The end of 2023 was an emotional farewell for Meredith Lindsay. It was the first year she saw a kindergarten class walk through her school's gates and walk out as graduated sixth-form students ready to tackle the world beyond.
For the past six years, she has seen her students mature and develop, discover their special interests in the school's countless extracurricular clubs, and grow into young leaders.
On the first day of school each new year, she dresses in a flowy bumble bee costume, complete with wings and antenna, to welcome every student who enters the gates. The bee symbolises the school's philosophy: Be kind, be brave, be considerate, and be everything that you can be.
On the second day of school, the bee costume is retired for another year (except for a few special occasions), but she keeps a rotating roster of special antennae that she wears on every visit to a junior classroom, a special ritual that her students adore.
"It was very emotional when Year 6 left because we had been through the whole journey together," Mrs Lindsay said in the Hamilton Public playground off Dixon Street on Thursday, February 1, "It's like saying goodbye to your own kids.
"It's extremely rewarding, though, and you're just so grateful every day for the privilege of shaping and developing their skill level."
Mrs Lindsay's teaching philosophy is about doing everything she and her teachers can to prepare their students for the world outside the gates. Tests and test scores are one thing, but learning how to be a good citizen, be kind and forthright, speak up and have a say, is as important as any lesson in the textbooks.
"We have a girl's STEM plan," she said at one point, "And the work that they have done around the school, and what they have created, has been fantastic because the evidence shows that if girls don't develop an interest in science by the end of Year 5, then they are unlikely to take it up in their careers."
Civics is another example. Each year, the fifth-form students travel on a leadership camp where they learn about civic responsibility and develop their case for electing the following year's school captains.
It is where Eddie Drysdale, who started Year 6 this week, worked on his "Eddie, steady and ready" slogan, and his fellow captain Will Kembrey came up with "Will will make a difference".
Both boys were looking forward to starting Year 6 science classes this week and had spent the day meeting their new teachers.
Isobel Monkhouse, Eloise Van Lint and Remy Scarr moved into Year 3, their first year in primary school and beyond the junior kindergarten years. They met their teachers on Thursday and looked forward to joining a school club and taking visual arts lessons.
"You get to do all this special stuff that you didn't get to do in Kindergarten," Isobel said, with her eye on joining the school choir or dance group.
"When I went to school, the principal was someone to be fearful of," Mrs Lindsay said as her wings caught in the breeze, joking that she warned the nine new students who joined the school this year that she would be in bee garb for the first day, "I want the kids to come and talk to me and tell me what they want; to see that they have the power to affect change and influence and make a difference.
"Our school is like a beehive; there are all the bees, and they've all got different jobs to do. And if they all do their jobs and they're all working for the same cause, they make sweet things happen."
