Our Teaching-Team
Come and Visit the Team @ Montessori 3-6
Vicky Lumsden Montessori 3-6 Founder, Professional Leader & Service Provider - leads and coaches the Team
Manaakitanga Montessori and The Montessori Infant Community were two parent led playgroups I founded in 2008 & 2009 with parents from my antenatal group, Plunket and Playcentre. I wanted Te Reo Māori and Spanish as part of a child's day so they could hear, understand and speak languages other than just English. I cashed in my superannuation and retrained in Early Childhood in 2010 and completed the inagural AMI Montessori theory audit through MMEF. On April 1st 2011 I took over the lease of the scout hall and we opened 4 months later on August 1st. I love Montessori 3-6 and am proud of the opportunities we provide for children, their families and our teaching team through Trilingual Montessori Education. We continue to make improvements through our Internal Learning Audits for rach curriculum area as we respond to the changing needs of our children, families, teaching team, the wider community and government priorities. I love our Cultural Calendar that has evolved over the last 13 years and reflects between 5-10 cultures at any given time.
Vicky Lumsden is both Primary and Early Childhood trained.
Her roles have been as a teacher in bilingual, immersion and transition classrooms
and as a teaching principal in private and rural settings. She was the founding teacher of the first bilingual Montessori Primary Class in Aotearoa which opened in Rotorua back in 2000. Vicky is passionate about alternative education and has undertaken further Montessori and Steiner study and enjoys learning.
She is a political advocate for more families having access to Montessori education for their children.
In 2013 she was the first Montessorian to apply to the government to create a charter school "Montessori 6-12" which would allow children to continue their Trilingual Montessori Education for free. Vicky is committed to continuing to make Montessori affordable and accessible in the Bay with a long term vision inclusive of other cultures and languages. In 2015 she attended the course for Diverse Needs run by Sue Larkey from Australia and completed the 5 out of 5 Ministry of Education leadership modules in Rotorua. She participated in Ko Awatea and attended a course run by the head of Autism NZ. In 2017 she became the Pedagogical Lead for Montessori 3-6 and was coached by one of 24 Curriculum Champions nationally and attended the Tony Attwood training in Wellington about Autism. In 2015 & 2018 she was proud of the Well Placed ERO reports and the acknowledgements documented in the summary. In 2021 ERO changed their system and new terminology was used and the team were happy with the 5 Judgements Sustaining & Embedding. In July 2024 ERO changed their evaluation system again so the team are currently working through the new criteria and working towards Excelling. In August 2024 Vicky applied in the first round of Charter Schools for 2025.
Vicky coaches the team with their leadership roles and appraisal goals and Professional Growth Cycles. She works behind the scenes keeping up-to-date with government requirements including 97 policies, arranging professional development and growing the teaching team. She has the most fun when she is teaching children in English, Te Reo or Spanish and is rewarded when she sees the progress of the children as they achieve goals and the growth of the team. Vicky loves hosting the Montessori community for their annual events like Weekend Discovery Journeys and our Cultural Calendar that represent the children enrolled such as St. Patrick's Day, Matariki, Independence Day of Samoa, Phillipines & Chile and Diwali.
Vicky supports Dennise with her English, her Montessori Training and herTe Rito Maioha Montessori Aperfield Diploma. Vicky hosts classes of teacher trainees from EIT and the team host individual trainees from many tertiary providers including the NZ Tertiary College. In 2024 they have had students from EIT, Open Polytech & Te Rito Maioha.
Vicky loves time with her teenage daughter Saskia, monthly scrapbooking workshops and weekly Feldenkrais classes at Movement Works with Sarah. She loves learning.
Karen Hampton - Qualified ECE Teacher - Lead teacher of Maths in 2024/25
Karen met the team @ Montessori 3-6 back in 2012 when she was the Early Childhood lecturer for Workforce. Prior to lecturing Karen worked in Steiner education for over a decade. Karen joined our team in 2016 and then attended the National MANZ conference with Vicky in Hamilton and enrolled in her Montessori Diploma with Aperfield and the Incredible Years course with the Ministry of Education to learn about social and emotional coaching. Karen brings her artistic talents to the teaching team and has been introducing felting and carving to our children and creating great resources that follow the children's interests. She works 4 afternoons and shares responsibility for the albums and curriculum progress for children attending afternoons. Karen completed her Montessori Book 1 in 2016, Book 2 in 2017 and created amazing Culture Materials as she worked through Book 3 in 2018. She has made flag material for the children to represent the various cultures enrolled at Montessori 3-6, created Continent folders to teach children about the world we live in and made an amazing Dinosaur Timeline. Karen attended her second Montessori National Conference in 2018 and her third in Auckland alongside Vicky in Auckland in 2019.
In 2024 Karen has completed a weekend training course for NVC called Communication for Connection with Filipa Hope. Vicky & Karen returned to Auckland for the annual Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand conference in July. As a qualified ECE teacher with a Montessori Diploma Karen now supports Dennise and a multitude of Teacher Trainees with their Montessori journey as Montessori
3-6 continues to grow and support the next generation of teachers in NZ.
