Mr Lester Dean This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS : EDUCATION - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

   www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3 - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/7/2004   Last Visited: 9/7/2004

   Kew School principal Lester Dean was yesterday named head of the school that will come into being in New Zealand's first merger of four primary schools.
   
   Mr Dean has been appointed principal of New River Primary, the Invercargill school born from the merger of South, Kew, Clifton and Clarendon schools as a result of the city schools review.
   
   It is believed this is the first time four schools have been brought together as one in this way but Mr Dean said he did not find the prospect daunting.
   
   "I'm not sure whether daunting is the right word - I tend to say it's exciting - the challenge is exciting," he said.
   
   "I'm realistic enough to know that there will be issues we'll work around but there's always solutions to problems."
   
   All four schools had staff rich in experience and his role would be to make sure that gelled and the characters and history of the old schools were embraced as they worked towards a progressive new school for the 21st century, he said.
   
   "It's exciting because we have the people resources . . . to bring together and also we have leeway with the funding that's available to establish the school."
   
   A Cook Islander, Mr Dean attended university and did his teacher training in Dunedin. Most of his teaching career has been spent in Southland, apart from a two-year return to Rarotonga where he worked for the Ministry of Education as a reading adviser.
   
   He started teaching at Kew School in May 1985 and was appointed principal in 1990, coinciding with the advent of education's last major shake- up, Tomorrow's Schools.

2. 2. Cornerstone Values Website

   www.cornerstonevalues.org/kew2 - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/18/2001   Last Visited: 2/9/2007

   A fifteen minute video, "In Search of an Alternative," in which the Kew School principal, Lester Dean, discusses the implementation of character education, is available from the New Zealand Foundation For Character Education, PO Box 357, Alexandra 9340.