We would like to say a warm 'Tauriko' welcome to our new staff members this year. 

Miss Georgia Flower, Room 7 Year 3 & 4

Kia ora! My name is Georgia Flower and I am very excited to be joining the Year 3 and 4 team at Tauriko School. This will be my first year teaching in Tauranga, so I am looking forward to establishing relationships with students, whanau and the community. I am a kind, warm and enthusiastic teacher, who loves creating authentic learning experiences for my students.

I have grown up on a farm in Whanganui with my crazy, fun loving family! I am the eldest of four girls (I know, poor dad!). In my spare time I enjoy spending time with friends, swimming at the beach and exploring what New Zealand has to offer.

I look forward to continuing my teaching and learning journey with Tauriko School.

Mrs Romy Wilson, Room 13 Year 5 & 6

Kia ora tātou,

I am excited to join Tauriko School in 2018 as part of the year 5/6 teaching team. As a recent teaching graduate I have gained teaching experience in primary and intermediate schools within the Bay of Plenty area, predominately at the middle and senior school level. Prior to training as a teacher I worked for many years as a teacher aide.

In my practice I aim to foster the development of confident, independent, inquiring learners. Therefore I value establishing a classroom culture where effort is recognised as fundamental to success, where rich oral conversation is actively promoted and where learning is perceived as an exciting ongoing process.

I thoroughly enjoy teaching within and across all learning areas, in particular mathematics. Besides teaching my passions in life are spending quality time with my wonderful husband and children (both who attend Tauriko School), traveling to new destinations, cooking and cake decorating!

Mr Sam Cleaver, Room 13 Year 5 & 6

Kia Ora, My name is Sam Cleaver and I am thrilled to be a part of the team at Tauriko School. I have moved back to Tauranga after spending time teaching in the Waikato and South Korea. I have a huge passion for sports and the outdoors. I am a keen diver, fisherman and sportsman. I enjoy having students who have a passion and motivation for learning. I set high expectations of my students focus and diligence. I look forward to being a part of my students learning journey, as they develop and learn.

Miss Megan Holden, Tall Poppies Year 7 & 8

Hello, my name is Megan Holden. I am originally from Hamilton, but have lived in a few different places as an adult. I began my teaching career in Christchurch with Year 7/8. While I was there, I had the honour of teaching my class as well as leading the school in Sport, PE and Health, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After Christchurch, I travelled to London to live and work for three years. I taught in two lovely schools while I was there. One was a large state school with Year 5 children, the other was a very small private school with Year 4 and Year 2. I had amazing experiences in London, where I was able to travel in the weekends and holidays, explore London and discover exciting events and places, make new friends, feel out of my comfort zone several times, as well as learn and observe different styles, techniques and programmes in teaching and learning. I am excited to be back in New Zealand now, settling in to Tauranga and being close to family.

In my spare time I enjoy walking around the Mount, travelling, baking, boating and fishing, spending time with my friends, water sports, going to the beach, reading a good book and playing sport.

I am a passionate and committed teacher, and am looking forward to building strong relationships with the children at Tauriko School. I am excited to be a part of the team and community at Tauriko.

Mrs Kate Rhodes, Tall Poppies year 7 & 8 (Part-time) 

Kia ora, I'm Kate and I'm very excited to be joining the Tauriko staff in 2018. I have come from teaching intermediate for the last 7 years at Otumoetai Intermediate School and prior to that I worked at Maungatapu Primary with year 2s.

As a teacher, I am particularly passionate about ICT and Numeracy. I have worked mostly in laptop classes and also ran the Robotics programme at Otumoetai Intermediate. I loved the rewards and challenges this brought, always exploring new technologies and the building and coding of robots. I am also currently completing my Masters of Education which is certainly keeping me on my toes. I'm really passionate about teaching and always enjoy getting to know all the students and their families.

In my personal life, I do a lot of trail running and also try to go kite surfing when the wind is right! I also enjoy spend time at home with my husband (Mike), Daughter (Eva) and our dog (Charlie). We live in Greerton, after moving over from the UK 12 years ago. We love the outdoor lifestyle in Tauranga and would never be able to go back to the UK.