Home. - Āwhina Education

Empowering young
kiwis in learning
and life.

We’re a small, big hearted team of educators, passionate about delivering structured literacy and maths intervention for children who learn differently.

Welcome to Āwhina Education! We are a Wellington-based tuition company that understands young people are unique, and that their learning styles can be, too. We cater to a wide range of children with learning differences, including those with Specific Learning Disorders (SLDs) such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. Our goal is to ensure that no matter how your child sees the world, they can achieve great things in learning and in life.

We will let this parent speak to how successfully we accomplish this:

"I wanted to send you my daughter’s school report and say how lucky we feel to have found you and have you 'on her team'. We are beyond thrilled with it and count a lot of it down to the hard work she does with her tutor. She adores her and loves her tutoring time, which really in the scheme of things is so important - she’s an enthusiastic learner - yay! I was so worried with her dyslexia she would lose that. Seeing her called 'a fluent reader' makes us so happy, too, as I so want her to enjoy the wonderful world of books! Thank you so much for all your help and patience - she is so proud of herself."

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Looking out for learners

Our team are experts in designing teaching programmes that meet the particular challenges your child may be facing in their learning journey. We provide a bridge to help them meet the demands of the mainstream curriculum, first by undertaking an assessment of their learning needs, then by monitoring their progress on a regular basis and adjusting our tutoring plans accordingly. We work closely with your family and school to ensure we are wrapping support around your child in the most effective way possible.

Robust, evidence based programmes

Our core strength at Āwhina Education is that we only deliver robust, targeted, evidence-based programmes in both maths and structured literacy. We work collaboratively with local educational and clinical psychologists, and speech-language therapists, who have helped develop our strong systems and bank of resources. The chair of our advisory board is an educational psychologist. Her responsibility is to ensure everything we do meets best practice requirements, and she regularly monitors our practice, resources and programmes.

Giving back

Āwhina Education is a social enterprise and we volunteer a portion of our time in order to help a wider range of young people who need our services. Our volunteer scheme provides tuition in partnership with local Wellington schools, to ensure we are working to bridge not only the gap created by different learning needs, but by income disparities as well. If you are interested in our pro-bono scheme and would like to know how you can support us in this endeavour, please drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you.

Who we work with

At Āwhina we support not only learners, but schools as well. We believe that being connected to the communities our students live and learn in is vital to their success.

Learners

Our learners are front and centre to everything we do. The input from families and schools, in combination with the data we collect through testing and teaching your child, enables us to deliver a programme that is truly responsive to a young person’s unique learning needs. We continue to research and update the methods and resources we employ, so your child gets the most relevant and effective programme possible.

View our programmes

Educators

Are your teachers or teacher aids interested in learning more about SLDs like dyslexia, and how children with learning differences can be supported in the classroom? Get in touch to find out how we can bring professional development to your school or learning institute.

Get in touch

Our Tutors

Our team is made up of a group of 10 intervention specialists, plus our resident educational psychologist, Amelia. Each one of us has undertaken rigorous training in the methodologies we use. These are highly specialised skills and our tutors are also adept at working in close conjunction with their students’ classroom teachers.

Melissa

Melissa is our Managing Director, founder, and general task master, as well as a hands-on mama of two. In short, she's The Boss. She has lived and travelled pretty much everywhere, but somehow managed to also squeeze in time for both English and business degrees, along with a fancy Masters of Development Studies. She’s such a nerd, she even gained an Orton-Gillingham qualification in her spare time! Prior to working as an intervention specialist, Melissa was a high school English teacher. She spent most of her career at He Huarahi Tamariki, the teen parent unit in Tawa, and has a deep passion for finding new ways to deliver the curriculum to students who might otherwise have floundered in it.

Amelia

Amelia is a registered educational psychologist, mother of a truly delicious wee man, and our “Chief Nerd in Residence”. She’s in charge of ensuring we choose the best programmes, and that all our teaching and plans are up to scratch. Amelia spent much of the past decade working in intervention to fund her studies, and is an exceptionally talented tutor and trainer. Her career goal is to make the world a better place by creating a culture shift in the education system, so every child is recognised as having their own learning style, and supported to be their best self.

Amelia also runs her own educational psychology practice. If you are interested in finding out more about the assessment process, check out her website on https://www.tewheke.org.nz/

Rachael

Rachael is the Assistant Manager here at Āwhina, as well as a fantastic tutor. She holds not just a Masters in Social Sciences majoring in Education Studies, but also a Graduate Diploma in Educational Psychology - she’s pretty onto it, to say the least! She’s been working as a Teaching Assistant for the past few years, supporting students with a range of learning and behavioural challenges; her previous boss described her as their “safe pair of hands”, as well as unflappable and totally reliable, which is just what our students need. Rachael has a particular passion for inclusive and sustainable education (learning for all, teaching that matters, and learning that lasts), and loves seeing students develop the skills and confidence for life-long learning.

