Remarkables School, remarkable titles

BY WILL HINE IN QUEENSTOWN

Staff at Remarkables Primary School are set to adopt some remarkable job titles when it opens next year.

Teachers will be known as "expedition leaders", while the school receptionist will become the "director of first impressions".

Principal Debbie Dickson said the staff had been given titles that reflected the school philosophy of teaching and learning.

"Through our curriculum the children are going through learning pathways ... and as learners there are many pathways – the expedition leaders guide them through that learning.

"The director of first impressions is Angela (Murray), in the sense that she will greet most of the visitors into the school and so we wanted to give her that title."

Head teachers Melissa Mitchell-Bain and Grant Hammond are to be "learning community leaders", and will each oversee a group of four classrooms, known as a "learning pod". Job titles for Ms Dickson and deputy principal Sarah Graham are still being worked on.

It had not been decided whether pupils would address their expedition leaders using traditional honorifics or their first names.

"We need to talk about that as a whole staff. At the present time it is conventional names but it's something we will discuss further as we journey forward."

The school has also adopted unconventional names for parts of its campus – teaching spaces are "campfires", meeting places are "watering holes" and small one-on-one areas are "caves".

Ms Dickson said much of the language and many of the school themes were inspired by the Remarkables mountain range, beneath which the school sits.

Thirteen staff met for the first time on Saturday and will return together for the school year on January 20. The first stage of the $17.3 million, 460-pupil school opens to year 1 and 2 pupils on February 4.

- © Fairfax NZ News