Principal's Foreword

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Tēnā koutou katoa,

It is a privilege and pleasure to be writing my first foreword for our International Newsletter. I have been humbled by the welcome into this special community, and enjoyed getting to know our international students over the past term. I feel that John McGlashan College is where I am supposed to be. I was raised in the Teviot Valley in Central Otago, but have been away from this region for many years. I have enjoyed the sense of coming home. 

My journey after university in Christchurch took me to the UK for close to a decade, where I worked in independent schools and studied at the University of London. After time as an assistant principal at a boys’ school in Wellington, I returned to the UK for my doctoral studies, which focused on responses to plague in seventeenth-century London. These experiences inform the academic lens and priorities that I bring to John McGlashan College.

After four years on the senior leadership team at Wellington College, in which I built up a research centre, I arrived at John McGlashan in October. My overseas experiences give me an understanding of the needs of international students and what they bring to schools in New Zealand.

A highlight for me was attending a farewell to three of our departing students. It was warming to hear about their experiences at John McGlashan College. References were made to this being their second home and the ways in which their experiences had shaped them into the young people they are and influenced the pathways they were now pursuing.

Our school exists first and foremost for the students; to help them thrive, to realise their full potential academically, socially, and culturally. This is the purpose we bring when we welcome international students into our community, and I am committed to ensuring they realise their personal potential and that they thrive.

Although we provide a wide array of co-curricular opportunities, the classroom remains our core business. We believe that effort begets excellence, which allows students to do their best, whatever their talents or aspirations. The values review that we have worked through over the past term places this at the forefront of what we do.

Equally, character matters, especially in a world of increasing complexity. Our values support young people to act with honesty, curiosity and integrity; to respect themselves and others; and to be men of good character. This was part of John McGlashan’s vision for the college, when he dreamed of founding a boys’ school based on Presbyterian values and a rounded and liberal education. This continues to guide us today.

Equally important is belonging. Every student, local or international, should feel they belong here. We value inclusivity and cultural responsiveness, and we work hard to nurture an environment where differences are respected and celebrated. We also want our international students to feel that John McGlashan is their home, their turangawaewae (their place to stand), in their time here, but also when they finish their journey at the college and go out into the world. That connection transcends time.

We do not take lightly the awesome responsibility of a young person’s education and wellbeing entrusted to us. We see ourselves as partners with parents and whānau (extended family) in that journey. It is our hope that our students attending the college from abroad attain academic success, confidence, values, friendships, and a sense of belonging to our community and its strong whakapapa (heritage). Owen Eastwood talks about whakapapa as the idea that we are all part of an unbroken chain going backwards and forwards in time. At the heart of which is a sacred and shared identity. For us, that is John McGlashan College.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi - with your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.

Dr. Aaron Columbus

Principal | Tumuaki