Maureen Phillips is leaving the job she loves at Saint Paul’s Catholic School, yet 26 years ago when she was part of its establishment board, she never imagined she might one day be principal.
It was after the Richmond school opened that she began training as a teacher, following in the footsteps of her eldest daughter and beginning a new career that ultimately led her back to Saint Paul’s.
Now, after nine years leading the school, retirement beckons and all that it has to offer, but she admits it has been a heart-wrenching decision to leave a role she has loved.
“It’s been such a privilege. I’ve been here in what I’d say is a really charmed time in the life of the school, with an incredible team behind me.”
The other reason is because the school has been open to what she refers to as the pedagogy, or the way of learning which has been driven by her passion to shape young people’s future by integrating real-life experiences into the classroom.
“We don’t always get those chances in life to do something we are passionate about. I’ve never woken up thinking I don’t want to go to school.”
Back in 1999, Maureen and her husband Kent were running an aluminium joinery business, with her role focused on accounts and clients. It followed a career in banking, and she says those roles have helped her immensely as a principal. At the time, she was chairing the establishment board of Saint Paul’s and was also on the establishment board for Garin College, prompted by her involvement with the parish.
Following her teacher training, she worked at St Joseph’s School in Nelson for 10 years and ran workshops for other schools about integrating the Catholic faith into the curriculum. She also spent five years as religious education advisor for the Archdiocese of Wellington, so though a late starter in an education career, her passion was fast tracking it.
Then the parish priest phoned to tell her she should apply for the principal’s job at Saint Paul’s, and even though she applied, she never thought it was a realistic possibility for her. But she stepped up into the principal’s shoes with a school roll of 215 pupils. As she leaves, the roll has increased to 370, with just over 30 staff. It means she has overseen facilities grow at the school to accommodate the increasing roll.
“We’ve had builders on site a lot of the time I’ve been here! And I’ve enjoyed being part of the development of the school. Part of the decision to leave now is I know I set out to achieve certain goals and I feel content with how I’m leaving the school.
“You look around and see all those little people and think, yeah, you got there. You know they love their school.”
Her highlight with the school has to be its jubilee last year, she says, because of her involvement with the school since its journey began in 1999.
The biggest challenge was, without a doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic. She remembers the stress on parents’ faces as the country went into lockdown and everyone wondering what the future held. On the plus side, she helped deliver devices to homes so pupils could continue learning through lockdown – handing them over the gate to some families who lived far from school.
“It made me aware how far some of our families travel to school. It gave me a sense of our community.”
As the school’s new principal, Rob Boomer from Tasman School takes over, Maureen has already flown to Berlin where she is meeting her sister and beginning a three-month holiday in Europe. A week of her holiday will be spent with a friend walking part of the Frances route of the Camino trail.
