ACG SUNDERLAND WINGS NEWSLETTER

Vol 19, Term One, Week One, 27 January 2023

Dear Parents and Friends of ACG Sunderland

I wish to welcome back all existing students and parents to the Sunderland community, and I also wish to particularly highlight to over 140 new children and parents joining our community this week. A huge welcome to you all.

It was wonderful to meet so many of you at the New Parents Morning Tea on Thursday and I wish to remind you all about the information evenings coming up Wednesday 1 February (Primary) and Thursday 2 February (College), both start at 6.30pm.

With the growth of the school and a couple of resignations too, I am excited to welcome 13 new staff for 2023. Below is a brief bio of each of the new staff.

Not only are we celebrating our new teachers joining ACG Sunderland, but we are also recognizing our new school leaders for 2023.

As I highlighted last year, we have decided as a community that the labels of Head Boy and Head Girl were a little dated and did need refreshing.

Meet the Teacher – 6.30pm

Primary - Wednesday 1 February College – Thursday 2 February

Public Holidays: Monday 30 January & Monday 6 February

Therefore, today I can share that for 2023 and beyond, our name of our school leaders will be called ‘Head Students’ and are:

Anjika Sharma

Shreya Prasad

This week the students of each of the Houses also voted for their leaders along with staff and senior leadership input too.

Therefore, we can also announce the leaders of each of the Houses are:

Findlay – Mason Wang & Bhadhwaaj Ganta

Fleming – Amelie Villars & Justin Shan

McDonald – Syna Dhankani & Rory Neil

Tong – Anton Vrdoljak & Natasha Woolley

Waitakere – Celine Young & Ashita Joshi

Whenuapai – Cedric Siriwardana & Erica Cai

I am so very proud of our leadership team in 2023 and look forward to working with this wonderful group.

Not only are we celebrating our new students and leadership teams, but many of our students sat Cambridge Examinations last year and produced some of our best results. Below are some of the highlights.

• 100% pass rate at A Level with 76% at A-C grade and 37% at A-A*

• 92% pass rate at AS Level with 62% at A-C grade and 25% at A-A*

• 90% pass rate with 81% of our IGCSE results at A-C grade and 43% at A-A*

• Over 90% UE pass rate

• Secondary Checkpoint 90% pass rate

• Primary Checkpoint 85% pass rate

Congratulations to our wonderful student body, we were all so very pleased with these results.

Ms Anna Chan has had seven years of experience teaching a mixture of English and ESOL. She attended the University of Auckland where she attained a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English Literature and Writing Studies. Ms Chan worked at Botany Downs Secondary College prior to her role at ACG Sunderland. She is a passionate, exuberant and patient teacher who values the process of building positive relationships and engaging in lifelong learning. Her interests include arts and crafts, taking walks in nature, and tending to her pet turtle, Goji.

Miss Jeewan Cheema has five years of experience teaching children in the Lower Primary and Upper Primary. She has a Masters in Teaching with Distinction and a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours from the University of Auckland. She has worked as a primary school teacher at a number of primary schools within Auckland. She believes in building strong relationships with students and families and building on student strengths to encourage a love of learning. Her interests outside of work include reading, cooking and fitness.

Miss Emily Fei had five-plus years of experience as a commercial photographer before becoming a secondary teacher. She attended the Auckland University of Technology where she obtained a Bachelor of Design. She then completed her Master of Design at Massey University She is creative and knowledgeable about Art and Design and cannot wait to share her passion with the students at ACG Sunderland Her interests include travel and cross-cultural design

Miss Hannah Fisher has eleven years of teaching experience between the UK and New Zealand, settling here in 2016. She attended university in Wales, receiving a Bachelor’s in Education with Honours, specialising in English due to her love of literature. Her weekends and holidays are spent exploring the country she has chosen as home with her dog.

Mr Mario Jensen is our new second year Physical Education and Health teacher. He has a Bachelor of Science majoring in physiology and exercise science plus a diploma in secondary school teaching all from the University of Auckland. He has worked at Mount Roskill Grammar School and been involved in much of the wider education throughout the school, particularly football. He is passionate about success and striving for excellence for himself but also the students. He’s looking forward to the journey at ACG Sunderland.

