New Head of Innovative Practice and Strategy; John French wins Marily Scanlon Award

Assistant Head of Secondary (Innovative Practice and Strategy), Chami Hutterd

New Head of Innovative Practice and Strategy

There was no time for Chami (Chamindika) Hutterd to ease into her role as the new Assistant Head of Secondary (Innovative Practice and Strategy) at St Andrew’s College, given her responsibilities include responding to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

“A big part of my role is ensuring the College has the systems and processes in place to enable teachers to deliver the teaching and learning programme in the best possible way, whatever the impact of the pandemic. My first job was to set up our Continuous Learning Plan, figure out what it looks like for teachers and students, the practices we needed to put in place, and how we could leverage technology to support it.”

At the start of the year, Chami did considerable research into what was happening in schools overseas, and talked to teachers about how the current systems could be more effective for them. She also pondered the many eventualities that would crop up with the rapidly escalating Omicron outbreak. These included the delivery of both in-person and remote learning, and how these would be impacted when a number of teachers and students were away from school. Prior to joining St Andrew’s, Chami, who is a well-respected, forwardthinking, problem solver with strong technical capabilities, was the establishing leader of Maukatere Technology Centre in North Canterbury, which included setting up and establishing the tikanga of the Centre. Previously, she was High School Technology Co-ordinator at the International School of Kuala Lumpur where she taught for several years. Chami, her husband, and their three children, returned to New Zealand just over two years ago, after working overseas for 12 years.

Chami is enjoying the environment, team culture, and her role at St Andrew’s College, which is about more than just the COVID-19 response, she says. “I’m looking forward to working on lots of other initiatives to progress learning experiences of our students.”

John French wins

Marily Scanlon Award

At the 2021 Prizegiving, Teacher in Charge of Chemistry, John French, was awarded the Marily Scanlon Award for Teaching Excellence, for his enormously positive impact on staff and students at St Andrew’s College.

John joined St Andrew’s College in 2003 as a Science and Chemistry teacher and was promoted to Teacher in Charge of Chemistry in 2008. He retired at the end of 2021, and during his 18 years at the College, had a significant impact on the success and popularly of Chemistry as a subject. There were three senior classes when he started, and by 2021 there were nine, with a high percentage of students going into fields which require the study of Chemistry.

In 2008, he made a formal proposal to set up a Chemistry Scholarship programme – which proved to be enormously successful with 46 students achieving NCEA Scholarships since then, 24 in the last four years. Three of John’s students were selected for the New Zealand Chemistry Olympiad team, putting them in the top four students in the country.

Along with his ‘legendary’ knowledge of Chemistry, John’s students appreciated his humour, and ability to see the positive of any situation.

He also had considerable success as a football coach at St Andrew’s, taking the 1st XI Boys’ team to Canterbury competition wins in 2009 and 2018, with the 2009 win even more special with his son, Stephen (OC 2009), as a member of the team. John’s daughter, Sarah (OC 2012), also attended St Andrew’s. John loved working at St Andrew’s and says he misses the students who were a source of inspiration.

The Marily Scanlon Award for Teacher Excellence is generously supported by previous Board member, Jay Scanlon, in honour of his wife, Marily.

Former Teacher in Charge of Chemistry, John French

John French put the $5000 award towards the costs of travel and entry associated with the Ocean Swim Series – seven long distance open water swims held throughout New Zealand over the summer months.