For over 10 years Jase Williams (Ngāti Tamaterā) was at the helm of the award winning Henry Hill School in Napier, New Zealand as Principal. Jase is now an education consultant who travels the country to share his knowledge and Mātauranga Māori with ECE and Schools and is a highly sought after keynote speaker.

He is a husband, father of three, and Koko to two beautiful Māori/Samoan mokopuna.

His approach to leadership was intrinsically linked with social and emotional wellbeing through a Te Ao Māori lens fused with Neuroscience.

The ways in which he worked to support the school community heal, goes way beyond what would traditionally be expected from a school setting.

Henry Hill School is located in a low socio economic area that has been ravaged by the impacts of intergenerational trauma, an entrenched gang culture, and most recently the aftermath of severe flooding.

Jase will share his journey in leading the school from a failed audit ERO review, dropping school roll, and low academic outcomes to the 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Award for Well-being, over 92% average attendance over the past decade, improved health and some of the highest academic outcomes in the country.

Jase has been immersed and trained in Trauma Informed Practice through the world’s number one childhood trauma expert, Dr Bruce Perry and his Neurosequential Model in Education. He is the only Māori certified trainer in this approach in the entire world.

He will weave in his own lived experience of trauma and his journey of healing, the link between the brain, body, heart and soul, and how this knowledge and journey has helped him to reconnect with his whakapapa Māori.

His presentation will be resonates with people from all walks of life.