About Us

The Hills Cluster Principals were treated a little like rock stars as we took our story to ULead19 in Banff, Canada. The Ulead conference is for principals and administrators from around the world and had a number of influential and impressive speakers. We were invited to speak for an hour on how the Otago Community Trust innovation grant has had an impact on our schools and what it has meant for our leadership.

Throughout the conference, we were surprised at how many educationalists wanted to connect with us and discuss what was going on in New Zealand. You soon realise how lucky we are to be in a largely autonomous education system where schools are not only allowed to be innovative but also encouraged to be. Some of the connections we made were high powered professionals including one of the Canadian Ministers of Education, the Human Rights Commissioner for Canada and Prof Andy Hargreaves. Prof Hargreaves is one of the foremost experts on education and collaboration and his work is well regarded around the world. The hour-long meal and conversation with Professor Hargreaves was no doubt the highlight formany of us as his work on collaborative professionalism is one of the founding tenets of what the Hills Cluster is founded upon.

Our presentation was slotted against two of the three keynote speakers including Prof Hargreaves and yet we had nearly 100 people attend to hear our Otago story. Our presentation encouraged delegates to be innovative through the use of Project Based Learning and STEM, work collaboratively, embrace the unintended consequences and at times be disobedient leaders when the children will benefit. The conference was also a fantastic opportunity for the Hills Cluster Principals to spend time together discussing our project, looking at ways to refine it based upon new information and ideas and also to make plans for the future.