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A connection with community and a passion to help children to improve their lives through education have been key motivations for a long-serving Palmerston North principal who is stepping down.
Te Kura o Takaro principal Helena Baker is finishing this week after 22 years in the job. She has a new role as a Māori strategic advisor with the Ministry of Education in Palmerston North.
The school is in a lower socio-economic area of the city and Baker, 59, has a refreshing and positive approach to children.
“The poverty level I’ve watched over these 22 years, it’s awful in the way that it plays out.”
She didn’t shy away from the fact many people in the area have come from tough upbringings, but said the way to change things was to get excited about learning.
“If you come to school each day and raise your eyes up above what is around you to a space where you can find some joy in learning, knowledge is joyful. It’s the most wonderful thing you can possibly get.”
Baker said what happened in children’s heads and hearts as a result of learning made them feel good.
“There will always be tamariki from Tarako. I can never change the fact I came from a family of 11 that wasn’t wealthy, but what happened was with our environment and learning, that connects you into moving.”
She said whānau and tamariki could succeed in spite of their background, so the school had to make things exciting, relevant and challenging.
“What gets me through those heavy times is people care and we often think they don’t because they’re poor. They’re still loving homes.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Te Kura o Takaro principal Helena Baker is standing down after 22 years in the role.
“I can’t tell you how many struggling whānau I’ve met who are the most loving, caring, considerate people I have ever met in my life.”
That support of each other was something that kept her going. She’s seen numerous examples of people helping others, such as families with very little who have dropped off food to school for others in need.
“I’ve stayed in this community because it’s a community of people who are good to each other and I feel part of it because it’s good to be part of those people.”
Positive behaviour was just as important as learning things such as maths at the school. Showing kindness needed “to become your superpower”.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Principal Helena Baker, centre, works with Te Kura o Takaro pupils Rahera Taurerewa, left, Iye’ree Webb, Casey Tunnelle and Ngaroariki Zainey.
Baker has high expectations at school, but it was always “pervaded with aroha and kindness”.
Of Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai and Ngāti Raukawa descent, Baker was the first person in her family to enter tertiary education when she went to teachers’ college aged 17.
She taught at North Street School in Feilding and rural Colyton School, returned to North Street where she helped start a bilingual unit, had a five-year stint in a Massey University education advisory role, then became Takaro principal.
Her time there had been “life fulfilling”, so leaving had been a hard decision.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Principal Helena Baker and the school’s sports academy group.
“The children here are just a joy. They’re just the nicest kids that you could ever meet and if this is what is coming out for the world, for our country, it’s in a good place. The future is in a good place with these tamariki.”
In the past 10 years the school has had an increase in migrant and refugee children, and Baker said she loved what it added to the culture of the school.
For Baker’s farewell there had been a community afternoon tea on Wednesday and an assembly on Thursday.
Josie Woon will be acting principal while the school appoints a new principal.
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