Dunstan High School will kick start the term with a new principal, thanks to the arrival of Andrew King.

The former Otago Boys’ High School (OBHS) deputy rector is no stranger to managing teams, having also coached the Otago badminton seniors for several years.

Once ranked 13th in England, it was when he started coaching the game back home that his passion for teaching began.

After completing a Sports Science Degree, he went on to coach fulltime in England for two years before studying a Post-graduate Certificate in Education.

His first teaching job was at a Roman Catholic School of 1300 students.

He and wife Kim moved to New Zealand from Darlington in late 2009, where he picked up some relieving work at Mana College in Porirua.

“That was a cultural eye opener,” he said with 85 per cent of the students either of Māori or Pacific Island background.

His wife got a job at Sport Otago so they moved to Dunedin and Andrew continued relieve teaching between Kings High School and OBHS.

Then he was offered the head of junior physical education at OBHS and moved onto dean before accepting the assistant principal role at Tokomairiro High School in Milton.

OBHS lured him back with the deputy rector position but in the back of his mind, Andrew said a principal position had always been on the radar.

The pastoral care work that he has been involved in as dean and deputy rector was what he was most passionate about.

“I was the guy you came to when there was a problem.”

OBHS Rector Richard Hall would continue to be his mentor and they remained good friends.

Central Otago was always a place that he and his wife had been interested in, and his daughter Sophie will start at Dunstan next year in Year 9, while son Matthew (9), will settle into a new primary school.

Andrew's first impressions of the school was the number of sports fields that many of us take for granted.

“There were fields for Africa, and they link to other parks. What a dream,” he said.

Andrew is looking forward to playing some ‘bad golf’ when he gets settled, as he’d already worked out there were some keen players on the staff.

Having taught at a diverse range of schools throughout the country, he has taken a little bit from each to help him grow as a leader.

“Schools are pretty simplistic places . . . and, in reality, kids are kids, and they just want to do well.”

He said Dunstan High School was an attractive place for a new principal, “because it’s just so solid, with great facilities and great staff. It’s never a school that you hear anything bad about.”

He was particularly impressed with the interview process and is now looking forward to getting on with the job.

“Let’s make stuff happen,” he said.