Before retiring as principal at New Plymouth Girls' High School Jenny Ellis spent 48 years in education.

When Jenny Ellis received a letter in the mail saying she was to be awarded a New Year's Honour she thought someone had made a mistake.

Then she seriously considered turning it down, she said.

"Because whatever is achieved in education is achieved by so many people working collectively together and to just receive it on my own - I find that quite difficult. So, I gave it a lot of thought."

Ellis, 68, will be made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education.

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Her career, which spanned 48 years, began at Inglewood High School and ended as principal of New Plymouth Girls' High School.

She thinks the award is predominantly for the work she did as principal of Girls' High, which she feels was the pinnacle of her career.

Ellis started out teaching shorthand typing on manual typewriters, she said.

"And commercial practice, which was more into economics, and accounting, which in those days was called book keeping."

By the time she retired in 2016 those subjects had long been consigned to the history books, replaced by subjects such as digital technologies and design technologies, she said.

"One of the biggest impacts on education has been technology."

Social changes is another.

A huge amount of resources goes into welfare - students who go to school without food, who can't afford uniforms, she said.

"It becomes very much something that needs to be addressed to the best of our ability within the school."

The New Honour citation mentions Ellis establishing the Wai Ora Wellness Centre at Girl's High, which is one of the things Ellis is most proud of, she said.

"I think it has had a profound impact on a number of students and also staff in the school, having our own medical facility on site. And they have the support of the district health nurses that come round.

"To me it's the offering of the holistic education."

Another achievement that stands out to Ellis are the improvements in the NCEA results.

"Particularly the retention of students through to Year 13, Māori girls in particular."

A number of initiatives were enabled because of the staff and the board, she said.

"It's about people working collectively towards a shared vision and having goals."

When she looks back over her career there have been huge changes in education in that time, she said.

"Good or bad, change had to happen. Schools need to reflect the community they are in and need to be flexible and adaptable to the context of the time, of the socio-economic context, which is really important otherwise you become irrelevant in what you are offering students."

Since she has retired Ellis has been spending her time reading and going off to Cambridge to visit her daughter and grandchildren.

And she is a lay canon at the Taranaki Cathedral of St Mary, she said.

"I don't call that work though."