The logo of Sharp, Kinane Limited was developed through the collaborative partnership of Jacqui Sharp and David Kinane. Their professional relationship was established many years ago through sharing the same values and vision for supporting and developing educators across Aotearoa. Both were dedicated and passionate about facilitating new growth in teachers in order to grow capable, confident and resilient ākonga. Jacqui and David view education as life-long learning and with their experiences and belief in fostering collaborative practices formed Sharp, Kinane Limited.Type your paragraph here
Therefore, the symbolism represented in the kowhaiwhai design signifies the joining of their combined knowledge within education. Alongside this is the reflection of their desire for perpetual growth, renewal through sharing while creating new understanding through combining different paths of learning. The colour red relates to the pohutukawa flower that aligns with people and the pedagogy that underpins teaching and learning. The green of the koru represents new growth, ideas and renewed learning. As facilitators weave the kete of knowledge with those they work alongside, the harakeke gradually changes from the greenness formed from new ideas through to the embedded wisdom of experience the colour brown portrays. As Sharp, Kinane Limited has grown, Jacqui and David are proud of the like-minded and equally passionate facilitators that they have brought into the team. This has helped to establish and create a company that values, reflects and celebrates the diversity, experiences, perspectives and skills that each person brings. As we grow, we continue to assimilate new ideas and continually weave our new learning into our products and services.Type your paragraph here
It is this collaborative philosophy that we all bring to our mahi with kura and kaiako in our PLD contracts. We recognise that our team and kaiako are experts and all have a skill and a perspective to share and learn from each other. Sharing allows new growth, new learning and new confidence for all to explore new ideas. In this way, we also bring back to our team the wisdom we have learned alongside the kura and akonga we individually work with. Our vision and statement for Sharp Kinane is Ka rārangahia tahitia ō mātou ara mātauranga mā te ako ngātahi. This reflects our belief that to make a difference and be effective in our mahi we are committed to ensuring the principles of ‘Weaving our pathways of knowledge through learning together’ guide our journey.Type your paragraph here
Meet the team
Jacqui Sharp
Jacqui has been at the forefront of digital learning innovation for many years, mostly working in year 0-8 classrooms throughout the North Island. Jacqui believes that all kaiako have the potential to take action to change the way they teach and deliver content. Her facilitation style is to work alongside teachers and encourage them to build capacity to make the changes that develop a culture of learner agency within their classrooms; where ākonga are expected to be able to identify their learning goals, build learning resilience and be risk takers in their learning. Kaiako as well as ākonga have to be risk-takers and know that it is ok to fail. Jacqui’s role in this process is to be an active support person to demonstrate, listen, discuss, observe and reflect with the ultimate goal of making a difference in teacher practice and student learning.
Jacqui follows an inquiry approach when working with individual teachers to establish what they know and what they need to know. They then work together to collect a kete of new knowledge which is practised, reflected on and new goals are set. She values diversity and brings cultural sensitivity into all her interactions with teachers and students and through the mahi she creates.
Jacqui has been leading the PLD of Sharp, Kinane facilitators through the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories and company-wide they have developed a wide range of resources to support kaiako and ākonga in learning about the land on which they stand. Jacqui alongside David Kinane is leading the PLD of Sharp, Kinane facilitators in Social Sciences and the new draft Literacy and Maths Curriculum. Resources are being created to support these new curriculums.
Jacqui has a vast array of resources, websites, books, courses and workshops (covering all curriculum areas) which are known, trusted and used by teachers locally, nationally and internationally, built up over 20 years. Jacqui is a SeeSaw and Book Creator Ambassador.
Jacqui is based in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau and is currently servicing PLD contracts in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau, Northland/Te Tai Tokerau and Taranaki.
David Kinane
Before setting up Sharp, Kinane Limited with Jacqui, David already had a long established business providing in-class PLD to the education sector throughout New Zealand.
Prior to this, he worked for Team Solutions at the University of Auckland as their e-Learning facilitator responsible for delivering the digital learning, schools support contract to all secondary schools in the Auckland//Tāmaki Makaurau and Northland/Te Tai Tokerau regions.
