Marguerite Vanderkolk - Trustee

After training and working for a few years as a secondary school teacher, Marguerite realised she wasn’t comfortable in mainstream education. Looking for different approaches to teaching and learning, she eventually became the principal of Auckland Metropolitan College (aka Metro). It was an alternative secondary school based on the Summerhill ‘School Without Walls’ educational model from the 1970s in Britain. Metro was way ahead of its time in New Zealand in the 1990s. Students who didn’t fit into the mainstream settings thrived in that learning environment. Many of them were gifted and talented young people with parents who were open to alternative options for their children.