New assistant principal breaks the mould

18/11/2008

Otago Boys’ High School has broken with 145 years of tradition and appointed a woman as assistant principal for the first time..

Lindy Marr, the head of learning support at Rongotai College, in Wellington, will take the reins next year.

Lindy Marr

It will be the first time a woman has held one of the most senior administrative positions — rector, deputy principal or assistant principal — at one of New Zealand’s oldest high schools.

School rector Clive Rennie said Mrs Marr, who has a considerable background in boys’ education, had been selected for the range of skills, including in literacy work, she would bring to the school.

‘‘It’s just going to be so exciting,’’ Mrs Marr said about her new job, which she will take up at the start of next year.

She noted that Rongotai College was a boys’ school and said she was looking forward to continuing her involvement with boys’ education. She was born in Dunedin and attended Bayfield High School but has lived away from the city for 30 years.

‘‘Every time I come back to Dunedin, it’s like putting on your old overcoat. It’s so comfortable. I love it.’’

She gained qualifications from the then Dunedin Teachers College as well from the University of Otago, including a master of education degree in professional development from the latter. Professional development involved ‘‘empowering teachers to be even better teachers’’, she said.

Mrs Marr’s husband Brian will take up the role of manager of the Otago Golf Club at Balmacewen in the next few weeks, and her sister, Ngila Dickson, is a Dunedin-born film costume designer who won, with Richard Taylor, an Academy Award for costume design for The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings in 2001, and this year won an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award.