Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took time out of her busy schedule to be guest speaker at this morning’s Prime Minister’s Breakfast held in the F.W. Gamble Hall.
After Year 9 & 13 students and their parents enjoyed a buffet breakfast, Ms Ardern shared memories of her school days – the struggles, failures and successes.
She recalled that she wasn’t the greatest student and had some real battles trying to pass exams but she found success in other areas of school life such as debating and service, being a student representative on her school’s Board of Trustees. She encouraged students to explore those sorts of avenues and to be good citizens as well as achieving academically or on the sporting field.
She said the demands of being Prime Minister were nothing compared to her time at school, where she had to pull out all the stops to pass Maths but enjoyed Metalwork and Social Studies.
Ms Ardern also told students they had to find some middle ground in their school lives – neither to overburden themselves with impossible expectations nor to impose limits on themselves.
She said being open to opportunities was important: she had never imagined going into politics; in her twenties she was still planning to be a police officer like her father.
She ended by telling the students that she was often asked who were the important mentors or role models in her life, and she always answered that it was her parents. Despite a long career in the police force, her father Ross still saw the good in people and her mother Laurell was the kindest person she knew.
At the conclusion of her speech, Ms Ardern was thanked by Headmaster Patrick Drumm and presented with gifts by Year 9 students Coco-Sabine Meikle and Madeleine Shaw (pictured above), who gave her a MAGS Lion complete with Prefect badge and some socks for her baby daughter Neve.
The breakfasts have become a popular annual event – last year’s guest speakers were entertainer Pio Terei and former Silver Fern Bernice Mene – and are aimed primarily at helping Year 9s (and their parents) settle into the school.
