About

Whakahuahua Kaupapa

• 

   

  
  

               ABOUT US 

  ABOUT THE LSN NETWORK

  • The Learning Support Network (LSN) is a place and space for learning support coordinators and SENCO throughout New Zealand to connect, communicate and collaborate with each other online and offline.

    The online space provides a national repository of resources for members to co-create, curate and evaluate. It provides regular updated and curated information, webinars with guest presenters (national and international), regional and national hui and event notifications, publications, links to organisations, websites and videos.

    Professional blended learning modules linked to the teacher standards are available. Completion of these learning activities, modules and courses results in digital badging that can contribute to qualifications in Learning Support (LS).

    
    

• ABOUT the 4 HUBS
  

  ABOUT the 4 HUBS

  
  
• The team behind the Learning Support Network
  

  The team behind the Learning Support Network

  	MANDIA MENTIS - MASSEY UNIVERSITY Kia ora koutou, Ko Mandia Mentis ahau. I’m an Associate Professor at Massey University, where I coordinate postgraduate programmes in Inclusive Education and Specialist Teaching. I’ve worked as a teacher and educational psychologist in primary, secondary, and tertiary levels across special and inclusive education settings in New Zealand and overseas.  I am currently co-director of the Equity through Education Centre, and supervise research into issues of diversity. My interests focus on how new digital technologies are  changing the places and spaces where we work and learn and are starting to blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning. Life-long and life-wide learning shape our professional identities and practice, and it is these aspects that excite me in working with the team to design and facilitate this SENCO / SL:LS network of expertise.
  	ALISON KEARNEY - MASSEY UNIVERSITY Kia ora koutou, Ko Alison Kearney taku ingoa. I’m an Associate Professor at Massey University, where I teach in the Specialist Teaching and in the Masters in Education (Teaching and Learning) programmes. In my previous life, I was a primary school teacher, a Resource Teacher of Special Needs and a Guidance and Learning Teacher (the precursor to the RTLB position). Along with Mandia Mentis,  I am the co-director of the Equity through Education Centre, a centre that is focused on breaking down barriers to learning and promoting equity in, and through, education via research, inquiry and scholarship. My research interests are based on this kaupapa and I supervise both masters and doctoral students in this field. I am very pleased to have been involved in this exciting new initiative - the Learning Support Network for SENCO and school leaders of learning support.
  	WENDY HOLLEY-BOEN - MASSEY UNIVERSITY Kia ora koutou and a warm welcome to the Network of Expertise.  I work at Massey University, in the Institute of Education and primarily on the Specialist Teaching programme.  I have worked as an educational psychologist in the US as well as New Zealand, and have a passion for strengths-based, ecological and relationship-centred approaches to supporting teaching, children and whānau. I’m also very interested in supporting teacher wellbeing, including the ways they bring the personal to the professional and integrate work, life and study.  I recently completed a PhD exploring the professional identity and wellbeing of teachers, and developed a framework for supporting their fierce practice through stance, supports and stamina.
  	JO ARNOLD - MASSEY UNIVERSITY Kia ora koutou, Ko Jo Arnold ahau. I am the coordinator for the Learning Support Network. I have been in education for twenty-five years and have worked as a teacher in numerous schools in New Zealand, Singapore and England. During my career, I was a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) for fourteen years as well as a Deputy Principal.  I have also been a Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) for five years where part of my role was to work alongside and support SENCO/ Leaders of Learning Support in my local schools. I have a Masters in Specialist Teaching and a passion for mentoring, developing and supporting professional identity in teachers. I have been working at Massey University since the beginning of 2018. I am looking forward to communicating, collaborating and connecting with Learning Support Leaders and SENCO across the country, both online and face to face, through this initiative.

  
  
  
• The 4 HUBS
  

  The 4 HUBS