After living in South Africa for 25 years, my family and I moved to New Zealand 20 years ago and currently reside in the lovely West Harbour. I have worked in Not for Profit for many years prior to accepting my current role as Finance Manager (and now 2IC General Manager) at Kaitiaki Kindergartens (some 11 years ago now). There is great personal reward in contributing at a management level for Not for Profit – knowing your work is helping to ensure our young tamariki throughout our kindergartens and centres are thriving in such wonderful environments. My accounting skills are highly effective in budgeting and financial forecasting, which is extremely important in the early childhood sector – which has become a highly competitive market.

Originally from the UK I have lived in NZ since 2004. Having been teaching for over 27 years, I have a wide variety of experience in Early Childhood Education that includes opening new services, managing teams of all sizes and of course teaching all age groups in ECE. This experience enables me to support our amazing teams effectively in my current role as part of our Support Office team. I work for Kaitiaki Kindergartens because I am proud of our not for profit philosophy and the way our services provide such an exceptional early childhood education for our precious tamariki

An epiphany about learning saw me move from secondary to teaching in the most important time in a child’s education, the early years. I have also been a professional development adviser, teacher education lecturer, policy adviser and facilitator of workshops for NZ Teachers Council and had a recent stint at the Ministry of Education. I am thrilled to work at Kaitiaki Kindergartens as I am committed to high quality early education for children and value being part of a larger learning organisation that has everyone focused on the best outcomes for teachers, children and their families.

I moved to New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 2001 – for the first 10 years based in Wellington and now in gorgeous Orewa on the Hibiscus Coast.  I believe that children and young people are the future and that each and every one of them has a right to be able to reach their full potential.   That is why working in the Kindergarten sector appeals to me.  My strength lies in being of service to those that are on the front line.  My extensive business skills, primarily in social services area of the not for profit sector in New Zealand are being put to good use within Kaitiaki Kindergartens.

I have a long association with Kaitiaki Kindergartens from when I joined the parent committee many years ago when my children started kindergarten.
I have performed a variety of part time roles within the Association; teacher aide/administrator/accounts assistant/term break administrator and now find myself full time at Support Office as Accounts Assistant, Office Administrator and overseeing the term break programmes. It has been most enjoyable to be able to contribute in so many areas and to be a part of assisting to provide our tamariki with the best possible Early Childhood education.

Originally from China my family and I moved to NZ since 2017. Now our family happily live in Albany and enjoy our life here. I have over 10 years working experience in human resource and administration roles in NZ and China. My skills of quick learning, multi-task management and well organization help me to work efficiently. I am honoured to work for Kaitiaki Kindergartens because it makes me happy and satisfied to support kaiako to help our lovely tamariki throughout our communities get a wonderful start in their education and young lives. I love being part of the Support Office Team – together we work hard to ensure we support our teaching teams effectively.