Former Rotorua Lakes High School head boy lands teaching job at school

Tamihana Gardiner (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāi Tahu) is returning home to give back to a school that helped him develop.

The former Rotorua Lakes High School head boy will start work as a kaiako (teacher) at the college this week - teaching te reo Māori across all year levels.

"I'm nervous but it's also exciting returning to what I feel is home."

The 24-year-old left recently his teaching role at Rotorua Intermediate - where he was also a student - after more than two years in the job.

"I have been very fortunate to only teach at schools I have gone to...give back to the establishments and communities where I grew and learned.

"It's not a thing everyone can say they have done."

Tamihana Gardiner will start as a kaiako at Rotorua Lakes High School next term. Photo / Laura Smith

Gardiner's "number one focus" was to help spread te reo and te ao Māori throughout the school and wider community.

"It will be a challenge for me to put more than just the kids that are interested in te reo Māori at Lakes High on to that path, trying to spread that throughout the school," he said.

"You don't have to speak it to be included - it's about reinforcing those kinds of values. If you don't speak it, it doesn't make you any less Māori."

Alongside teaching te reo Māori, he would be working within the school's reo-rumaki class.

Gardiner, who speaks te reo Māori fluently, made the call to leave his last job as he felt ready to take on a "harder role" in teaching older students.

"They aren't kids anymore. They are young adults who have their plans in motion.

"It's a point in a student's life where they are going to retain the most, grow and put themselves onto a path of what they want to do."

He said high school was a "big point" in his life where he started growing into himself. He was the head boy in 2015.

"It's that developmental age where you start becoming more independent. I'm returning to where I was most comfortable and starting to grow to be my own person.

"I'm going back home to try and encourage that in the students there now."

His parents also attended the school and he would be working alongside "a few" staff members who taught them and himself.

Gardiner's primary years were spent at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori O Rotoiti.

"Māori was my main language for a long time. They co-exist with each other now," he said.

After high school, he completed a teaching degree at the University of Waikato and then landed a job at Rotorua Intermediate.

Rotorua Lakes High School principal Jon Ward said it was great to welcome back Gardiner, who was a "well-respected" student.

"I do not doubt as a teacher that he'll be just as highly regarded, if not more so," he said.

"We are really happy to have him come back - and grow te ao Māori in the school."

He praised Gardiner's enthusiasm and his ability to relate to students and whānau.

"We are expecting great things, and I am sure he'll deliver."