New High School Deputy Principal

By Frank Neill

Wainuiomata High School has a new Deputy Principal, Lea Vellenoweth.

She comes to Wainuiomata from Hobsonville Point Secondary School in Auckland, where she was the Deputy Principal for 10 years.

“I was really interested in moving to Wainuiomata,” Lea says.

“For me it had to be the right school.

“First of all, the staff are incredible. They really care about the kids here.”

Wainuiomata High School has some “really great” teachers and “they are doing some really innovative things to get the kids engaged in education.

“I think the kids here are really lucky.”

As well as being attracted to working in a school with a great group of teachers, Lea was also attracted to Wainuiomata because the valley has “a really strong wider community.

“There is a sense of a smaller community here and I think that is really important.”

Lea began teaching in Levin and then moved to Marlborough Girls’ College.

She then left teaching to work at Outward Bound, at Anakiwa in the Marlborough Sounds.

At Outward Bound she worked with a number of groups – women prisoners, a brain injury group, and students who were enrolled with Work and Income New Zealand.

“Having students for four weeks [at Outward Bound] was a really powerful model”.

They were also involved in the outdoors – and the outdoors is something Lea loves.

“Being in the outdoors is a great concept for students and can see them experiencing success and

Kumara crop harvested

By Frank Neill

Lea Vellenoweth. Photo: Frank Neill. building resilience,” she says. Following her time at Outward Bound, Lea returned to her home town of Opotiki and was Deputy Principal of Opotiki College. Lea was welcomed to Wainuiomata High School at a Powhiri on 24 April, where a group of international students from Japan were also welcomed.

The Wainuiomata Pataka Kai will dig up its new crop of kumara tomorrow.

The kumara were grown from seeds provided by Rawinia Kingi, the daughter of Teresea Olsen who is the general manager of health and social services at K kiri Marae.

Rawinia travelled to Tolaga Bay to obtain the kumara seeds, which were then planted at the Pataka Kai garden.

Tolaga Bay’s fertile soils and temperate climate are very well suited for growing kumara, and the area has a long history of growing and storing high quality kumara.

Kumara pits are, in fact, the most common archaeological site type in Tolaga Bay.

After the Pataka Kai’s kumara are harvested, they will be distributed to families in need.

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