Recruiter helps send Kane on the right track
Kapiti College principal Tony Kane has taught in various schools in Christchurch, Northland and Hawke’s Bay, His longest teaching stint before Kapiti was at Karamu High School in Hastings, a school which has gone from ‘‘being the school that you attended only if you lived nearby to being a school that parents try to get their children into’’. Kapiti College has been through that same process during his 10 years as principal, he said.
DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT WEEKEND?
Spending it with family, and my two granddaughters in particular. However, they live in the UK so we have to content ourselves with Skype calls and an annual trip to see them all. Apart from that, the perfect weekend is spent on the road bike in brilliant Kapiti sunshine, with a northerly at the back to blow us home!
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
Spare time can be a bit of a rarity for principals as there is always something on. Besides biking, I am a movie fan and spend a bit of time playing guitar badly. For part of each holidays, I join the maintenance crew and we build
WHAT DREWYOU TO WORKING AT SCHOOLS?
I got into education by the accident of a teaching recruiter coming to my school at the same time my father was trying to get me to leave school to work on the railways with him. In the good old days, you could get funding to go to university and that prompted my father to change his mind. I didn’t intend to really go teaching at the end of my time apart from a couple of years to pay off the requirements of the teaching studentship, but I found that I loved it and never left.
WHAT HAS BEEN A HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR TEACHING CAREER?
Being at Kapiti has been the highlight, working with a dedicated staff on building an achievement culture in place of the old beach one. Lately, Multibuild were able to start on the Kapiti Performing Arts Centre.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT KAPITI?
I suspect each older generation looks at the one below it and sees the faults of the young. As teachers, we constantly see the potential. The coast has young people who are overwhelmingly positive and involved in their schools and community. We have excellent schools in Kapiti.