David has been teaching since the 1990’s. In that time David has taken on the following roles: the lead teacher for maths, implementing the new Maths curriculum, Whānau team leader, Deputy Principal and an e-Learning specialist.
David has long been an advocate for encouraging students to tackle open-ended maths and logical reasoning investigations in class, to ensure that conceptually students understand the logic and practicality of maths in real life situations.
David has presented e-Learning workshops and theory at conferences all over New Zealand and has also presented on e-Learning pedagogy and integration at conferences in Hong Kong, Australia and the Czech Republic.
David is based in the Waikato and is currently servicing PLD contracts in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau, Northland/Te Tai Tokerau and Waikato regions.
Bex Langton
Bex has 25 years teaching experience working in both the primary, intermediate and secondary sectors, specialising in science, chemistry, and mathematics at the secondary level.
In the classroom, Bex encouraged her students to integrate personal interests whilst supporting them to actively design their own learning journey. Bex enjoyed delivering learning through a student-centred integrated approach with an emphasis on STEAM. Bex also encouraged them to explore learning beyond the classroom walls and enjoyed supporting students to enter in local, regional and national competitions, across all curriculum areas.
In her leadership role as a Deputy Principal, she was responsible for curriculum development, data tracking and analysis, student reporting, teaching as inquiry, the implementation of ALiM, and developing systems for collaborative planning and practice.
Bex’s strengths include effective analysis of assessment data to guide planning and the construction of personalised learning programmes, creating systems for collaborative planning across the school and working with schools to develop their local curriculum.
Bex has previously received nominations for the ASG Excellence in Teaching Award and for the More FM Taranaki Teacher of the Year. Bex is a SeeSaw Ambassador and values this platform as a way for students to be effective agents of their own learning.
way for students to be effective agents of their own learning.Bex is based on her dairy farm in Taranaki and is currently servicing PLD contracts in the Taranaki and Manawatu regions.
Donna Davies
Qualifications
Bachelor of Education: Awarded with distinction and a specialism in the Arts
Post Graduate Diploma: ICT in Education
Level 3 He Papa Tikanga (Mātauranga Māori) Kaupae 3 – New Zealand Certicate in
Tikanga (Mātauranga Māori) Level 3
Level 4 Te Pōkaitahi Tikanga (Mātauranga Māori) Kaupae 4 – New Zealand Certicate in
Tikanga (Mātauranga Māori) Level 4
Level 4 certicate in māori protocol and language for use in the home and community
Level 5 certicate in tikanga and māori language for the home and community
Te Ahu o Te Reo certied – Level One – Level Four
Donna is an experienced facilitator. She collaborates with kura around the motu to design
innovative, authentic learning programmes with a clear focus on building numeracy and
literacy skills. She has a wealth of expertise in developing and implementing robust
evidence based learning programmes across the curriculum. She ensures school learning
programmes draw on the aspirations of iwi, whanau and community, leverage o
relationships for learning, optimise curriculum integration and value student voice.
Donna has extensive classroom experience in a range of contexts including Intermediate,
rural, multi level, collaborative and bi-lingual settings.
Donna enjoys being on a learning journey with kaiako to build pedagogical capability
through modeling key concepts and co-constructing engaging resources and experiences.
Her facilitation style is practical, exible and responsive to each school and individual
teacher needs.
Donna enjoys being on a learning journey with kaiako to build pedagogical capability through modeling key concepts and co-constructing engaging resources and experiences. Her facilitation style is practical, flexible and responsive to each school and individual teacher needs.
Donna is based in Taranaki and is currently servicing contracts in Taranaki and Manawatu.
Melisa McKewen-Shepherd
Melisa has spent her teaching career at the cutting edge of innovative teaching and learning practices, with experience across all primary school year levels including New entrants right up to Year 8. Her experience in teaching in Innovative Learning Environments provides a fantastic platform for developing effective systems to support agentic learning and effective collaboration for teachers and learners alike.
