Our People 2023

Staff Leadership Team

Principal - Shane Robinson
Deputy Principal - Darian Schulz
Deputy Principal - Brigitte Ferguson

Kakano

Years 1 & 2

Junior Syndicate Leader: Adam Murfitt

Teachers:
Adam Murfitt - New Entrants (Terms 1-3) & Year 1
Stephanie Ross - Year 1
Caeleen Wolmarans- Year2
Kayleigh Maclean - Year 2
Tania Singh - New Entrants (Term 4)

The Kākano Syndicate (Year 0-2) is a growing team with new students joining us every term. Our teaching team is  Stephanie, Caeleen, Kayleigh, and Adam as Syndicate Leader who has recently taken over from Trish Cherry. We believe relationships with our students and their whānau is at the heart of what we do. Our learning programmes inspire to be engaging through hands on activities and using our student's interest. This year we are excited to be continuing to run our structured Literacy programme in our syndicate and we love seeing the children engaged with Literacy learning. We hold high expectations for all students to achieve at their full potential.

Tipu

Years 3 & 4

Middle Syndicate Leader: Nicola Prichard

Teachers:
Nicola Prichard
Valerie Archer
Hayley Saxton
Ellen Walker

The Tipu Syndicate is home to our Year 3 and 4 students and are based in Rooms 13, 14, 15 and 16. The teaching team is Valerie Archer, Nicola Prichard, Hayley Saxton and Ellen Walker.  The Tipu syndicate are focused on delivering a fun and engaging programme, through building relationships, giving students opportunities to build their independence, find their passions and be curious, particularly through Pākiki time.

Koru

Years 5 & 6

Senior Syndicate Leader:  Holly Hughes

Teachers:
Holly Hughes
Kim Webby
Ben Glue
Jenna Reddy

Kia ora koutou! We are team Koru. We are made up of Ben Glue, Kim Webby, Jenna Reddy and our syndicate leader Holly Hughes. In Koru we are excited to support our tamariki to develop firm work habits, and further develop their confidence to express themselves. We work mainly from our own classrooms, but are together for a range of activities every day. Our collaborative time fosters bonds between all our tamariki, and develops relationships with all three kaiako. 

We use a variety of online learning tools and programmes to support their learning. Some of these are Reading Plus, Prodigy, Banqer, and Epic. As well as this we utilise each others strengths as teachers, and our natural environment, to offer a learning programme we are proud to be a part of. Through our Inquiries we also delve a bit deeper into their creative, critical, and design thinking.  

In Team Koru, we are passionate about making sure all our tamariki get the most out of us and our time in the classroom.

Fern

Years 7 & 8

Intermediate Syndicate Leader:  Ben Young

Teachers:
Ben Young
Jo Fox
Sam Blandford

We are the Ferns Intermediate team and we're passionate about providing rich and engaging learning opportunities for the Year 7 and 8 tamariki of Maungaraki School.

We believe in growing young leaders who actively live out our HEART values and give back to the school and wider community in a variety of ways, using the unique skills and strengths they have developed during their time here.

We have three separate classrooms and balance a mixture of home-class time with collaboration as a whole syndicate each day.

Release and specialist teachers

Jayne Chatfield
Mandy Viles
Moira Hooper
Christine Trummer
Alle Pollard
Dana Skinner
Sarah Cappleman
Kelly Cooper
Brydie Wolfe
Talitha le Roux
Chris McCullough

Support staff

Admin Support Staff
Juanita Kil (PA to Principal)
Tania Potaka (Office Manager & Bursar)
Tim Barnes (Caretaker)

Teaching Support Staff:
Barbara Hatton
Julie Wilson
Shona Morris-Priest
Julz Dal Vesco
Helen Billingham
Simon Rodwell
Melinda Mackenzie