Blair Dravitski

Thanks for the invitation.

Yeah, I've always been a firm believer that skills are hubs in communities.

My strategic plans always focused around three stakeholders, key stakeholders, which are the students, the staff and the community.

It was strengthened during those times of trauma because the parents in particular look to skills for support and for help.

So navigating that is navigating the need and the priority at the time.

For me in particular, our parents in that situation in Christchurch with my

On the back of the earthquakes and then the mosque attack, it was all about making sure that they had their kids safe.

They wanted to make sure they were safe.

Often they weren't 100% sure about the situation.

And so being at the front gate, being torn through car windows to make sure that they were reassured that kids coming to school was a safe place to be.

And that was challenging.

I mean, after the mosque attack, we had armed guards for three weeks.

So separating those out with my staff and my school leaders was huge.

And yeah, it was an interesting time, but a hugely valuable time to ensure that our communities were the first in priority in our schooling.

Yeah, I find that uncertainty creates anxiety.

So being really transparent with our communication to parents, to the staff, to the students.

For myself, during any of these situations, your own school context is hugely important.

Although we're not a huge country, there's lots of different schools with lots of different contexts.

And so when you're applying, I guess, these lessons or what we've learned over the years, it's important to look internally first.

So what's important to you?