Melisa uses her experience in play based learning to facilitate teachers in exploring ways to plan and implement playful learning that has the best fit for their unique environments. She enjoys using her extensive knowledge of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Whariki to develop resources that help teachers and leaders reach their play based and project based learning goals.
In her leadership role as AP, Melisa was responsible for transitioning, curriculum development and assessment. She has also been the Staff representative on the Board of Trustees.
Valuing life long learning, Melisa continues to undertake study with Massey University where she has completed post grad study including: Prevention and Remediation of Literacy Learning Difficulties, Understanding Learners with Behaviour Difficulties, Enhancing Teacher Learning and Mentoring and Trends in Digital Education.
Melisa is based in Taranaki and is currently servicing PLD contracts in Taranaki and Auckland helping schools to develop and deliver their Localised Curriculums, refine their play based learning, use digital technologies in rich and authentic ways and develop their Assessment for Learning Practices.
Jon Pirini
Born in Waikato but having spent most his life in the Far North, Jon has been teaching for around 20 years in both primary and secondary contexts. His teaching was initially as a general classroom teacher in Primary but transitioned to teaching Secondary and NCEA music. Having spent time teaching in England, Ukraine and back in NZ, Jon brings a breadth of cultural experience to his teaching and forms strong relationships with his students.
As a life-long learner and as a musician, Jon relocated with his family from Kaitaia and returned to study in 2018 to complete a Bachelor of Jazz performance at Victoria University in Wellington. Upon completion of this degree, he returned to teaching in the Far North and to live near to family.
Having studied amongst the young and seriously talented musicians in Wellington, he returned to the Far North with a firm resolve to work with young and talented musicians in the year 4-8 levels in various primary schools through his project Te Hiku Music Academy. It has been clear that the Far North has an abundance of talent with music but many arrive at high school not having touched an instrument. Currently, Jon with his wife and 9-year-old daughter live in Houhora where he volunteers part-time with St John, teaches music and performs across the motu, fishes the Houhora Harbour and clears space for his wife’s tunnel houses using his 6-tonne digger.
Jon is based in Te Tai Tokerau
Karen Russell
Listed below are her previous roles in education
Primary School
- classroom teacher (Māori and English medium)
- Reading Recovery Teacher (English)
- English Teacher of Rumaki students
- Rumaki Team Leader
- Within School Māori Medium Kahui Ako Leader
- Assistant Principal – Rumaki
- Resource Teacher Learning Behaviour Māori
- Resource Teacher Māori
- International English School Principal (Galle, Sri Lanka)
Secondary School
- te reo Māori teacher
- Te Kotahitanga Facilitator
- Teacher In-service Māori Medium Facilitator (University of Auckland)
She is passionate about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, education for Māori as Māori, and normalising te reo Māori in Aotearoa. Karen has extensive teaching experience in Level 1 te reo Māori immersion settings; prior to, during, and following her most recent studies, receiving her master’s degree (honours) in 2019.
When working with schools and teachers, Karen can draw on her knowledge of empirical research in the area of effective learning approaches for minority language contexts as well as her personal experience when discussing effective teaching and learning practice.
She played a key role in culminating Te Marautanga o Aotearoa achievement objectives with indicators from second tier Ministry of Education material, in order to tailor and digitise progressions for planning and teaching reo ā-waha, pānui and tuhi, while with her previous school in 2022. In addition, she has had strong involvement in the creation of digital resources to support these progressions and enable learner agency.
Karen facilitated several Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (2008) interactive workshops across Auckland following its launch and supported schools with creating graduate profiles as well as school-based curricula. She co-facilitated te reo Māori workshops for English medium settings and is well-positioned to support all schools with the curriculum refresh.
Karen values positive and collaborative relationships between educators. She supports this by ensuring teachers are able to actively contribute in a safe environment, creating a collective responsibility for all learners.
Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōna te ngāhere, ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga, nōna te ao.
Karen is based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland