This week we acknowledged and farewelled our Associate Principal Julie Saikkonen, after 22 years of service to Westlake Girls High School. Her contribution to our school was celebrated with a morning tea and the tributes flowed from staff who have worked with Julie over many years. She will be missed by her colleagues and we wish her all the very best for her future endeavours.
We thought we would give the last word to Julie herself.
JULIE SAIKKONEN
Westlake Girls has been an integral part of my life for the last 22 years – beginning at the end of the last century! I arrived at Westlake Girls after several years at Rangitoto College where I had been assistant head of the Mathematics Department. My new role was to lead a very experienced and talented team of Mathematics teachers at this high performing school. I was very privileged to work in this harmonious department that was committed to assisting students to achieve their very best in Mathematics.
Over the next few years, we transitioned from the traditional examination system (School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and University Bursaries examinations) to what we now know as NCEA which combined Internal and External Assessment. Making the necessary adjustments in teaching and learning was not without its challenges and we soon realised that change was to become a constant. No longer was there one or two Mathematics courses but Statistics became a subject in its own right as the need to understand and process data emerged as an important skill for many other learning areas.
Four years later I moved into senior leadership and took on various portfolios including IT, timetabling, curriculum and assessment. That year (2003) Westlake Girls built its first fully functional network and all teachers were issued with their own laptops. Little did we know then that some five years later our school would have a wifi network and another five years later we would be trialling BYOD classes in Year 9. As a school we moved quite quickly to the forefront of digital learning with all students now using devices in their classes. How crucial that progress turned out to be not only in 2020 when we had to adapt to online learning as we locked down for several weeks on two occasions but also for our first introduction to online learning which occurred when our Year 12 students were sent home to study during the Swine Flu epidemic in 2009.
My time at Westlake Girls has been full of highlights. Working with and for talented and hard-working staff across all areas of the school has been a privilege. More recently in my role as Associate Principal I have worked closely with the Music Department, the Library and the International team. Travelling with the Music Department of both schools to Europe in 2014 was a once in a lifetime experience. The devotion and commitment of staff and students to building a culture of excellence is something I will always remember. This is just one area of the school where we see great examples of all aspects of the key competencies of the New Zealand curriculum in action.
One of the benefits of being in senior leadership means that one can gain an appreciation of a wider view of education and how many parts come together to shape the learning of our students. I have had the pleasure of working with many departments and have developed strong ties with these departments and a greater understanding of their work. When we started the STEAM programme five years ago we saw the considerable commitment made by the students and teachers to develop a programme that integrated learning across curriculum areas and saw several exciting initiatives become embedded in the curriculum.
Big schools such as Westlake provide many opportunities for students to try out new things in sport, clubs, and develop their sense of responsibility and citizenship. These opportunities are there for all to try – whether as novices or experienced participants and it never ceases to amaze me that so many students juggle a range of activities whilst excelling academically. These students leave Westlake well equipped to take on anything that life presents to them. I am proud to have been part of an organisation that has provided those opportunities.
Over the last four years I have had the opportunity to lead the Pupuke Kāhui Ako. Our nine local schools and 17 ECEs are now part of a learning community that is working together on progressing smooth transitions between the sectors as well as building strong community links, greater awareness and appreciation of our cultural and ethnic diversity and giving our students a greater voice through initiatives such as student inquiry and action groups. Working with teachers across the various sectors has helped me to understand and appreciate the different challenges and rewards our teachers experience in this vocation.
When I arrived at Westlake Girls’ I had 3 teenagers at home. Life has changed now with 5 grandchildren who inspire me as they make sense of this world. Next steps for me will first involve a break from school routines before working out what the next stage will look like. I should tackle the “To Do” list of things that I promised myself I would do “When I Have More Time” and then look for some new challenges. My thanks to everyone I have worked with; staff and students; for your friendship and stimulating conversations as we tried to solve problems both in the classroom and across the school.
Ngā mihi nui.