Farewell to Union Directors

Two Union Education Directors leave Adventist education this year. They are
Owen Ellis and John Hammond.

Owen Ellis

Owen Ellis joined Adventist education in 1993 as a science and maths teacher and assistant principal at Auckland Adventist High School. Before that he was a volunteer in the Solomon Islands. He leaves us early next year after 16 years of service to pursue further study. Seven of these years were spent as Director of Education for the New Zealand Pacific Union. Hopefully this move is only temporary!

Owen has a subtle sense of humour that occasionally becomes less subtle when he gently shafts you for one of your idiosyncrasies. One of his best moves in recent times was to advertise dirt cheap accommodation at Queenstown in an email. Then when readers looked for the picture of the place, they found an old caravan perched up on a pole. That sucked me in.

Owen has given all of himself in his current role, managing to burn the candle low at a cost to his personal life, and I suspect wearing himself out for the time being. Owen is a deeply spiritual person, very approachable and personable, and easy to converse with. He cares immensely for his staff, is warm hearted, and goes the second mile to care for staff needs and arrange excellent professional development. His integrity, loyalty and humility, along with his good wisdom and sunny disposition are among the many qualities that make him a pleasure to work with.

Thanks for everything Owen, and best wishes for the study.

John Hammond

John Hammond joined Adventist education in 1969 as inaugural principal of the Central Coast SDA School, and is retiring after 41 years of service, nine as Director of Adventist Schools Australia. He has filled a number of very responsible administrative positions, among them Principal of Fulton College and Longburn Adventist College, Education Director of the South Queensland Conference, and of the former Trans Tasman Union Conference.

We all know that John Hammond is fun loving and a very creative story teller, and practical joker second to none. Hence you always consider the cost before you take him on. Over the years I have found that I rarely score points at his expense, so I cherish even small victories which come rarely. In fact I have sometimes brought myself undone trying to anticipate his moves.

I will miss John in Adventist educational leadership. His numerous fine qualities provide many reasons why I will miss him. Among them are the colour, the interest, the wit and fun, and the storytelling. But along with these are his profound commitment, his warmth in his relationships, deep concern for education issues, love of people, vision for what needs to be done, courage, grit and faith in Adventist teachers and education. You can never mistake John’s direction, personal power, caring nature and spirit.

Thank you John for all that you have done, and for all that you represent.

Barry Hill

Director of Education SPD
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

Classroom Displays

When I visit schools I love to get around and see teachers in action. As they teach they also create a certain learning environment in their room, both in their relationships and by the visible appearance of the room. Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Tweed Valley College and saw numerous excellent visual room displays, both at primary and secondary level. With some difficulty experienced in making my choice, I would like to feature the secondary room of Vaughan Jones, a teacher of business, commerce and geography.

BH: Vaughan what are you trying to do in your room?
VJ: I am trying to bring God in here as much as possible.
BH: How do you go about doing this?
VJ: As you can see I have a motto above the board – We Are God’s Masterpiece. Also Right now I am teaching Year 9 about the theme of money. That is why I have that display that shows various values and Bible texts that have a bearing on money. I want to show how we can handle money well and further God’s purposes. My careers wall and history walls also show different kinds of themes and values.
BH: Well done Vaughan. It is good to see a room where special character is so evident.

Barry Hill
Director of Education SPD
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

Volunteers Contribute to Education

Two weeks back I went down to that part of the SPD grounds where the Church houses supplies that get sent to the Pacific. There I saw a team of volunteers sorting, boxing, carrying and stacking equipment in a 20 foot container bound for our schools in Tonga. It was time to ship the container so it was “all hands on deck”. The photo shows the team celebrating a finished task before the container door got locked.

These volunteers were led by Elwin Ferris, and there were 16 of them involved all told, combining as a team most effectively. Packed into this container were 108 desks and chairs for Mizpeh Adventist School. In addition there were 75 cartons of books for Mizpeh, and about the same amount of books for Beulah College. There were also household goods and rugs for needy people in Tonga.

When you consider that this volunteer team are all retirees who sweat day after day without pay, you have to be impressed with their vision and heart for our Pacific needs. There are a total of about 20 retirees in the squad and this year they have sent off 8 containers like the one you see here.

On this occasion Brad Kemp was present to offer a dedicatory prayer for the container. I have said my own prayers of thanks for this team whose commitment makes a big difference to many Pacific Islanders. Thank you volunteers.