Carina

Carina is our maths guru. She also supports those of us who are parents in cultivating a love of science and nature in our little people, as she’s done in her own two teenage children. She came to New Zealand from Dinslaken, Germany in 1995 to study Geology, and has been calling Aotearoa home ever since. The challenge of constantly trying to think outside the box, to find new and inventive ways to meet the individual needs of her students, is what gets Carina out of bed every morning. While she is brilliant at teaching both maths and literacy, her passion is maths. She has been working in intervention for eight years, and can think of nothing more satisfying than fostering a love and fascination of the world of numbers and patterns in the next generation

Karen

Karen is our personal resource bloodhound, able to source the most amazing items to complement our programmes, despite the terrifying number available. She came to intervention as a refugee from the corporate world - thank goodness for that annual quota! - and has never looked back. Karen is the mother of three gorgeous, nearly-grown kids, and a self-confessed bookshop and coffee obsessive. When she’s not enjoying the warmth of the indoors, she can be found walking her black labrador in the hills of Wellington. Karen has worked as an intervention specialist for eight years now, and loves building relationships with both students and their families. She has the magic touch with young people who are nervous about their own ability to achieve, and we find she is so kind, her former students are always clambouring to come back!

Angela

Angela is a born and bred Wellingtonian. She studied both Education and French at University, before leaving the country to expand her horizons and finally visit France. She spent much of her twenties zipping in and out of the UK to every country she could get a flight to, including six months living in South Africa (South America is still on her bucket list, specifically to walk the Inca Trail before her knees start to resist). Oh, and did we mention that she’s also got a background in finance, working for both PricewaterhouseCoopers and JP Morgan? After returning to NZ in 2001 and having two gorgeous children, Angela started to rethink her priorities, looking for a way to utilise her skills and support the needs of other children, too. She began work in intervention in 2014 and loves seeing children grow in their own self-belief, building the confidence to tackle life and the challenges it throws at them.

Laura-Jane

Laura-Jane comes to us through the early childhood sector, where she has been heavily involved in the Playcentre movement for the past 9 years. In addition to completing a range of courses in order to deliver early childhood teaching programmes, she has also held various management positions, most recently acting as co-president of the Brooklyn group. We’ve heard Laura-Jane described as not only naturally warm and welcoming, but also “particularly fantastic with children”! We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

In her previous life before having her 3 beautiful children, Laura-Jane worked both in the private sector in business management, as well as for World Vision, managing relationships with schools and delivering programmes like the 40 hour famine. She says she loves working with young people because she enjoys giving them the guidance and tools to enable them to develop and grow into independent and curious learners.

Carmen

Carmen comes to tutoring from a place of pure passion, and brings with her a deep understanding and empathy for families who are supporting a child with an SLD: one of her own sons had difficulties with literacy. She taught him at home, and says it has been one of her greatest joys to help him move from a place of discouragement to being a voracious reader. Carmen has been very active in the homeschool community, most recently running their drama programme, and has a wealth of experience tutoring at Victoria University in their psychology department. She has a strong belief in meeting a person where they are, helping them to move forward in a positive, fun, and interesting way.

Merryn

Merryn comes to Āwhina with an extraordinary wealth of experience in building literacy skills in those who need it most. Not only has she completed a range of courses in adult literacy, ESOL, and working with those with dyslexia, she has also supported some incredible people from diverse backgrounds, who are facing significant personal struggles. When she’s not tutoring for us she’s out creating bespoke solutions for workplace literacy problems (or chasing her escape-artist dog!), and has previously tutored at Rimutaka Prison with inmates, as well as with new migrants via English Language Partners. We think her do-gooder attitude is an excellent fit for our little team! Merryn says she loves the work she does because supporting learners to tap into their own strengths builds confidence and minimises obstacles, which creates success.

Jacqui

We were delighted to snag Jacqui as a result of Covid, which prevented the many temptations of Spain from stealing her from our fair shores! Jacqui has a vast array of teaching experience that she draws upon, including lecturing at Massey University in Human Resources Management in the early days of her career, to more recently working as an ESOL tutor with a wide range of students from diverse nationalities, backgrounds and cultures. She even volunteers with recent immigrants through English Language Partners, and says the most satisfying part of tuition is being able to see the progress that is being made and the difference it makes to students’ lives.

