New Westlake Girls' head eyes improvements | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

The new principal of the country's largest girls' school has had someone else do her homework.

That's a good thing. The Westlake Girls High School board spent much of last year studying where they wanted improvements - and then found a principal they thought was up to the task.

Roz Mexted is that principal. On paper, it might look like the task would be a huge jump. She's come from 10 years of leading 280 girls at a private rural school, Nga Tawa Diocesan in Marton, to being charged with the education of 2200 girls in a city school on the North Shore.

That's where The Aucklander's assessment comes in. One meeting with Ms Mexted shows she's a vibrant personality, passionate about girls' education, capable of inspiring those around her. After winning the role over 17 other candidates, she's spent three months assessing the school's strengths, weakness, challenges and opportunities.

"The board had done significant work and fact-finding for six months before even advertising the vacancy, and so they had a fairly good lead-in before they made an appointment," she explains, from her expansive but fairly stark office. "They have spoken to staff, students and key stakeholders, which is really important."

That meant she could start on November 1 and concentrate on learning about Westlake, while the former principal, Alison Gernhoefer, worked out her 30th year at the school.

Ms Mexted spent that time conducting individual half-hour meetings with 120 of the 175 staff, and then drafted a document that sets out the road ahead - a road that may include a few steep hills on the way.

"When you have had a leader for so long it's like having the same set of glasses for a long time," she says, but is quick to point out that isn't a criticism.

"That would happen with whoever was in a job for that length of time. It's just that if someone new comes along, you get a fresh set of glasses."

Her glasses have spent a bit of time looking at the school just up the road, where she believes a few lessons can be learned, and not just by the students.

"My belief is that we are cruising along on the coat-tails of the boys' school. I think Westlake Boys' is a bit more advanced in terms of where they have Cambridge [exams] and where they have NCEA," she says.

Both pathways are offered at Westlake Girls but there are structural issues about the way they are delivered. She wants to improve that, to ensure girls get the education that suits them, from Year 9 right through high school.

At Nga Tawa, Ms Mexted had the proud record of 100 per cent pass rate in Level 1 and 2 NCEA and 98 per cent in Level 3 in 2010. In her decade at the school the figure was never less than 97 per cent average across the three levels. But it's not in her mindset to talk about simply passing.

"It wasn't just the pass rates, the endorsements were good, too. The school did have a good academic record under the previous system, but what we did was maintain it and improved the quality of the passes.

"That's really important ... you want to know how well you passed. There's a huge difference between 51 and 99 and that's where the merits and excellences come in."

The other change she is mooting is Ms Roz Mexted also one that's practised by Westlake Boys. "Here, we have one assembly a week for each year group. What we may look to do differently is have 'house' assemblies or 'vertical form groups' like the boys.

"I want to talk to the staff about it. Because having a year group assembly is like being at intermediate. All you are doing is being with your cohorts and that's not how communities are formed.

"Most communities and companies have your newbies and then people who are a bit more experienced and then people in a leadership role, and that's what you want them toexperience," she says.

At Westlake Boys, each form class is a mixture of boys from years 9 to 13, so the younger boys have elder boys, including prefects, to look up to.

Ms Mexted says one of the issues faced by her school is, unlike the boys, they don't have a physical space large enough to hold a full school assembly. Assemblies are held in one of three gyms or the school hall for each year level. If the school doesn't favour the vertical form idea, she'd like to see assemblies in a school house system.

Improving school spirit is one of her key tasks. She has made a commitment to attend every assembly whenever she is on site, and has blocked out one morning and one afternoon in her diary a week, so she can circulate around the school.

Making contact

Ms Mexted is big on visibility and approachability. Last week she sent out her first "global email" to parents, which she's aiming to do weekly as she did at Nga Tawa. Within 12 hours of sending it, she had 200 responses, all positive.

"It's nice to develop a dialogue with parents ... it's not costing any trees.I think it's about timely information ... keeping them connected."

She aims to inspire students and staff, and recalls inspirational teachers from her school days in Wellington, where she went to Paremata Primary, then Queen Margaret's for a year before heading to Wellington Girls."I can remember brilliant teachers and, funnily enough, they were the subjects I loved - history, art history, English.

If a teacher is looking for a job in her school, Ms Mexted knows what she's looking for. "Every appointment, even if it's just for a year, is an opportunity to excite a few students. They need to be someone who can make anything sound interesting ... somebody who knows how to ask the right questions so students are given something to explore.

"They encourage students to develop that curiosity which they need in life anyway and they get the opportunity to learn skills like analysis.

"They need to be interested in the student and [expect] high standards of them.

"If students know you are prepared to listen to them and ask 'why didn't you do that work', or 'what are you stuck on, come back and we will work on it', there is a relationship being developed with the student that is almost like a coach and team player."

She admits she didn't really 'find' herself as a teacher until she had her daughter Sophie, now 22. "When you become a parent, you get more interested in education."

After eight years of teaching at Upper Hutt College and then at Queen Margaret's, she took some time out to explore her artistic side, venturing into knitwear design. These days, it's all about education and her life will be Westlake this year. She's renting nearby so she can be close for meetings, events, anything that's needed. Ms Mexted has lived in Takapuna before, in the early 90s, and it's where she met her husband.

At Nga Tawa, a boarding school, she lived on site. This year, it won't be far from it. "That's fine," she says. "The biggest challenge is to lift achievement. We are a decile nine school, we should be doing a lot better. We have some really amazing teachers but we are not doing enough with our underachievers and we need to eliminate that.

"I'm not nervous. I like to have a job to do ... I get a real kick out of helping people develop - whether it's students or staff - and giving staff the freedom to lead."

Asked how long her wishlist would take, she indicates she's in it for at least a generation of students.

"You do want to influence school culture, but once you've seen one generation - over five years - go through and you start seeing the second generation go through, well, you've got to keep fresh."

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