FAREWELL TO TEACHING
"I can walk downtown now and see 'kids' who are forty and recognise them instantly."
Lesley Tippett
Adeputy principal who is retiring after 39 years of teaching says the biggest change in her time has been the arrival and influence of technology.
Lesley Tippett is about to start her final term at Spotswood Primary School, where she has spent the majority of her career.
She said children are different now compared to how they were when she started teaching.
‘‘It’s a society change of kids who are probably not as respectful, kids who are brought up in a different world. I don’t think technology helps a lot of them,’’ she said.
‘‘There are parents who are obsessed with their phones so they don’t speak to the kids. Parents are on Facebook, kids are on Playstation and things like that.’’
She added: ‘‘There are parents who don’t talk to their newborn baby because they are busy on their Facebook and that’s really scary...Those beginning years are critical.’’
Tippett arrived at Spotswood Primary in 1982 teaching standard one and two.
Seven years later she was appointed the senior teacher of junior classes, and has been teaching new entrants and juniors ever since.
She has been on the leadership team since her arrival, and has been teaching special needs students since last October.
She said teaching was a ‘‘life job’’.
‘‘It goes home with you. It’s not an eight-to-five job where you just come to work and do it. It totally consumes you.
‘‘It’s not just about teaching; it’s about caring as well and establishing relationships.’’
She said she had stayed at Spotswood Primary so long because she loved it, and it was a place her whole family belonged to.
‘‘It just feels like home...You get a real loving feeling for the place.
‘‘My children went to this school and I was a teacher here at that time.
‘‘It’s not about me, it’s about us as a team here working together for the good of every child in our school, and I just hope I’ve done my bit to make a difference.’’
She had stayed in teaching for so long because she loved it.
‘‘When I was three I knew I was going to be a teacher. I remember having my teddies lined up.’’
She said she had been fortunate to work with some excellent principals over the years.
‘‘They impact on your own practice as well. The better the people are you work with, everybody’s practice goes up.’’
She and her husband are now planning to travel and visit their grandkids more, but she said you never forget the kids.
‘‘I can walk downtown now and see ‘kids’ who are forty and recognise them instantly. You just remember their names and they still look the same to me.’’
She said she had recently been going down the escalator at Centre City and seen a group of about 25-year-olds.
‘‘One boy said ‘hello Mrs Tippett’ and I said ‘hello Dion’, and he immediately turned and said, ‘see I told you she’d know us’.’’
She estimated she had taught about 25 pupils a year.
‘‘You do have a bigger influence than you think.’’
Tippett, who has also taught in London, Porirua East, Cannons Creek, and Stratford, will retire on the 15th of December at the end of term four.
‘‘I’m just starting on the repeat, of the kids of the kids now.’’