James Dawson

Director of Sport, Senior School Team Leader

James’s career has taken a whirlwind path since being interviewed by TeachNZ five years ago.

“Opportunities really opened up for me when I moved to Clendon Park School to be the Director of Sport. I became Convenor of the Manurewa Primary Schools Sports Association for two years, overseeing sporting events involving 21 schools in the area.”

In addition to being the Director of Sport, James was recently appointed to be Senior School Team Leader, a job he’s thoroughly enjoying.  If this isn’t enough work, he also teaches a year 5 to 6 Māori bilingual class, takes the school choir, is in charge of ESOL (kids whose primary language is not English) and oversees music in the school.”

When we called to update James’s story he was fully engrossed in another of his exciting roles, the Clendon Developing Leaders programme which identifies leaders of the future from years 5 and 6 and works with them one afternoon a week. This particular afternoon the future leaders were carrying out activities to improve their communication skills which included recognising different communication styles.

“With so many different facets to my work, I enjoy waking up each day and going to work. It’s great to be able to pursue things with the kids that I am passionate about like sport and music.”

Sometimes there is not enough time in the day to get through such varied work, although James says he has learned through experience to keep a work/life balance.  “It’s too easy to overwork yourself in teaching and to become stressed about things not being perfect or exactly as you want them to be,” James believes. 

“The key to longevity in teaching is balancing your work with outside interests. I still play cricket because I’m madly passionate about it.  I believe that if you have a work/life balance then you’re bound to be happy which makes you a better teacher as a result.”