Mr. Stradwick - The Rundown.

Our bloggers meeting Mr. Stradwick. From the right - Nicholas Shillito, Ella Vuetilovoni, Elka Aitchison, and
Harriet Neraat.

 Four of us met Mr Stradwick one interval, with our devices on hand to record the best interview yet. We learned a lot about him during our time clustered around his round table (his choice). He went to MAGS in 1993, and as he is a teacher, he has been waiting for an opportunity to work here. He lives locally with his cat (he is a cat person all the way - much easier than dogs), three children, aged 5, 7, and 9, and his wife, who was a lawyer, but now works at St Peter's. He describes his kids as "hilarious and messy." He also provided us with funny anecdotes of his nighttime adventures dodging razor sharp lego blocks.

Before Mr Stradwick came to MAGS, he worked hard and achieved lots - Through hardship to glory (we now know that is his favorite line of the school song). He taught art history, history, geography, social studies, economics, and English, with his favorite being art history. He is a visual learner. When he learnt art history at MAGS, all the students were asked to take turns teaching, and he was voted better than the teacher. This made him seriously consider teaching as a career. He later worked for five years in Delhi, India, and lived there with his family. Last year, he helped launch a NZ school from scratch, and became its Deputy Principal. All of the above are massive achievements and we are honored to have him here at MAGS again.

He loves being a leader, because he is a people person. That is evident in his funny, easy-going nature. He is great to chat to, and sometimes we veered off topic as we were having such a great conversation. At MAGS he deals with student well-being, and enjoys working with the guidance team and the deans.

We asked him how the school has changed, and he felt strongly about the culture of the school being different. He feels it is a lot safer, and we should feel secure within the school. There is a concentration on genuine learning, with a student-led hive of excitement about achieving. The arts is also more significant, and MAGS students care more about each other. When he came here, all anyone cared about was whether they were in the tuck shop line or not. He comments on how now, everyone is running laps to raise money for cancer - over $90,00 this year!

We asked him what excites him most about the future, and he confidently mentioned young people and their passions - he believes we should be investing in them, as they are our future. He isn’t necessarily excited by technology, but by what people will be able to do with it. He is looking forward to working with the year 11s and guiding them through their first year of NCEA. He is also excited to work with his new team - deans and guidance.

We then moved on to some more personal questions to finish on a light note. His go-to food is curry, he likes foreign films and stories of perseverance, and he reads Russian short stories and hardship novels. He is a sports fan, and enjoys watching the black caps, although he admits he isn’t entirely loyal to them. He plays social soccer as well.

We were intrigued to ask our next question : “What is something that someone wouldn’t expect about you?” He replied, saying that he can sing and play the bass guitar!

We finished off by asking for some general advice, and he stated that we should have a good range of friends.

We enjoyed interviewing Mr Stradwick and learning more about him. We kindly welcome him to MAGS, and hope he loves being back here.

A expanded interview with Mr. Stradwick will become available late today.