The Physical Education New Zealand Team
The staff
The Physical Education New Zealand staff provide a reliable, high quality, specialist service for people who are involved in physical education, as well as a community element and support for our members.
Heemi McDonald – Kaihautū Whakahaere – Managing Director
Heemi McDonald wad most recently a Deputy Principal at Rototuna Senior High School who specialised in working to find innovative and sustainable ways to transform teaching and learning. He brings a kaupapa Māori lens to learning design and works to develop transformative partnerships and transition pathways beyond school. Heemi is an advocate for learning opportunities that integrate health and physical education contexts with a wide range of disciplines and seeks to deepen learning experiences for all learners.
Heemi is a strong advocate for the development and implementation of learning experiences that draw on cultural contexts and enable young people to see themselves in the learning. He has a keen interest in learning design and the impact of quality learning design for young people.
Heemi will be working closely with the Board, leading a process that allows the organisation to take crucial steps to figuring out, and instilling the best community-based membership models, structures and services to set the organisation up for the future. This type of work will require vision, humility, creativity and criticality – and we know that he is the right man for the job.
Juliet Duder – Subject Advisor (secondary)
(Monday – Thursday)
Juliet’s role is focussed on supporting quality physical education at the secondary level and assessment in NCEA.
Julz is a graduate of the Bachelor of Education in Physical Education degree from the University of Canterbury and has extensive experience teaching and leading Physical Education.
She has most recently been involved in some of the piloting of NCEA standards, does some work for NZQA and has actually had experience with PENZ in the past, doing some review projects, conference organisation and facilitation work. She is most well-known for her enduring Leadership in the Shirley Boys High School PE Department.
Marisa McKay – Subject Advisor (primary)
(Monday-Wednesday)
Marisa’s work focuses on primary and intermediate school physical education. An experienced and registered teacher and skilled facilitator, Marisa really understands the physical education learning area. In previous roles, she has helped school leaders and teachers evaluate their current curriculum, planning and pedagogical practice and identify ways to improve outcomes for learners in physical education. Marisa was one of the writers of the two primary school PE resources, and recently worked on the refreshed content or the Health and Physical Education learning area of TKI.
Claire Waring – Administration Officer
(Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays)
Claire supports the Physical Education New Zealand team and manages the day to day operations of the network. Claire’s role is diverse; meaning that one minute she is supporting members with membership queries to then setting up a new web page for sharing new content, or reconciling accounts queries. Claire is the first port of call when you contact Physical Education New Zealand, and if she is not the person who can help with your query, then she knows someone who can! Claire started working at Physical Education New Zealand in 2017, so knows the organisation and its people well. Claire is based in Tauranga, where she enjoys heading up Mount Maunganui for a good workout, hanging out with the kids at the park and beach and generally being outdoors!
The Board
Susannah Stevens (Chair)
Dr Susannah Stevens (Susie) was, until recently, the national educational subject advisor for Physical Education New Zealand where she advised on the health and physical education curriculum at both a practitioner and ministerial level. Her areas of expertise were child well-being, holistic development, movement pleasure, Physical and Olympic Education. She now works as the project manager for the University of Canterbury Child Well-being Research Institute. Susie’s Master of Education studied the educative value of sport; and her PhD in Health Sciences focused on the importance of movement pleasure and well-being in secondary school physical education. Her work to date, has earned her an International Olympic Literary Prize, First Class Honours, and a prestigious UC Doctoral Scholarship. She has represented New Zealand in Olympic educational programmes held at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece. Susie was recently appointed to represent New Zealand and Oceania on The Foundation for Global Community Health (GCH); a network of international advisors who are centred on the advocacy and attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in education and health. Susie has a zest for life, and both her work and home life reflect this. She has two young sons and actively looks for opportunities to model to them what wellbeing looks like.
Amy Kaukau
Amy Kaukau works at Rototuna High School as Poutiaki/Leader of Learning Health and Physical Education. Amy has over 14 years’ experience teaching in New Zealand, as well as abroad, and in 2017, she completed a Masters in Educational Leadership. Although she is immersed in secondary education, Amy is an advocate for health and physical education at all age groups, having taught across both primary and secondary schools.
She has been heavily involved in collaboration between Waikato schools and working with tertiary leaders developing threshold concepts for health and physical education which focus on the jewels of the curriculum and what troublesome knowledge students find in our learning area. Amy is interested to hear from all schools in their gains and struggles with health and physical education delivery to see how we can learn and grow from these empowering kōrero.
Sarah Ryan
Sarah Ryan is an Education Advisor at Sport Waikato under the Healthy Active Learning umbrella through Sport NZ. After 10 years of secondary teaching and a dean in the Horowhenua, Sarah has made the move back to the Waikato with her family. Sarah brings passion and enthusiasm for physical education and has a keen interest in the holistic nature of the subject. Sarah has a proven track record in whole school approaches to wellbeing and in her current role is delivering professional development to primary and intermediate teachers around the delivery of quality physical education. Sarah is currently a trustee of the Horowhenua New Zealand Trust which delivers the economic development strategy for the region and is a board member of Get-Go, an employment platform funded through the Provincial Growth Fund.
Adam Wilson
Kia ora koutou e te whānau, I am a passionate secondary school HPE teacher with over 20 years experience teaching across 5 different schools. Throughout my teaching career I have held various positions, including Dean; Head of House; Head of Faculty; Acting Senior Leader; Specialist Classroom Teacher and also as a Staff Representative on the Board.
As an innovative and forward thinking person, I am committed to sharing my love of physical education with all and encouraging others to try new things, get out of their comfort zones and look to maximise their own potential.
By nature, I rise to a challenge, work well under pressure and always see commitments through to their conclusion. Being able to contribute to our community and make a difference on a broader scale would be a huge honour and something I would love to be able to do.
Shea McEvoy
Shea McEvoy is currently the Tumuaki Tuarua / Deputy Principal at Pāpāmoa College. With close to two decades of experience in education, including six years in Senior Leadership (Pāpāmoa/Rototuna) and five years as a Leader of Learning of HPE (Te Puke), he is passionate about creating future focused, culturally sustaining learning experiences designed to meet the needs of our modern learners. Shea has developed a strong track
record of leadership, collaboration and innovation. He has worked to create a culture of learning that celebrates diversity, encourages curiosity, and empowers learners to realise their full potential.
Shea deeply believes as physical educators it is paramount that we continually challenge our thinking and explore how we can connect across tauira, whānau and wider industry partners to allow us to craft powerful experiences that foster lasting and meaningful relationships with physical activity throughout one’s life.
Beth Redmond
Beth has over 13 years marketing experience across a range of industries including retail, telecommunications, legal and the rural sector. She has broad marketing expertise including digital, brand management, relationship management and marketing strategy and loves helping brands succeed.
Beth is based in Christchurch and is passionate about health and wellbeing and the impact it has on people. Living by the beach, she spends her free time running, surfing and enjoying the outdoors.
Patron – Trevor Garrett
Trevor Garrett has been Patron since 2011. He held two terms (1980-1983 and 1985-1986) as president of the NZ Association of Health Physical Education and Recreation (renamed Physical Education New Zealand in 1993). In 2015 he won the Te Iho-Takaro Ringawera Award for contributions to the profession.