Whakarongo School Navigator Centre Opening

More photographs are available here.

Kia ora koutou.  Greetings to you all – particularly the “Whakarongo Kids”.

I especially acknowledge:  Paul Fifield , Chairperson of the Whakarongo School Board of Trustees and your board members; and Jaco Broodryk, Principal of Whakarongo School and your staff.

I am very pleased to be here today, and to have the honour of officially opening the new Navigator Centre here at Whakarongo School.

I say this because I have a couple of personal connections with this school.  One of them you will probably know.  The other one you might be surprised to hear!  The first is that my father, Graeme Grenside, was Principal here in 1979 and 1980.  Our family lived in the school house.  The second is that my after-school job was to clean one of the classrooms every evening!  In the holidays my cleaning duties extended to a more thorough clean, which included scrubbing the windows and polishing the floors!

And now here I am back here in a much different capacity!  As the wife of the Governor-General, a mother to two teenage boys, and three adults, and having just become a grandmother for the first time, life is full of excitement and opportunity.

In our new role, one of the activities that Jerry and I enjoy the most is meeting New Zealand’s young people.  Young people represent the future of our country.  Jerry often describes children as our collective “taonga” - New Zealand’s real treasure.  And so it is a delight to be here to meet you, and to share in the excitement of this new facility – The Navigator Centre.

I have enjoyed looking at the Whakarongo Kid Website.  I was very impressed.  What a fantastic job you all do in putting it together.

I know you have all just come back from school holidays, and I expect that you will be putting together the next episode.  I was wondering if it will feature this exciting event?  I look forward to watching it when it is “broadcast”!

The Navigator Centre looks to be a fantastic collaborative and flexible space, where Years 6, 7 & 8 can prepare for high school.  I understand that the Centre has five TV screens, two workshop learning areas, a learning studio, and a presentation area that 90 “Whakarongo Kids” and the three teachers share as an open space.  It sounds like a really fun place to learn.

Well done to the three teachers, Lisa Waterland, Reece Hawkins, and Fiona Rossiter!

Congratulations also to those who have worked hard to make this facility a reality.  Ensuring that the children have what they need to learn and develop as they prepare for high school is essential.

Finally a few comments to the “Whakarongo Kids”, this is a very special learning place and one that you can all be proud of.  I encourage each of you to do your very best at everything you set your mind to.  If you do that, you will have a world of opportunities, and you never know, you could even become the Governor-General one day!

I will finish with a quote.  Have you heard of Dr Seuss who wrote “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham”?  Here is something he wrote, and is worth remembering:

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

By unveiling this plaque, it gives me great pleasure to declare the Whakarongo School Navigator Centre officially open.