About Us

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I was born and raised on the West Coast of the South Island and lived in Hokitika most of my life. I have a very supportive husband (Brian) who is also from Hokitika.  

We are both very family orientated and love spending time with our extended family. Brian consistently continues to encourage and support me in life and with my business. 

We have three amazing children: Hunter, Cooper and Milah, who love the outdoors and also having fun with friends and family. 

We have been living in Nelson since 2017, and are so fortunate for all of the amazing opportunities that we have had while living here.

Our son had always struggled at school - even from five years old. Because I was an experienced Teacher, I thought that I would be a great person to support him. We spent many hours together practicing Reading, Writing, Spelling etc. I used all of the skills that I had learnt from many colleagues, and played many learning games but even though we were putting in the hours, nothing seemed to work. 

This was an extremely difficult and emotional time for him and I because he was not able to retain the learning in Literacy and Numeracy.

In my gut, I had always suspected that he had Dyslexia, however I was always told by his teachers that he was "fine". Unfortunately he soon become very anxious and had no self confidence. His feelings towards his learning got him into a very dark place, which was extraordinarily difficult to see as a parent.

We managed to get him onto the wait list for an assessment, and by 11 years old he was diagnosed with Dyslexia. Straight away he felt that a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders as he finally knew the reason why learning was difficult for him. We spent quite a lot of time researching and explaining what this meant for him. I was at a loss of how to best support him and his style of learning, and felt that I was totally out of my depth. I quickly learnt that Structured Literacy is crucial for Dyslexic learners. 

Next we enrolled him in evidence based tutoring where he attended weekly lessons. It was absolutely incredible to see the impact that the tutor was making, how much he was retaining and most importantly, the confidence that he was gaining. 

Looking back, there were so many signs from such a young age, but I didn't quite know exactly what I was looking for.

After a while, I decided to take the plunge and complete the 'Sounds Write - first rate phonics' course. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and loved learning about the specifics of teaching learners to read. With this new knowledge, it has given me the confidence to support struggling learners with exactly the right type of intervention. 

I am very passionate about supporting children who are struggling with Literacy. I love teaching them the skills and seeing their confidence grow. I am constantly learning about Dyslexia and wanting to improve my ability to support my son and my clients.