Max

Max comes to us all the way from Canada, and is doing his very best to improve the gender balance here at Āwhina! While his stay in New Zealand was initially meant to be brief - ticking off some of his favourite hobbies, including diving for pāua - he fell in love with the country, and a kiwi partner has seen him make Wellington his permanent home. Max is incredibly experienced, holding not only a degree in Education with a specialisation in Teaching English as a Second Language, but also an Honours degree in English Literature, with a focus on Creative Writing and Journalism. His teaching work so far has given him experience dealing not only with the culturally diverse nature of the classroom, but also how to tailor his practice to meet the needs of children with a range of learning challenges. He says reading and literature are two of his great passions, so to be able to help children develop their literacy skills gives him both great pride and enormous satisfaction.

Leslie

Leslie joins us as an experienced high school English teacher of 10 years, with a Masters in English Teaching, Writing, and Linguistics. She has supported numerous students with learning challenges in the mainstream classroom, and now that she has two children of her own, her heart is set on working individually with students to make the biggest impact in their learning journeys. Sharing the ‘magic’ of reading and writing is one of her biggest joys in life, and she knows that every child can reach their full potential with the right support. Leslie hails from America, but she moved to Aotearoa in 2010 with her kiwi hubby after falling in love with New Zealand and everything it has to offer. She gets a thrill from learning new things and has been known to sign herself up for courses ranging from Te Reo Māori, to introduction to the ukelele, to Zen meditation. She feels privileged to be in a position to empower students with the tools to become lifelong learners and their best selves.

Penny

Penny is an escaped primary school teacher, and we are delighted to have lured her over to a career in structured literacy! Penny has experience working with students who have a range of diverse learning needs, and says she thrives on working alongside students, their whānau, and other education services, to ensure that students achieve success and gain the confidence and skills to be lifelong learners. She has always held a deep love of literacy and aspires to nurture the same passion within every student - starting with her own young son! She is a pro at working with each child’s unique learning style, to ensure they feel empowered and confident in their learning.

Kind Words From Parents

Tutoring has taught our daughter that you can do anything you put your mind to and allowed her confidence to grow so much. Over the time working with you she has gone from a child who was very quiet in class and would hardly ever answer questions, to a child who raises her hand voluntarily and answers the question with pride, confident she knows a thing or two. I can't put into words how grateful and happy we are to have found Āwhina Education.

"Oh gosh I'm speechless, overjoyed and completely overcome with emotions and gratitude, smiling through tears rolling down my cheeks. Thank you for all your support, I would want any other parent to feel what I'm feeling right now... my son has just flourished."

"Hannah's spelling and reading has really improved since starting with Āwhina Education. She seems more engaged and doesn't fight us when asked to do her homework - which is a massive change for her and us."

"We’ve noticed more confidence in everything. The one-on-one tutoring has been fantastic for Wilbur. His tutor is amazing."

"We’ve noticed a huge increase in our son’s self confidence when it comes to learning, which has translated into enjoying doing the homework that his tutor gives him."

“Our daughter has had a wonderful term and I'm so grateful that Liz Kane told us about your company. This whole structured literacy approach is really helping her. The lessons are all making sense to her... it is connecting to her brain and it has been a joy to watch her really learn. Her tutor is nothing short of amazing with her. Thank you to her tutor and to the whole Awhina Education team from my family.“

"Thanks for all you do - I have already noticed a massive difference... I can’t believe she can read half the words she’s able to now!"

"This Tuesday he came out from tutoring with a smile a mile wide and full of enthusiasm. He said his tutor was so proud of him identifying all the language features. The way you are teaching him is just what he needs and is filling him with confidence, not just in English, but also in History and Mathematics. I just wish I had done this sooner. Thank You so much for your hard work. You totally amaze me with what you have achieved in such a short time."

"It is a wrench leaving his tutor who has been a superlative tutor for our son - her structuring, skill, sensitivity, and positive approach has really helped him reengage. We almost considered staying in Wellington longer for her!"

"My daughter’s maths confidence has soared since starting tutoring with Karen! She is a fantastic tutor!"

"We are very grateful to you and Carina. Our son loves reading now, he even likes to write, and says spelling is easy! Your work has changed his life."

“Thought I'd share this [report] to show how our son has benefited from all your support this year and how he has shared this with his teachers and they affirm this. Thank you everyone! We feel so lucky to have this team around him, helping him grow and learn.”

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Empowering youngkiwis in learningand life.