Barry Hill
Director of Education SPD

News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

The Challenge of Ongoing Support

Dear Colleagues,

From time to time Barry and I and a few others receive newsletters from around our Pacific schools. Last week David Rogers, Principal of Aore Adventist Academy, managed to get one off after trying many times to get it finished. The problem wasn’t technical as much as time. He related that he had had five fly-and-builds from around Australia this year and that had kept him fairly busy as one can imagine. What I found interesting was that each of the teams that visited was headed by someone who was one of David’s long time friends. In other words these were the results of long-time connections and relationships.

And here lies the challenge as I see it. What about all the other schools being run by principals who have no connections with folk here in Australia or New Zealand, that have access to the necessary resources to help improve their institutions?


Sadly it has been one of the prices the missions have had to pay as both their country matured in administrative ability and the resultant repatriation of expatriates. No longer is a Division budget going into the local economy, nor are there extra funds being sourced from the homeland, nor are the stories of the real need being told adequately. Those dynamics have all but finished now that very few expatriates serve full time in these developing areas.

It is not all doom and gloom however. There does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel. And it comes from the participants of the fly-and-build teams themselves. There are a number of young participants who have seen the need and are keen to return. These young people I believe hold the key for the future assistance of needy schools. Now I know that some are already committed to very far away places outside of our Division area. Why one would head to the other end of the world when right on our own doorstep we have needs that equal if not surpass those others doesn’t make sense to me. But that is my personal feeling on it and I’ll leave that there. I do believe however, that as a system we should be urging our young students to become involved in service projects in areas that will stretch them, challenge them and have very little ‘exotica’ attached.


I am working with the Volunteer Department to see how we can work together to ensure that those students who have participated in overseas mission service activities in particular, are kept track of and encouraged to become involved in an ongoing relationship with a particular project.

May I encourage each principal to think seriously about the value of a serious service activity. This invitation is not just for the post primary level either. Primary principals need to see the benefit of laying service foundations in the lives of our very young pupils as well. I know that such an activity is a huge undertaking involving many hours, dollars and organisation that none of you needs. But the long term impact that these service activities have both on the giver and receiver can never be fully measured.

“You know, when you help one of these really needy groups, I like it, because you are really helping me” Jesus, according to Weslake’s paraphrase.

God continue to bless you as you take on the new and very busy term.


Ken Weslake,
Associate Director,
Education South Pacific Division, SDA Church



PS Just as an extra how do you like this e-mail just in from David Rogers, Principal of Aore Adventist Academy in regards to the recent tsunami warning

Dear family and friends,

Just a short note to let you know that Aore is still high and dry. We received the Tsunami warnings from a myriad of sources – phone calls and radio announcements. Then, very shortly after the first warning we received news that the Tsunami Monitoring Centre in Hawaii was monitoring the situation and could see no sign of a wave or waves building up.


We were thus prepared to continue on school, until the Ministry of Education broadcast a blanket directive (about 10.00 am) for all schools to be evacuated. I made the announcement for all staff and students to evacuate the classrooms and to meet up on the high ground behind the school by the ‘in ground’ water tank. We were to wait there 30 minutes and then return to complete the day’s program.


The boys obeyed the first bit (evacuate the classrooms), but then just kept going. They just disappeared into the bush to the sound of much merriment. There was absolutely no chance to do a head count. Most had still not returned by 2.30, four hours later. Various individuals came back mid afternoon with reports of the successful hunting (and roasting) of wild fowl – completely oblivious to the fact that a whole half a day of school program (including lunch, incidentally) had been lost.


Now we have a few classes to catch up, some learning to do about boundaries (both spatial and time) and then a few carefully regimented disaster response practices!

News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

Prescott Primary – Southern

Back in August I spent half a day in Prescott Primary – Southern School in Adelaide. I will jot down a few points from my conversation with the Principal Christine Clark. She is shown here with teacher Tamara Rosenberg. The other picture shows some school values on display. Here is part of our conversation.

