agriculture day. \u201cThat was an amazing opportunity to get out, meet with some families, and see the students in their element with their animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some students come from families involved with agriculture, but he enjoyed seeing those who aren\u2019t experience agriculture for the first time.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s previous experience as principal of a small, rural school means he\u2019s been able \u201cto get a solid grasp on all the fundamentals of running a school\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking in smaller schools has prepared me well for this new challenge, and there will be challenges with it, but I\u2019m looking forward to tackling those.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause even a small school has the same admin requirements and back office work that a larger school does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Edward

\nEdward (Teddy) Jackson 8, Kaimai School Principal Matthew Jackson and Lincoln Marshall 8. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

He said Kaimai School was comparatively larger than Piripiri, so it was nice to work with more people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gives me opportunities to focus a little bit more on the bigger picture, the strategic plan for the school. My mantra at the moment is approaching everything with a little bit of curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n

His overarching goal was to make the school the best it can be for the students. \u201cProviding learning and educational opportunities in a safe environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But his bigger picture, long-term intentions were to sustain and grow the school, making it the community\u2019s <\/a>\u201crural school of choice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jackson also wanted to celebrate what made Kaimai School different from other, larger schools in the area \u2013 that rural aspect and small, community feeling. \u201cJust making it the place that families and students want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bijou Johnson<\/a> is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Jackson recently stepped into bigger shoes \u2013 or gumboots \u2013 as Kaimai School\u2019s new principal. He\u2019s twelve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-85933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85933","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=85933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}