Te Māhuri
The Saplings
Age 2- 6
Stevie
Stevie is a qualified and very experienced kaiako.She is a wealth of knowledge and experience. She is passionate about upholding the innate mana of tamariki and ensuring relationships are respectful, reciprocal and responsive. She is a fierce advocate that all children are heard and seen. It is important to her that all children experience quality learning and teaching. Each new day, Stevie strives to be the best teacher she can be.
Stevie is a devoted mother and friend and she loves with her whole heart.
Harry
Harry is a qualifed ECE kaiako and has actually spent some time at Old Macs before when he did a practicum with us a a few years ago for his studies. Harry prides himself on being a big kid at heart and loves to have fun! He plays guitar and ukulele and is so excited to share his talents with our tamariki.
When Harry isn’t teaching you will find him outdoors, skating or on his motorbike. You will always see Harry with an instrument in his hand or music playing.
Harry has a passion for teaching and believes all children should leave an ECE setting feeling empowered, confident and have faith that they can do anything they sit their minds too.
We feel so lucky to have Harry as a part of our Old Macs whaanau!
Eilish
Eilish is a passionate, caring and nurturing friend, whaanau, kaiako and member of the community. Eilish has endeavoured many life experiences which have provided her with resilience and a strong sense of social justice, which underpins a large chunk of her teaching practice and approach to life.
Eilish has been teaching for over 9 years and she is an ambassador for creativity! – nurturing and treasuring creative expressions are important to her personally and professionally. Her outgoing, energetic and “Let’s get our hands dirty” attitude truly makes her a treasure for children.
One of my favourite things about Eilish is her you break it, she’ll build in nature – she is basically our onsite builder with her handy work! You just wait and see the magic she brings to our art and carpentry spaces!
When Eilish isn’t at mahi, she is spending time with friends, hitting the gym (She is a machine ) and taking time for herself. She is extremely driven, caring and hands on. Kaiako like Eilish don’t walk by everyday and we have struck gold with this gal!
Emily
Emily's teaching philosophy speaks to everything we value at Old Macs, affording tamariki time and space to lead their play, getting outdoors and being messy (She is covered in paint as we speak! ) and connecting with and working in partnership with tamariki and whaanau.
Emily is a registered kaiako who truly sees the benefit of learning in an outdoor setting, she loves connecting with papatuuaanuku and spends hours in the outdoors hiking and bike riding in her free time.
Emily's warm and inviting nature makes her super approachable and she will always ensure your tamariki are respected, nurtured and loved while at Old Macs.
Energetic, smiley and super fun is how I would describe Emily - She is a GEM!
Kirsty
Kirsty has a beautiful teaching approach where she leads from the heart, with respectful practise at the core of all she does.Recently, she has taken some time away from teaching to be a mum, but as her youngest is beginning her school journey, she is really looking forward to being back and surrounded by the tamariki.Her passion for working alongside tamariki, years of experience as a kaiako and mum, along with her kind, caring and nurturing personality makes her the perfect addition to our Saplings room.
Kirsty will be working a school hours friendly shift meaning you might not always see her in the mornings of afternoons, but if you do catch her - She would love to meet you.
Anna
Anna is one of those amazing, once in a blue moon kinda kaiako and Old Macs is so lucky to have her part of the team. She is a qualified kaiako, who originally started in Primary Education before realising her teaching philosophy sat better with Early Childhood Education. She really thrives on the connections with other people and building strong relationships with everyone around her - children, parents and other kaiako. She is passionate about the outdoors with all the space it gives us and even more so within the bush, along with being around the animals, along with all the other aspects of Old Macs (Real, Whole and Care). Anna, while being calm and down at the children's level when required, also has an immense amount of energy to play with and alongside the children.