Marie is one of our long standing Kaiako who is in her 34th year of teaching at Hagley!

Marie was on maternity leave from Girls’ High School in 1986 when she was asked by former English HOD and latterly Labour MP, Marion Hobbs, to come to Hagley College to teach a Level 2 (6th Form) evening class. Her daughter Catherine was only 3 weeks old but she took up the challenge and joined the Hagley staff. In 1995 Marie picked up 8 hours of English in the day programme as well as teaching her night class.

In 1999 Marie became full-time and held Library responsibilities at Hagley. It was during Marie’s time as Teacher In-charge of the Library that the new library was designed and we hired our present librarian Liz Jones (2003). Marie and Liz worked together to fit out the library and make it the accessible library it is today.

Marie went on to become Head of English, Director of Learning Transitions and then Deputy Principal – Student Learning.

I asked what had kept Marie at Hagley and she said it was the diversity of both the student population and the staff. Marie has embraced the challenges that all her different roles have offered and this variety of leadership and collaborative practice is what has kept her responsive as an educator.

During the years at Hagley, Marie has had a keen interest in literacy and in 2007 was seconded as Literacy Advisor across schools. This knowledge and skill base helped Hagley secure the Teacher Led Innovation Fund (TLIF) funding in 2016-2018 which focused on advancing academic or subject specific literacy for students.

Marie is also Hagley’s Principal Nominee for NCEA and she has a lot of expertise as a writer of national assessment tasks for English as well as a strong skill set in understanding moderation and NCEA.

Marie shows an openness to change and likes to work with staff and students to create courses and spaces which remove barriers and create opportunities for students. Marie has had a significant input into our new builds, Wainuku and Auripo. Hagley values the mahi Marie does to keep the College evolving into an educational centre that we are all proud of.