Meet the New Head of Hauora

After years balancing the demanding dual roles of Director of Boarding and Head of Middle School at St Andrew’s College, Matt Parr is preparing for a new challenge, as the College’s inaugural Head of Hauora.

The name of the newly created executive-level position, hauora, is a Māori concept widely used within New Zealand education, encompassing the physical, mental, spiritual, and social dimensions of well-being. It has been introduced as part of the College’s strategic focus to strengthen its student Pastoral Care and Well-being programmes and integrate them across the Preparatory and Secondary Schools in a more cohesive College-wide approach.

“I’m excited to be working on high level alignment between pastoral care, well-being, and student management across the College,” shares Matt. “It will be great to connect with the Preparatory School which is a fairly new space for me.”

Rector, Mark Wilson, says Matt’s appointment follows an external independent review completed at the end of 2025, which praised the College’s strong pastoral care systems while also identifying opportunities to create a more integrated and cohesive framework across Years 1–13.

“One of the key recommendations was the creation of an executive leadership role dedicated specifically to student pastoral care and well-being across the entire College,” Mark says. “In this new executive position, Matt will work closely with our Head of Well-being, Kerry Larby, counsellors, Deans, Heads of School, and senior leaders in the Preparatory School, to ensure there is consistency and coherence across our Pastoral Care and Well-being programmes, and also the way information is recorded and processed in our new student management system, Toddle.”

Matt brings significant professional pastoral care experience to the role, having held several key leadership positions at St Andrew’s. He will take up the position as Head of Hauora in Term 3, while continuing as Director of Boarding. Matt says the new position marks an exciting change from the operational demands of leading the Middle School.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to work more strategically and focus on longer term initiatives, including the continued rollout of the College’s PERMA-V framework, and the development of a new whole-school pastoral care student management system which will ensure more consistent practices.”

Matt will continue to support the Middle School leadership team throughout the changeover and is enthusiastic about his new direction.

“There’s a little bit of the unknown because it’s a brand-new role,” Matt says. “But that’s exciting too. We’ll be looking closely at what’s already working well and identifying where we can continue to grow and improve.”