While some Dunedin secondary schools' rolls are declining as the number of school-age children in the city drops, one school is bucking the trend. Rector Dan Reddiex leads King's High School, which has grown from 727 pupils five years ago to 1044 this year, and recently became the largest school in Otago. He tells David Loughrey about the mix of clear rules, core values, love and compassion that have made the school a magnet for the city's youth and their parents.
Iu may help to gain respect if you are well over average height, athletic and have an extremely firm handshake and a deep voice.
King's High School rector Dan Reddiex (42) has those things, and is quite clearly the sort of fellow who would make a boy err on the side of pulling his socks up and having his homework done before leaving for school in the morning.
But Mr Reddiex says it is neither personality nor charisma that makes a good teacher - instead it is something closer to the heart.
''I always thought a really good teacher, and this was me in my naivety really, was someone who had this vivacious personality, who was able to draw people in, and they were charismatic.
''What I've actually realised is a good teacher doesn't have to be any of those things.''
Instead, he says, teachers have to have a heart for their pupils, and take their job seriously.
''It's not actually personality driven, it's someone who loves them, if you like.
''And I'm happy to use that word, because I'm happy to say I do love my boys.''
Love, of course, is an emotion that must walk hand in hand with clear rules and consequences in the environment of a boys' school - an environment that can become like Lord of the Flies in their absence.
'Really clear lines'
Mr Reddiex came to lead the school after an earlier stint there as an economics teacher, and three years as assistant principal at Otago Boys' High School.
While not keen to talk about his time at Otago Boys', he was upfront about his view of King's when he arrived.
''Quite frankly, the school was underperforming, and so were the students.''
His main focus was on improving academic achievement (more on the results later) but aspects of the school's culture also needed sorting out.
''If I can be brutally honest, the behaviour of the boys here was substandard.''
That behaviour included swearing at teachers, and punching and verbally harassing other pupils.
In his first year in 2009, Mr Reddiex stood down 79 boys, drawing what he describes as ''really clear lines''.
''I wasn't particularly popular, either immediately in my community, or with some of the powers that be, but that doesn't bother me.''
Thanks to his strategies this year ''not one punch has been thrown as far as I can tell''.
''I haven't had a teacher sworn at, certainly.''
Another school basic, uniforms, was also on the hit list, and that meant boys being neatly dressed with their socks up.
''If you asked the boys back then, they would say I was completely over the top.
''But now those expectations are actually managed by the boys.
''I have to do very little.''
On his duty day, Tuesday, Mr Reddiex is still out early before school, driving the South Dunedin streets ''just to have a look at the boys and their uniforms''.
''So far this year I've had to speak to one boy, and tell him to pull his socks up.''
The other facet of his programme to produce well-educated, decent young men was the school's ''character education''.
The boys take a class, compulsory in years 9 and 10 and optional beyond, focusing on seven core values: excellence, respect, integrity, fairness, responsibility, participation and compassion.
That ''morphed'' into the King's Men Society, designed to teach young men what it means to be a good man, and the employment of a teacher to impart those values.
''That's been one of the massive determinants of the change at the school.''
The methods he uses are effective in moulding boys whose background and upbringing can be tough, he says.
''I think they're often the most receptive. Some of those boys just don't know what it looks like.
''When they're told, and they find themselves being part of something bigger than themselves, and something they know is really special, then they lift themselves immensely.
''It's pretty special really.''
He says his strategies also work for those who lean towards the arts, rather than the sweaty brotherhood of the sports field.
While sport is an important aspect of school life, there is an equal place for the actor or artist.
''That's probably the one challenge I've had, in terms of my leadership - to make sure that there is no differentiation between the sporting elite and the cultural elite.
''There's no difference in terms of opportunity or value placed on those students.
''For us, the guys who do well academically are regarded just as well as the sportsmen, and they're regarded just as well as the guys who do drama on the stage, and I think that is an achievement.''
Finding inspiration
Perhaps ironically, Mr Reddiex was inspired to become a teacher by a man he says was not a strict follower of rules, at the co-educational Freyberg High School in his home town of Palmerston North.
Ian Scott was his economics teacher.
''He made that subject come alive, but mostly he made it come alive by his passion, and I guess his compassion, so it was a combination of those two things.''
He was ''reasonably eccentric'', Mr Reddiex says.
''He didn't really comply with all the rules and expectations around the conduct of a teacher.
''He was his own man, but the kids fell in love with him.
''He was exceptional - he made a difference in my life in a tangible way.''
While Mr Reddiex is a big supporter of the single-sex school, he admitted one other important influence he picked up, so to speak, at Freyberg.
He met his wife Carrie there, after they started dating on the last day of high school.
That relationship also led him to religion, with his wife's influence eventually resulting in a man who had not set foot in a church becoming a pastor, now serving at the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Dunedin.
''For me, what makes most sense is that there is a creator.''
Mr Reddiex says the results of all his strategies at the school meant a big change in the school's ''primary function'' - academic achievement.
''Initially, it was about getting the boys over the line. NCEA pass rates were horrendous.''
The first priority was to make sure if the boys were capable, they succeeded.
If they didn't pass internal achievement standards they were capable of getting, they had to take the reassessment opportunity.
''If they refused to do it, they came back in the school holidays.
''In those first couple of years we had, sometimes, 80 to 100 boys back in the school holidays, dressed in school uniform, doing their catch-up work, because it was non-negotiable.
''That message was pretty clear - if you are capable of succeeding, you will succeed.''
When he first started as rector there were ''very, very few excellence endorsements'' for NCEA.
''Last year, we had something like 70. It is cool to succeed academically.''
