I gained my Bachelor of Education (ECE), and Certificate in Adult Teaching as an adult student. I have 22 years of teaching experience across a broad range of early childhood settings including Playcentre, home-based care, and community based early learning centres. 13 years in a Centre Manager role. ELP Facilitators have been my critical friends during this time and we have worked on inquiries in distributed leadership, companionship, boys in play, literacy, and mathematics.
Play
“The sacred urge to play” by Pennie Brownlee is my favourite read, and this quote sighted within it speaks to my heart as a teacher. “It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self” (D. W. Winnicott).
My happy place is Whangamata beach, where I connect with nature and family. I spend many hours gathering the gifts of Papatūānuku (the Earth Mother). I value the moments when tamariki stop and stare in awe (wehi) at the wonder of the