Gary Yeatman's office is undergoing an upgrade. It's been stripped and repainted, the desk's moved closer to the windows to keep a watchful eye on who's coming and going, but what catches your attention is the intense artwork adorning one of the walls.
It stretches from the ceiling to the floor and features the school's logo as a multi-coloured two-metre tall mural.
It was made by more than 100 of the school's students as part of an art project aimed at creating a sense of community and identity at Awatapu College.
Each student was given the specifics of a small tile to paint separately without knowing what the final outcome would be.
When it was pieced together showed the school's logo.
It was first put up on a wall outside of one of the school's building, but a replica now provides the backdrop to Yeatman's office.
The collaborative creation speaks volumes to what the school is all about.
Awatapu is a multicultural mashup, with students hailing from more than 30 different countries and cultures.
It's home to a well-established special needs unit and a trades academy, Gateway programmes and STAR courses offering options for students who struggle with traditional classroom conventions or aren't necessarily interested in doing tertiary study.
It ticks off the rest of the educational check boxes, including offering a range of the "mainstream" subjects - Science, Maths and English - and it caters for more than 60 sports teams involved in interschool competitions, runs school shows, arts programmes and hosts a huge range of clubs, committees and extra-curricular activities for students.
In some ways, Awatapu offers an insight into things other schools may not.
"One of the greatest things about a school like ours is we do have all elements of society," Yeatman says.
"No students are shielded from reality about what a community does look like and, I would like to think, it then lends to these kids becoming more well-rounded people.
"Because we do have a large special needs unit, for example, when the students are out, whether it be in assembly or at the school ball, it's just normal for them and for the mainstream students it shows them that's just what the community is about.
"So, then when they're are out in society later in life, they're not going to see it any differently.
"We're just like real New Zealand, there's representation across all different backgrounds, all different deciles and the students then become themselves better individuals."
Yeatman's background goes back to Canterbury.
Educated at Aranui High School, he went on to do a Bachelor of Arts at Canterbury University in 1998, a Diploma of Teaching at Christchurch College of Education and later a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Administration and Leadership.
He has more than 15 years' experience teaching at schools throughout New Zealand, is a rugby coach from way back and has been on parents' association committees, sector leaderships groups, written exam exemplars and worked with the Ministry of Education and NZQA on projects.
He was involved in the first National Aspiring Principals programme – which works to equip educational leaders on how to be savvy on school issues such as finance, property and staffing – and he's handy with a whistle refereeing touch rugby.
Yeatman took charge of Awatapu at the start of last year, taking over from highly respected former principal Tina Sims, who spent a decade at the helm but left to join the Ministry of Education.
Before that Yeatman clocked four years as associate principal at Feilding High School, two years as the deputy principal at William Colenso College in Napier, three years as head of social science at Wainuiomata High School and four years at the head of social science in Flaxmere College in Hastings.
"One of the attractions for all the schools I've been at is the co-ed, mid-decile nature representing Kiwis – it's a true picture of society in New Zealand," Yeatman says.
"We have within our school all the extremes, but no matter what background students come from, we're getting some really good results."
Results. Progress. Success. However he words it, it's all a stickler for Yeatman.
Whether it be teams achieving while wearing the school's black and gold sports strip, claiming honours for on-stage performances or strong students' book smarts, he wants his school to stand tall.
Yeatman has his sights set on boosting academic achievement, lifting pass rates and increasing the number of students leaving school with merit and excellence endorsed NCEA results.
And, it seems the school is starting to trend that way, with 89 per cent of Year 11 students passing NCEA level 1 last year, up from 74 per cent in 2012.
At level 2, 95 per cent of pupils passed last year, up from 71 per cent in 2012 and at level 3, 77 per cent of pupils passed last year, up from 64 per cent the year before.
Yeatman is quick to shrug off the suggestion the good grades were due to radical changes caused by him taking up the reins.
"It's not so much about bringing the hammer in, it's twisting the screws," he says.
"You don't need to make massive changes to have success, sometimes change is about maintaining something small that's already happened and works well."
There were systems set up before Yeatman took over that he's nurtured, including introducing an "academic dean" charged with tracking senior students throughout the year to make sure they're progressing along their preferred learning pathways.
"The conflict you'll always get is there's always a curriculum that needs to be delivered and there are still standards that parents and the wider community expect the students to achieve.
"That's been one of those dilemmas we face day to day – teaching students the things we believe they're going to need or want for life- long learning versus what's prescribed and what will be assessed."
Part of student success relates to the school's tone, getting the behaviour right and relationship building. "The nature of our school, is we have a relaxed but firm atmosphere," he says.
"There's certain lines in the sand that students know what will happen if they cross ... and although students won't admit it, they like to know where they stand and that there's no surprises around discipline."
It's the issues that sit outside the school gate, cyber bullying and social media scandals, that are harder to deal with.
The impact on students in those situations, and how it flows on to school, is challenging, but it boils down to the relationship between staff, students and school leaders.
"It's having the passionate staff that want to go the extra mile," Yeatman says. "And we have that here."
Staff are involved outside the classroom, not only with extracurricular activities, but in building bonds with students.
"They take part because they want to, not because they have to – and like any relationship there'll be conflict, people fall in, people fall out, but we continue to pick ourselves back up and keep that focus on students. It works because the teachers put in the time and they're the passionate people behind the scenes.
"We had a student who came to us from another school, and we were talking to the parents and the pupil about how they were enjoying the change and what was the big difference ... their response was: 'The teachers here give a s...' and I took heart from that, because that's what we're trying to do."
With a roll of 700 pupils plus 120 staff relying on him, Yeatman knew becoming a principal was never going to be an easy task.
The challenges have included managing the the school's different interest groups – staff, parents, the Education Ministry, Child, Youth and Family, police, other social services – while juggling financing, resourcing and the ability to provide programmes with a finite staffing formula.
"It's trying to work with all those different people to try and get the best outcome for students and sometimes trying to get them all on the same page."
He credits his wife, Andrea, and his children Alex, 6, and Piper, 4, for keeping him sane at home – even if the time he spends with them was stretched thin with his new position – and his school family at Awatapu who have provided support and honest feedback while Yeatman found his feet.
There are goals and projects on the horizon, but one short term focus was finishing off the facelift to his office and perhaps looking at the rest of the school.
"If the place is inviting, clean and tidy, it looks new and feels fresh, it will lift everyone."
A concept which goes beyond just a colourful artwork on the wall.
Source: Manawatū Standard
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