Mr Grady - "Let the Kids Fly"

"We’ve been here five years now. It all started with a coffee cart. Back then, I was teaching full-time and not using it. The kids were struggling to find holiday jobs - hard to get when you’re 14. Then I suggested, ‘I own a coffee cart. Why don’t we ask the council for a license?’ So we did.

It began with four kids. They’ve all moved on now. But each year, new ones join, and now there are about 14 to 16 kids involved, aged 11 to 19. Every year, they vote on how to spend their profits. Last year, they decided on expanding the enterprise with e-bikes. They also bought a new coffee cart last month, and we’re just waiting for its license. The current cart is licensed to run 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The kids learned pretty quickly you can’t pick and choose your hours.

Over the years, we’ve gotten better and better. We offer a $1 discount for keep cups, and we’ve partnered with the council to use their machine that sterilizes china cups. The goal this year is to reduce paper cup usage by 10%, and I think we’re going to hit it. They’re also looking at adding food options to the cart. We offer pupachinos for our four-legged friends, complete with their very own loyalty card - collect five paw prints, and the 6th pupachino is on the house!

Two of my 11-year-olds even went to Turners to buy a car to tow the trailer. The folks at Turners asked, ‘Who’s going to drive this home?’ and they said, ‘Mr. Grady will!’

I teach at PININS, and I run the business group. Mornings are for the coffee enterprise, and afternoons are for STEM. This group is capped at 16 students, and the IRD says we’re the biggest student-led business in New Zealand. Our home base is here at He Ara Kotahi, but we’ve got a second cart. Next week, we’ll be at the cricket, and after that, we’re covering the national girls’ Under-17 tournament for five days.

The kids this year think we need uniforms so we’re looking into that. They’ve set up a roster, manage bookings for the e-bikes, and even hold monthly meetings to discuss the business. One girl is saving to get to Harvard. Another just finished her first year of medicine at Otago. One is wrapping up a Bachelor of Science. Several have told me this is the best thing they’ve ever done.

Why did I get into teaching? Well, back in the 1980s, I applied for both forestry work and Teachers’ Training College. The forestry job called, but I’d already been accepted into teaching - there was a 7-to-1 ratio of women to men back then. The girls had to fight for a spot; the men were taken straight away.

Since then, I’ve been an emergency principal, stepping in when schools needed help after a resignation or even a fire. One school burned down, and the kids and I designed and rebuilt it together.

I always say, ‘Let the kids fly, and they’ll fly. Don’t worry about what if we get it wrong - we’ll just try again a different way.’"