BH How long have you been here Christine?
CC I came here in 1987 and became principal in 1990. In 1987 there were 28 students and now there are 257 with 13 FTE teachers. Since 1987 there have been 9 building programs here.
BH What are you trying to do here?
CC We are trying to lift the perception of the identity of the school as an Adventist school and show who we are. I think we are seen as a very positive high quality school.
BH How do you cater for students with special needs?
In all classes we try to extend the more capable students and cater for a range of student needs but there are a couple of interesting programs that we are developing.
BH What are these?
CC Our Neurofeedback program runs on the principle that you stimulate the brain to strengthen parts of it to assist in student behaviour management and learning. This is particularly for children who find school challenging, who find it hard to get organised, and who cannot concentrate easily. There is one session a week for each child. We hope to have 3 staff trained to run this program by year end. The program has to be supervised by a psychologist.
We also have a listening program referred to in the literature as Auditory Re-training. It uses music and filters or enhances certain frequencies to stimulate the fluid of the ear which in turn can help stimulate aspects of the brain not normally stimulated.
BH How do you reach out to non-SDA students?
CC Our relationship with God is invaluable as we reach out to the community which is a positive one to work in. Our parents from all faiths feel they are part of the school. We try hard to relate to non SDA people, to be there for them and to care and support them. About 8 per cent of our students are non Christian and this group provides a great outreach.

There were plenty of good features of the school that made my visit memorable. One line that stuck with me was “we are always building, changing, modifying – we are never static”. I agree heartily.
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

North New South Wales Schools in Fiji

Although Tweed Valley College was featured on the front page of the Record in the special education edition back in August 15, I want to comment on Australian school visits to Fiji from my perspective. It so happened that I was in Fiji when Tweed Valley College and Kempsey Adventist School visited, and then I chaired accreditation teams that went into both Suva Adventist College and Navesau Adventist High School straight after the visit. I first spoke to Uma More (Principal) and Samuela Naisua (Deputy Principal) at Suva, and then Samuela Ligabalavu Principal of Navesau.

The 13 students and 4 staff form Kempsey made a big impact on SAC in their week-long stay. They helped renovate a new library area by peeling paint, repairing doors, cleaning tiles and doing other tasks. Samuela felt that “we learned to think and work globally” and he added that “our students learned a good work ethic from the Australians, and our students showed them good Fijian tradition with a full traditional welcome.” Uma thought that “we benefited from sharing cultures, appreciating differences and understanding the challenges of our counterparts, and that the visit gave us credibility in the community.” And he noted that “the Auzzies were not softies. They swung from ropes at the rock pools and tackled hard at football and played in the mud.” The school can look to Kempsey HOD’s for future support and resource sharing, and Kempsey students have felt the warmth, love and rich traditions of their Fijian counterparts.

The August 15 Record gave an account of the Tweed Valley College Visit to Navesau so I will not write too much here. This visit told a very similar story to the Suva story. Samuela was grateful that “they came to see our needs to try to help.” Among his many comments were “they gave us hope, and they gave us ideas. They also provided in service for our teachers, and they painted the school. The students mixed well and found themselves on a steep learning curve.”

It was clear that these visits were enormously beneficial on all fronts. I appreciate these schools for visiting their sister schools, for helping in tangible ways, and for having the vision to return each year and think long-term. A number of other Australian and New Zealand schools are doing a similar thing, and I commend them all. This is true Adventist mission.

Barry Hill
Director of education SPD
News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

Carmel Adventist College

On Wednesday August 19 I joined the Adventist Schools Australia Education Directors who were meeting at Carmel College Primary School for the day. I enjoyed the experience and I was impressed with the appearance, learning and tone of the school. Then the following day we all went to Carmel College Secondary to join other members of the ASA Board of Education for a meeting. While there I caught up with Principal Gavin Williams and Deputy Jose Prnich, shown together here.

Before the Board the guests toured the College and the College “Acro” gymnastic team led by Mark Foster performed their very first performance. This was indeed impressive. Then students Michael Farrell and Kari Harrison gave testimony to the ways in which Carmel had helped them. After those speeches we needed no further persuasion about the impact of both Carmel College and Adventist education.

As with the primary school, the tone of the secondary school also gave me very positive vibes. I learned that close to 70% of students were not Adventists, and I was pleased to see the school was growing steadily and among other moves was remodelling its library and boarding facility and developing its Year 7 learning area.

What really made this school tick? Gavin spoke of various initiatives. The Administration team had improved school systems to attain more professional accountability and efficiency – in his words to “set the bar higher.”There was a strong top-down teacher mentoring program that involved peer mentoring and coaching and regular classroom visitation by Administration. But above this development was the commitment to the mission of the school, shown by things like more frequent school visits to churches, the revolving values display in the foyer, and more importantly the lives of students. This was a school where any prefect not supporting Adventist values lost his/her badge. Undergirding all of Gavin’s account was his obvious commitment to having students convicted of the love of Jesus and the importance of the Adventist worldview.

Barry Hill
Director of education SPD

News about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific.