Queens Birthday Honour

Published NZ Herald 1 June 2020

Sandra Jenkins, MNZM, has been recognised for her services to education in New Zealand and abroad. Photo / supplied

Sandra Jenkins, Coopers Beach

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education

It's not quite true to say that Sandra Jenkins has fully retired after more than 45 years of work in education.

She is no longer a teacher or principal, but continues to work on an international project in learning space design, albeit while supposedly putting her feet up with Philip, her husband of 47 years, in Coopers Beach.

The honour was exciting and humbling, she said.

"Being recognised by your peers is a most incredible thing. It's quite emotional really. It's something that happens to other people."

Jenkins entered teacher training at Ardmore at the age of 16, and at 19 was teaching.

Her first school was in Napier, where the father of MP Anne Tolley, with whom she went to school at Colenso College, was the headmaster, but it was a school "out the back of Waikaremoana" that provided some of her most vivid memories.

She met her future husband in Napier and the couple duly moved north where she taught at several schools in South Auckland. In her fourth year she was seconded to the Education Department, which exposed her to people who would become leaders in education, contributing to her developing skill-set, particularly in terms of teaching at-risk children, and the philosophy that would continue to evolve over her career.

Her move north began at Kohukohu, where she was the principal for almost a decade, followed by a similar stint at Mangonui, "both lovely schools".

With her four children having flown the coop, she returned to Auckland, ending her career at Freemans Bay, where she was told that a new hall was needed but set about building an entirely new $19 million school.

She has presented at various international conferences and discussions around the world, including in Australia, China, Denmark, India and the United Kingdom, between 2012 and 2019.

She was a Fellow of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association, chaired the Far North Principals' Association from 1993 to 2005, had been a representative or an appointed member of the New Zealand Educational Institute, the Principal Council, Rural Teaching Principal Network, APPA and the Auckland City Centre Network. She was a volunteer NZEI industrial advocate for schools in the Far North from 1993 to 2005, and became an Associate of NZEI in 2005. She was a foundation member of the Global School Alliance from 2012 to 2020.

She received the School Library Association of New Zealand's Principal's Award in 2019 and received a Waitemata Good Citizens' award in 2019 and was a Kiwi Bank Auckland Local Hero earlier this year.