Headmaster Collegiate Connect Address Friday December 5, 2025 – Headmaster's Garden, WCS.  

Members of the Board, Colleagues, Old Boys and Girls, parents, and friends of our Great School. 

Thank you for being here.  

When the Brown’s arrived in 2018, we knew we were stepping into a story much bigger than ourselves, one that has been carried forward by generations of students, staff, and families.  I said then and remains unchanged that I am a custodian, and my purpose as an educational leader was simple developing knowledge and character to be of great influence, so that you would go out and have a positive impact on the world.  

I am profoundly grateful for what we have been able to do together. 

First and foremost, I want to express my thanks to the Boards and trustees of Whanganui Collegiate School. I did a count, over 8 years.  50+ trustees and 7 board chairs, all with support.  To Jason, and also to Simone, thank you.  You entrusted Alycia and myself, with the leadership of this remarkable school, and you supported us through times of opportunity and times of challenge. There are undoubtedly further challenges ahead, yet, I have great confidence that these will be met, and the school will continue to flourish.  

To colleagues, teaching staff, support staff, boarding and administration teams, you are the heartbeat of this place. You have carried the daily work of forming, encouraging, challenging, and caring for our students. Through long days and even longer nights; you have lived Collegiate’s mission in ways the outside world will never fully see. 

To all who live on campus, from babies to adults, our aim was to build community along the drive, so that we become a home away from home.  It is unique, in a seven-day-a-week boarding school, your work is not a job, it is a lifestyle. The role is all-hours, and we embrace it with service, care and grit.    

To our Old Boys and Girls, the Foundation, and the many supporters who love this school deeply, thank you. You have reminded us that Collegiate is not just a school; it is a lifelong community. You have turned up to events around the country and overseas, supported many programs, scholarships, bursaries, and philanthropic endeavours - Thank you.   

To our parents and families: thank you for the trust you have placed in us, You, have partnered with us with the shared hope that your child will flourish here.  You have contributed to community, through supporters clubs PFA, and just being good people looking after kids. 

To our students, past and present; you are the reason we do what we do. The greatest privilege of my time as Headmaster has been to witness children of promise grow into young adults of character: in classrooms, on the sports fields, on the river, on the stage, in chapel, on service projects, and in the routines and daily rhythm of boarding  

Alycia has been a colleague, a leader, a mentor, a supporter at the side of fields, lakes and courts, and a constant source of care and the maker of one of the world's best oaty slices imaginable.  Many of you have sat around our table; many of your children have experienced her calm word, a hug, or warm smile at just the right moment. If anyone has made the biggest impact on this school in the last 8 years it has been you.  Thank you my love.   

This is Alycia’s hometown, well technically Raetihi, yet, leaving Whanganui, for us, is not a simple professional move, it is a deeply personal one. It is home, our children, educated here, and are on honours boards in Big School, and proud old boy and old girl.  We have made lifelong friends with parents as parents and thank you for seeing us as Wayne and Alycia, as Lyla and Logan’s parents and not HM and Wife.  

When people ask what I am most proud of, I always come back to “we”, never “I”. The highlights of these eight years are the achievements of this community. 

Together, we have: 

Navigated Covid-19 as a boarding school community, what a time.  

Joined the Round Square global network and embedded its ideals of international understanding, democracy, environmental stewardship, adventure, leadership and service into the life of the School.  We have seen students travel to conferences around the world, we have developed exchanges,  hosted visiting delegations here in Whanganui, and learn that they can stand with confidence on any global stage.  We just finished only an hour ago our second conference – Canada, Peru, India Bangladesh, Australia, students connecting with one another, being global citizens to make this world a better place.  

Introduced Cambridge International Education at Year 11, yet it is also the introduction of Schoolbox, raising academic achievement across all year levels, Maori achievement, Boys achievement.  We introduced learner profiles, we moved the title special education to Diverse learning and the Centre for Learning, and we created importantly what it means to us as teachers at WCS, and the Collegiate profile.  Some huge strides in academics. I look forward to hearing the continued success in years to come.  

Achieved accreditation from the Boarding Schools’ Association.  If we are known to be a boarding school then we need to be accredited with the best association.  WCS remains the only school in NZ that is accredited with BSA.   There are challenges ahead, yet, importantly, it is to be benched mark against a world standar 

Strengthened a culture of belonging. Our flags, The House badges in the McKinnon Building, we have sought to make sure every student, every old boy and girl, every parent, every staff member knows: you matter here, you are known here, you belong here.  

There are so many achievements, and too many to list in one speech.   

More importantly perhaps are the countless quieter achievements: and there are many, of student and staff success, and it will be those stories and moments that I will reflect on with much gratitude.   

In an Education Gazette article a few years ago, I spoke unapologetically about standards; about not walking on the grass, not having your phone in dining hall, about eye contact and handshake, about service and responsibility. academic excellence is vital, yet it is the combination of knowledge and character that truly changes the world.  

That conviction has only grown stronger. 

Whanganui Collegiate School is at its best when it is unashamedly itself: proud of its traditions yet open to the future; disciplined yet warm; ambitious yet humble; deeply local in its roots and proudly global in its outlook. 

It is at its best when Houses still enjoy a bit of healthy rivalry, yet every student knows that whatever House you are in, you are part of one Collegiate family. 

It is at its best when chapel is not just part of the timetable, but the heartbeat of our WCS life; a place where we learn to be grateful, to forgive, to hope, and to remember that our gifts are to be used in the service of others. 

I leave confident about the future of Whanganui Collegiate School.  

You have outstanding leaders in place, on the Board, within the Senior Leadership Team, in the Houses, in classrooms, and among the student body. The school’s direction is strong, its values run deep. And you will welcome the appointment of a new Headmaster who will shape the school's future.  

A new Headmaster will come with fresh eyes, new energy, and new ideas. That is good and necessary, and I look forward to passing the baton to the next custodian.   

Finally, on behalf of Alycia and myself, thank you. 

Communities are only as strong as to those who contribute to it - and we are an incredible community.  

Thank you for your loyalty, your generosity, your honesty, your humour, and your belief in what this school can be. 

For allowing us to share in your joys and your sorrows, to stand with you in times of celebration and in times of challenge. 

For letting us be, a custodian, one that has shaped lives at Whanganui Collegiate School. 

Wherever life and work take us next, a part of our hearts will always remain here, under these trees, In Big School and, along the Drive. 

Thank you. 

Wayne Brown  

Headmaster 

2018-2025