Toby Funnell was up the line fishing recently but reeled his line in to get to school before the bell as the incoming principal of Pirinoa School.
When he got wind of the principal vacancy he said he knew the fit felt right. “I was pretty energised when I heard the position was being advertised and realised, I had a decent chance at it,” Funnell said.
He was formally welcomed into the role on 8 December last year.
“The mihi whakatau last year was excellent and reconfirmed for me what a great team there is at the school to join and lead.” Funnell is coming to Pirinoa from over the hill as team leader for Technology and Art at Fergusson Intermediate in Upper Hutt. He has previously held short principal and deputy school principal roles. When deputy principal in the Hutt his work had a large focus on child behaviour management.He said he has a particular passion for pastoral care work for the children that need a little more guidance. “I am really interested in supporting and developing what some may call the ‘underdog’, the ones who need more of a hand.
“The children that play up often just need more help for their learning needs and people to understand them better.”
As principal he plans to bring more hands-on learning through his technology and arts knowledge. He aims to introduce robotics and coding learning to develop the digital curriculum.
“This learning would provide an opportunity for students to design and construct electric vehicles and race them through the nationwide EVolocity competition.”
The new principal is passionate about fishing and expects there to be many trips to the coast. Funnell said social media with its “endless reward-style games and attractions” mean children can have pent up energy and this was another reason he was keen on the school which has a large outdoors focus.
The family is moving into the Pirinoa School House late January and school staff and Board of Trustee meetings are being held shortly afterwards.
Funnell’s wife Chris is a teacher at Martinborough School. They have three children Jackson (15) and Milla (13), both attend Kuranui College and the youngest, Flynn (11) attends Martinborough School.
