When Sue Heath applied for a maternity cover position as acting principal of Hawea Flat School, she never expected she’d still be there 21 years later - as much a part of the fabric of the school as the bike park and the vegetable garden.

She probably also didn’t imagine she would one day stand before a crowd in central Wanaka, and be roundly applauded as she gave an impassioned speech in support of the nationwide teachers’ strike.

Her words clearly struck a chord with the assembled community that day (May 15): “Our children are our future and their education is too important not to show that we have solidarity, that we are serious and that these issues facing the education sector have to be addressed now.”

Sue first discovered a love of teaching when she was living in the Philippines with her husband and young family in the early 1980s. For over two years, Sue taught her sons (then eight and five-years-old) at home using materials from the New Zealand Correspondence School.

“I found it fascinating to watch how learning unfolds for children,” she said. “Especially for Jeremy, as I had the chance to watch him progress from the very beginning of his schooling.”

On the family’s return to New Zealand, Sue applied for teachers college, initially in Christchurch but she transferred her place to Dunedin when the family moved there in 1984.

In those days, teachers were guaranteed a job after graduation, and Sue found hers at Kaikorai Primary School in Dunedin. This was an inner city school with ten classrooms, which was to form a stark contrast to Hawea Flat.

When Sue arrived at Hawea Flat School in the last term of 1998, the school consisted of two classes: a senior room and a junior room. Sue taught one of these classes alongside her duties as principal. She continued as a teaching principal until around 2007, when the school roll had grown to the point that the school qualified to have a dedicated, non-teaching principal.

Sue Heath at Cardrona with husband Harold and Will, one of her eight grandchildren.

Today the Hawea Flat School roll stands at 228. And although Sue has clearly been instrumental in various building projects to accommodate the growing school, she would rather talk about the support she’s given to the children’s projects.

“I always like to encourage the things that the children, staff and the community hold dear,” she said. “Projects like the Grans' Garden, Enviroschools, and more recently Garden to Table, which sees the children growing food and then preparing and eating it.”

Sue said teachers use the Kath Murdoch model of inquiry in their teaching, which empowers children to take action as a result of their learning. One example of this is the safety sign built by Hawea Flat kids beside the wave on Camphill Road. This came out of an inquiry into how they could take action to make their community safer.

During her career, Sue has seen many changes in the education sector. She remembers teaching when Tomorrow’s Schools came in, when a lot of time was spent writing policies and procedures. Then the new New Zealand curriculum came out in 2006 and things took a turn for the better.

“Under the old curriculum, there were hundreds of achievement objectives that were outcome based. I remember literally standing on a tennis court counting how many children could throw a tennis ball because that was one of the objectives that we had to measure. The new curriculum was brilliant because it had a clear vision of young people as confident, creative, connected, life-long learners, and gave schools the scope to respond to the interests and needs of children and their community.”

Te Kura O Take Kārara principal Jodie Howard, who was deputy principal at Hawea Flat School for 13 years up until the end of 2018, described Sue as a “true visionary”.

“Sue is always 100 per cent behind whatever the kids want to do,” she said. “She always fights for their causes at Board and PTA meetings to make sure the kids’ dreams came to fruition.”

One example of this was when the kids wanted a bike park at school, Jodie said. “Sue just got on and made it happen - even to the extent of taking some kids in to the council to ask for consent to create the bike park.”

Sue will be retiring from her position as principal at the end of this year. Her plans for the future are still unfolding but include biking some trails within New Zealand and training her new puppy to be better behaved.

PHOTOS: Supplied