Mrs Rubie Kim has had eight years of experience teaching children in the Lower and Upper Primary. She attended University of Otago where she obtained a Bachelor of Dental Technology. At University of Auckland, she graduated with a Graduate Diploma for teaching. Mrs Kim taught at ACG Sunderland for one and a half years before taking a break and getting married. She really missed all the students and other amazing teachers here and is excited to be back in 2023

Mrs Ashneeta Kumaran has sixteen years of experience teaching in New Zealand. She is originally from Fiji Islands and moved to New Zealand in 2005. She has three boys aged 11, 9, and 5. Her expertise and passion are teaching senior Mathematics. She is currently completing her last paper in, her master’s in educational leadership at Auckland University. She has been a middle leader in charge of curriculum and assessment in Mathematics. We are excited to have her on board in the College Mathematics Faculty.

Mrs Amanda Pires has twelve years of experience teaching across the Upper and Lower Primary years. She has most recently been working as a teacher at King's School. She obtained her Bachelor of Education from the University of Auckland and thoroughly enjoys working in education. She is a passionate teacher who enjoys building strong relationships with children, parents, and colleagues in order to ensure the best outcomes for learning. At home, she has a young family which includes two children and a little dog! They love to be outside and enjoy time with friends and family.

Miss Caitlin Sanders is a new Science and Mathematics teacher at ACG Sunderland. She studied a BSc in Psychology at the University of Otago and a GradDip in Psychotherapy at AUT. She then studied a PostGraduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching from the University of Auckland. Miss Sanders has a passion for science and aims to create a positive, supportive teaching environment that encourages each student to do their best Originally from Wanaka, she enjoys getting outdoors in her spare time

Mr Nigel Shaw repatriated to New Zealand in 2020 after 24 years teaching A-level and International Baccalaureate Biology in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of Brunei. For the last two years he has been teaching Science at the University of Auckland International College. Mr Shaw enjoys the outdoors and has been heavily involved in outdoor education and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award over the last 38 years.

Mrs Kylie Todd has over 10 years experience teaching singing to children, youth and adults and 4 years experience teaching Upper Primary Music through the PBLP program at the Parnell campus. She attended New Zealand School of Music where she obtained a Bachelor of Music (Jazz). Kylie enjoys both performing and educating young musicians. She is also a Trinity College of London examiner for Rock and Pop. Aside from attending live music events, Kylie loves a good board games night.

Mrs Maria Wheeler-Hughes is our new College Social Science teacher. She attended the University of Auckland where she obtained a Bachelor of Art, double majoring in history and ancient history. Her love for learning led her to stay at the university for a few more years adding a Bachelor of Art honours degree, and Master of Art specialising in history to her academic credentials . After working in a corporate setting, and being a stay-at-home mum for a few years, she returned to the University of Auckland and obtained her Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary). Mrs Wheeler-Hughes is enthusiastic and passionate about teaching and aims to inspire this same love of learning in her students. Her interests include embroidery, board games, and travel

Ms Roza Yazdani Started her education experience since 2004 when involved in training medical imaging students as a senior Radiographer. It was the point that she found working in education field as her passion. Almost ten years working with students, led me to think about a big change in my career track. Being a mum of a lovely, energetic boy, spending time with him by his school time, and later to be his main teacher during Covid pandemic, working actively with NZ multicultural play centres ,to give support to the immigrant family from different nationalities and bilingual children completed the rest of her puzzle to discover her goal. Studying Liaisons Interpreting in Auckland Unitec was an opportunity to improve her English skills academically. Her passion for children ‘s future is unconditional which she ‘d love to continue for rest of her life. Daily struggling with three languages fluently made her to understand what the students of ESOL program need and how she can be a role model for them as s former ESOL student and current ESOL teacher.

Have a wonderful long weekend everyone, I look forward to catching up on Tuesday 31 January after the Anniversary weekend.

Aspire. Succeed. Respect.

Nathan Villars Campus Principal ACG Sunderland