Karen has said:
"I enjoy the close, supportive teaching team and how we as teachers are provided with learning opportunities and working closely with families helping to support their aspirations for their children. I love the way children respond to learning and how we are able to work one on one with each of the children, supported by the very high teacher/child ratios. I like seeing the children learn new skills in practical life, numeracy and literacy and seeing how the child's achievements light up their face. I like listening to the children as they learn Te Reo and Spanish and they in turn correct my pronunciation and the confidence in the way they do this is priceless."
Dinah - Qualified Primary & Montessori ECE Teacher - leads Literacy & Prep for School
Montessori Teacher
Dinah started out as a Montessori parent when she enrolled her daughter at Gisborne Montessori. She was a trained primary teacher who then did her Montessori training and retrained as an Early Childhood Teacher. Dinah worked at Gisborne Montessori for 10 years and completed her Aperfield Montessori Diploma in 2012 before joining Montessori 3-6, Napier in 2013. She has since completed the Incredible Years course for Positive Guidance with children and attended the National Montessori conference in Tauranga. Dinah has overall responsibility for Literacy and Prep for School as our team look for ways to improve our practice. Dinah works five days and her current strengths are in the Practical Life and Sensorial areas of the Montessori curriculum which lay the foundation for concentration, coordination and independence. She leads our Oral Language development programme with sounds, tracing and word association with our children that participate in News each day before lunch. Dinah has recently done a great job updating our assessment systems to help make monitoring Literacy progress more efficient. Dinah has been attending night classes with Te Wananga o Aotearoa over the last few years and completed He Papa Tikanga alongside the rest of the teaching team. She creates fun with the children and does a great job tie dying with the children every January. Dinah has developed relationships liasing with Learning Support to access help for our diverse learners over recent years as she has become familiar with Makaton and supporting children to become verbal.
Vicki Thomson - Qualified ECE Teacher - Leads Learning Through Nature in our Outdoor Environment
Vicki has been teaching in Early Childhood in Napier and Christchurch for over 10 years. She enrolled her son and later joined our teaching team in July 2016 just in time to join Karen in the 6 month training programme called Incredible Years. Vicki loves the outdoors and works with families and children to create goals that support the development of physical skills and co-ordination. Vicki completed her full First Aid course before starting and attended the Prevention of Sexual Abuse Education training in Hastings. She attended Professional Development at Pettigrew Arena and the book launch of a great book Move to Learn that we have added to our Parent Library that is helping parents realise the importance of movement and how they can support their children at home. Vicki also attended a course at Taiwhenua, Hastings for the Treaty of Waitangi and the United Nations Rights of Children along with Vicky, Jan, Amy and Ana Silvia. She has added to Fun on Fridays and is making Rewana Bread with our children each week. Vicki attended Montessori Literacy training in April 2019 in Masterton alongside 8 of our team and Numeracy training later that year in November. In 2020 we are all participating in further Montessori training for Culture which includes Montessori Materials for geography, zoology, biology, botany, art & music. She does an amazing job in the garden teaching our children how to care for Papatuanuku. In 2021 she is participating in further Montessori training for Practical Life & Sensorial.
Vicki said " I enjoy being at Montessori 3-6 working alongside our children, watching them learn and grow. Our three hour work cycle is a great opportunity for me to work one to one with the children and build close, meaningful relationships. I love the multicultural atmosphere here at Montessori 3-6 and the cultural gatherings that we have for the children, families and teachers to all come together. My passions are the outdoor environment, art, baking and music.
Dennise leads Español/Spanish
Dennise joined our team in 2022 as a Volunteer when she arrived in New Zealand from Chile. I felt blessed to have someone join us who had always wanted to be a Montessori Teacher. We went to the Montessori National Conference in Wellington and explored training options for her and discussed English Entry Requirements. It was wonderful to be able to invest in Montessori training for Dennise through Te Rito Maioha in 2023 and support her in Wellington in March for her first Montessori Materials Workshop.
Dennise was a Secondary School Art Teacher in Chile and also trained as a Yoga Teacher so shares these two passions with our children too. Dennise makes Spanish fun and our families are always feeding back to us about the Spanish their child is sharing at home or songs they are singing.
Desley Aranui - On leave for 2023. Lead teacher for Physical Development Outdoors
Desley joined us in 2018 after running her own childcare centre for over 20 years. She is a lifelong learner and always keen to learn Te Reo and about Te Ao Maori. Montessori was new to Desley and she said she felt like a beginning teacher all over again at the start. She has been supporting our children to become Independent and the first Montessori quote I shared with her was "Every unnecessary help is a hindrance". In 2019 Desley created a beautiful Tukutuku panel with our children for her appraisal goal. I was proud to have it put up for our 9th birthday on 1st August 2020. Desley supports the next generation of teachers and has the role of Associate Teacher for Jess our 2nd year trainee from EIT who is with us 12 hours each week as part of her place based study.
Manaaki our Rabbit
Manaaki our rabbit was my present to our children for our 6th birthday on August 1st, 2017 so this year Manaaki turns 6 and then we turn 12. Dennise kindly brought in this funky tunnel that her 3 cats did not use so now Manaaki has a playground! Families are welcome to bring vegetable off cuts for Manaaki however we had to limit apples and carrots afew years ago because the vet told me I was over feeding Manaaki on the weekends. I learnt the high sugar content made apples and carrots luke lollies for rabbits!