Scholarships recognise support staff and early educators

NZEI scholarships recognise support staff and early childhood educators

26 September, 2016

NZEI Te Riu Roa has announced scholarships for support staff and early childhood members at its annual conference in Rotorua last night.

NZEI president Louise Green presented the $5000 scholarships and announced five new associates of NZEI.

This year the support staff awarded the scholarships are:

Michelle Simms, library manager at Te Totara Primary School in Hamilton has a Diploma in Library and Information Studies. Her project is entitled How reading for pleasure can benefit students and librarians. She intends recording and disseminating the latest international research on the academic benefits and increased empathy skills of students who read for pleasure and to investigate how this might impact on the working conditions of school librarians.

A teacher aide - Karyn Anne Humphries - has also been recognised. Karyn is a teacher aide at Omata Primary School in New Plymouth. Her project is to complete a post graduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching (Autism Spectrum Disorder) through Massey University. She will use theoretical and research-based study of specialist teaching to increase understanding of providing for learners with autism.

In early childhood education, two educators received scholarships.

Kate McAnelly, a teacher at Kindergarten South in Invercargill, has been awarded the scholarship to complete her Master of Education dissertation. Entitled Achieving citizenship for all: How do people in a kindergarten support the active participation of a child with a disability and their family?, she will critically examine how a kindergarten community of learners best comes together to support the active participation of a disabled child and their family.

And a pre-school manager at ACG Sunderland Preschool in Henderson, Auckland, Mary Hardiman has been awarded the scholarship to carry out post-graduate research on the impact a qualified teaching team would have on the learning outcomes for children in ECE. She will then develop strategies for teachers to communicate the importance of teacher training and knowledge for early childhood education.

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