Staff Profiles

Joybelle D’Lima
Position
Teacher (New Entrant to Year 2)

General Information
Joybelle has been appointed the New Entrant- Year 2 Teacher at Kaimai School for 2012. She is a UK-trained and New Zealand registered primary school teacher with over seven years teaching experience in primary schools and kindergartens in the UK, Sweden, Australia, India and New Zealand.  She has worked in very large multicultural urban schools in London, International Primary Schools in Sweden, make-shift schools in some of the worse deprived poverty-stricken slum areas of India and tiny rural community schools in New Zealand.  She has a great deal of experience teaching children for whom English is a second language and has worked in Special Schools both in the UK and in New Zealand, working closely with children with Autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome and Visual and Hearing Impairments.

Bev Kidd
Position
Teacher (Year 3 and Year 4)

General Information
Bev currently teaches a delightful group of  Year 2, 3 and 4 students. These children are a part of Bev and Ray Kidd’s family, and she works really hard to ensure to create a caring and personal relationship with each child, and their families.  She provides interactive learning experiences and expects the personal best from each child, according to their wide range of individual abilities.  Bev has a passion for literacy and she loves to introduce her students to a range of children’s literature, particularly involving New Zealand authors.  She is a strong advocate for the children in her care and she always will hear student voice and maximize opportunities for them to thrive not only academically, but as individuals.

Lynne Sperring
Position
Teacher (Year 5 and Year 6)

General Information
Lynne relishes the opportunity to teach the year 5 and 6 children at Kaimai School, and guide them as they really begin to develop their independence.   She particularly loves exploring the world of literature with her class, encouraging them to get in amongst the books they are reading, and share them with each other.  She is committed to providing her students with opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills across the curriculum and enjoys giving them the opportunity to follow their own direction with their learning, using their particular strengths and  preferences to achieve their goals.  Leading the choir is a rewarding challenge which allows Lynne to work with children from across the school and give them yet another opportunity to shine.

Sonjae Henderson
Position
Teacher/Deputy Principal (Year 7 and Year 8)

General Information
Sonjae made the switch to teaching in 2005 after an eleven and a half year career in the banking industry.  She started teaching the wonderful bunch of seniors at Kaimai School in 2008.  Sonjae says that intermediate aged students are a fantastic age to teach and she really enjoys the challenge of preparing them for a successful transition to college. Sonjae has a passion for eLearning and this has been a major focus in her classroom programme right from the beginning of her career.  She began her career in a Multimedia class where students had to buy their own laptops but at Kaimai School we provide a MacBook Laptop for each of our senior students.  She says that she is really grateful for the privilege of being able to teach at Kaimai School, where every child in the school is known personally, where children get to be children and where staff are made to feel appreciated and valued.

JR Leask
Position
Office Administrator

General Information
JR has been living in the Kaimai Ranges for over 8 years and enjoys the country lifestyle.  She moved to the Kaimais after spending 6 years of working and travelling in the  UK as well as Europe, Africa, Indian, Nepal & Belize.  JR loves the outdoors and most of her hobbies; horse riding, scuba diving, fishing & camping, reflect this.

JR also loves the family feel at Kaimai School and how all the bigger children look after the little ones.  She says that Kaimai  has a great family feel and reminds her of the little school in Ngunguru she attended.

Dane Robertson
Position
Principal

General Information
Dane began his teaching career at Katikati College where he eventually took on the role of Year 7 then Year 8 Dean. He was also the in-school facilitator for the Secondary Numeracy Project.  He now is the Principal of Kaimai School.  Dane has come from a sporting background, where he held a number of national rowing titles and he was able to represent New Zealand in two trans-Tasman rowing championships.  His sporting background, along with specialising in Health and PE at teachers college has helped make PE a subject that he really likes teaching.  Dane is also interested in the way teachers can use today’s technology to help students learn. He introduced the multi-media class to Kaimai and has helped integrate digital learning throughout the school. Dane says that he loves the fact that he lives and works in the Kaimais as it is a great place to bring up a family.