Page 13 - Southwell School Chronicle December 2018

The Punahou – Southwell staff exchange is a result of the relationship fostered between our Headmaster Jason Speedy and Chai Reddy the Director of WO International at Punahou School. They believed it would be bene cial to both schools and serve as a conduit to enrich a global community of educators.
Set at the edge of Manoa Valley in Honolulu, the Punahou School campus covers 74 acres of tropical gardens.
It has inspirational learning spaces from robotic labs to outstanding athletic and arts facilities. Punahou was founded in 1841, originally as a school for the missionaries serving
in the Paci c region. Today Punahou has a roll of over 3,700 students, from kindergarten through to high school, with 600 staff. Barack Obama is possibly Punahou’s most famous alumni. Sun Yat-Sen, the founding father of the Republic of China, is also an old boy of Punahou School.
Like Southwell, Punahou holds fast
to important traditions and honours the distinctive culture created by the gift of the land from Hawaiian Rulers and by the Protestant missionaries educational vision, underpinning a unique cultural fusion of Hawaiian and western heritage.
SOUTHWELL SCHOOL
PUNAHOU EXCHANGE
PHILLIPPA MILROY YEAR 5 TEACHER APUNAHOU EXCHANGE RECIPIENT
loha! I was the very lucky recipient to be awarded the inaugural International Teacher Exchange with Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii.
This was a wonderful opportunity for me to continue to strive to be a better teacher, so I can instill in children a hunger for learning. With teaching being my passion, it was a dream
to embrace my own professional development and learning through a global exchange.
Punahou’s values of tradition, history and culture resonate strongly with me. These three values help shape who we are today and who we may become in the future. The values espoused by Punahou share a strong correlation with the Southwell values.
I was quickly made very welcome
by the Punahou family. The learning environment was, just as I expected, world class. I enjoyed working closely with Mrs Robyn Vierra and her 5th Grade class. I was also able to observe classes in Hawaiian Studies, Physical Education, Art and Social Studies.
Mrs Lorelei Saito’s Social Studies classes focused on global connections, in particular within the Paci c and Polynesian Triangle, which will now involve a connection with students here at Southwell School.
I would like to sincerely thank the Southwell Foundation for their generosity in paying for my airfares.
I can say with all honesty that this experience was invaluable both professionally and personally.
I look forward to welcoming Mrs Robyn Vierra and Mrs Lorelei Saito from Punahou School to Southwell School next March.
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