He Waka Unua | Coaching and mentoring

Amira brings many years of experience with coaching and mentoring both in schools and as a kaiārahi for He Waka Unua. Amira specialised in coaching and mentoring as a part of her M.Ed. She often works with leaders and aspiring leaders as they navigate advancing their career. Clients will bring ‘conundrums of practice’ to Amira as she works with Kāhui Ako lead principals, Across School Leads, Senior, Middle and aspiring Leaders. Amira also works with kaiako who want to make a change in their context. She enjoys working alongside someone and supporting them in what they are focusing on. She supports leaders to set clear goals and work towards them or listen through what's on top now.

Gae has been an early years educator for over 30 years , she brings extensive experience to her role as kaiārahi for He Waka Unua. She has worked extensively with early years leaders, emerging leaders and kaiako . Gae’s approach is based in cultural responsiveness, diversity, social justice and inclusion for learners and educators. She has a very relational approach based in whanaungatanga and manaakitanga: getting to know you where you are at. Once a positive professional relationship is established, she will support her kaiwhakauru by prompting with reflective questions to encourage along each individual journey. Gae is known for the warmth and care she brings to all her work, her ability to connect with her clients and being a catalyst for change.

Hoana brings 20 years of teaching experience in Rumaki within Waikato and Te Tai Tokerau to her role at Tātai Aho Rau Core Education. Over the last six years Hoana was actively involved in establishing a Charter school which later transitioned to become a Special Character School.

Hoana developed a Kura Rumaki co-constructing special character curriculum and implemented a learning culture within the community. A passionate driver of systemic change to ensure equitable outcomes for all, Hoana is driven by a desire to see and achieve success as a learner. Hoana has facilitated and worked collaboratively with staff and whānau to create a culture and wānanga space that is inclusive and allows Māori to be successful as Māori

As part of Tātai Aho Rau Jacky co-creates tailored professional learning opportunities in a wide range of areas, working collaboratively with senior leaders, team/faculty leaders and staff in both primary and secondary schools. Her work has also connected her with clients from outside the educational area.

She is able to support people in their leadership and management of change. She designs and co-constructs learning opportunities that are responsive to school needs for the whole staff, smaller groups and individual staff members. She facilitates strategic development and implementation of that change, extending staff competencies and capabilities, and pedagogical strategies designed to deepen student engagement, learning and achievement. While underpinned by proven research theories and frameworks, her work always contains practical elements of what can be used within the context of a classroom to transform learning for students.

Jo supports a wide range of schools and Kāhui Ako to address equitable outcomes for ākonga and kaiako. Prior to joining Tātai Aho Rau Core Education, Jo spent over 20 years teaching in primary and secondary settings from Year 1 to Year 9 classes.

She held senior leadership roles for over 15 years. Jo has extensive experience engaging ākonga in their learning and in leading teams to ensure that all learning is central to the students' needs and wellbeing.

During her teaching career, Jo held many curriculum responsibilities including literacy and mathematics. She spent several years teaching school-wide to accelerate learning in maths for ākonga working below expected achievement trajectories. This involved postgraduate study in mathematics education, productive inquiry into programme design, development and teaching, with knowledge building on intervention strategies. This learning flowed into the wider school setting with Jo facilitating schoolwide development in teacher pedagogy and practice through an inquiry process. More recently, Jo completed structured literacy practitioner qualification to teach and lead schools to implement a structured approach to literacy.

Kathe’s career has been focused on improving learning outcomes for all students and empowering, strengthening and building the capacity of all teachers. Kathe develops and models collaborative and inclusive protocols while being cognisant of supporting culturally responsive practice.

Prior to working for Tātai Aho Rau, Kathe was one of two deputy principals at Te Ara Whānui Kura Kaupapa Māori o ngā Kohanga Reo o Te Awakairangi, in Lower Hutt – a newly built kura. Her portfolios were performance management, curriculum design, sport and physical education, and e-learning.