Staff Photo

Staff News 2018

Congratulations to John Major our newest Assistant Principal and Esther Kristel our new Head of English.

John joins our Co-Principals, along with Andrew Spittle, Assistant Principal to complete our Senior Leadership Team.   Esther is stepping up to join our talented team of Heads of Department.  

Janine Hills was appointed as Senior Management Executive in Term 1 and we appreciate her cheerful efficiency and calm professional manner.

Paul Enright (Head of Humanities)  was invited to present at an International Conference on Human Rights, Peace and Sustainability in Education, in Sweden in Term 1.    Paul is a leading light on educational and historical research in New Zealand and his paper was titled "Putting the Curriculum into Practice."

In the first week of the Term One holidays, History teacher, Mr Fielding travelled with fourteen other senior teachers from throughout New Zealand to South Korea as guests of the Korean Government to visit their schools and experience the amazing culture of South Korea.

Alistair Sewell  has led our Careers Department this year along with Lesley Taylor.  Bianca Whalan started in Term 3 teaching Food Technology along with Helen Reid.  Paul Fielding was recognised with a national award for his services to sport (see the separate article in the yearbook).  Andy Parsons, Head of Technology won a sabbatical to travel  during Term 3 and he visited a number of countries and schools around the world looking at how Technology is taught around the world.  The energetic and imaginative Tinker School founder, Andy Bowen relieved for Mr Parsons.   

Arnika Hazelwood had a baby daughter, Indiana, at the end of Term 2 and Tim Leadbeater ably stepped in to relieve some of the Media Studies classes. 

Peter McCaskill our long time IT technical whiz, miracle worker and NZQA Exam Supervisor retired and trained up the talented Kemp Reynolds to take over the challenging and vital IT support role.  And fortunately the supremely well organised and unflappable  Mal Robinson stepped up to be our Exam Supervisor.    

Several of our key Teacher Aides working in the school and the Learning Support Unit finished at the end of the year. We have appreciated the complex set of skills, compassion and dedication from Kerianne Variane who has been with us since 2015 along with Bruce Genever and Helene Dupres and wish them well for their future plans.

Due to significant roll growth for next year,  we have 3 new members of staff starting in 2019 with the possibility of other appointments.  We will welcome Rhondda Bowen (Maths), Rebecca Haberdache (English) and Kayla Marshall (Science) at the start of next year.  

We were thrilled with the quality of applicants for the positions and pleased to see over 70 applicants at a time when some other schools are struggling to fill vacancies.