ACG English School Staff

Mark Haines

Principal ACG City Campus

Mark began teaching in 1981 having graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Science the year before. He trained to be a teacher at Auckland Teachers College. Mark's early years saw him return to the school that he attended as a student, Kelston Boys' High School. Teaching in Niue for two years as Head of Science developed his interest in language and working with students whose first language was something other than English. In the 1990s, Mark spent six years working at a school for girls in Brunei, which provided further insight into English second language learning. This inspired Mark to commence a Master of Science education, looking at how digital media could assist an ESL student with their learning. He also gained an appreciation of working with people from an Islamic country. After a brief time teaching at Waitakere College, on returning to New Zealand in 2000, Mark commenced teaching at ACG NZIC. During this time he had the privilege of seeing the Foundation programme grow.

Ten years later, Mark is delighted to be Principal and working with the three International Colleges based primarily at the City Campus. Students are in good hands with the high quality staff that teach them and provide extra support through the International Centre. It is very much a team effort at the Campus and Mark is extremely grateful to the dedicated people who work at 345 Queen St.

Phillip Morris

Campus Deputy Principal, ACG City Campus
Maths, TSS, C&S Teacher

Phillip has lived all his life in West Auckland (a Westie), completing a BSc in Geography and Mathematics at the University of Auckland and his teacher training qualifications at Auckland Teachers College.

Phillip has only ever taught at two places, spending 27 years at Massey High School in West Auckland and nine years at ACG. In his early teaching career, he studied as an extra-mural student at Massey University gaining a Diploma of Social Science in Computer Science. Early in his teaching career, he switched his teaching focus from Geography to Computer Science and was one of the early (and few teachers) to teach Computer Science in a high school environment. He was teaching Computer Science in the days when computers didn't have hard drives or a mouse! As such, he was often leading the way in using technology in the classroom, curriculum and administration.
This change also brought him into the area of timetabling. Phillip has been constructing school timetables for around 30 years and still enjoys the challenge. At Massey High School, he was asked to become a Dean and was promoted to Senior Dean and Executive Administrator. This role included him being Massey High School's Curriculum Co-ordinator and NZQA Liaison Person, overseeing the introduction of NCEA at Massey High School.

While at Massey High School he became involved in producing and directing musicals and plays – diverse as Grease, Annie Get Your Gun and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. This culminated in two trips to Melbourne, Australia – with 30 students and fellow Directors – with students performing a variety of short plays, dance and music in a variety of High Schools and other venues.

In 2002, he accepted a position at ACG as an Assistant Principal in ACG English School – still with a timetabling focus. In 2006, he became Director of the English School and later took on the responsibility of the day-to-day running of ACG Norton College and ACG Business School. In 2010, Phillip became Campus Deputy Principal at 345 Queen St.
Phillip still has a strong and passionate interest in using technology in the classroom.

Nandy Nathu

Campus Deputy Principal, ACG City Campus
Chemistry Teacher

Nandy joined ACG New Zealand International College in October 2000 as Deputy Principal. In 2001, he taught a Senior College Chemistry class before teaching International Students in 2002. Nandy thoroughly enjoys working with International students. Nandy started his teaching career at Samoa College (1983-1985), and then taught at Auckland Grammar school (1986 – 2000) before joining ACG New Zealand International College.

Nandy Nathu was educated in Auckland and Dunedin. He attended Remuera Primary School, Dunedin North Intermediate and Auckland Grammar School. Nandy Nathu holds a Master of Science degree in Chemistry from Otago University.
In 1993, Nandy was awarded the 13th AGS Staff Travel Scholarship at the Auckland Grammar School Prize Giving Ceremony. This annual award enabled Nandy to visit educational institutes throughout the world (Nashville, Tennessee; Toronto, Edinburgh and London).

Nandy enjoys watching rugby, rugby league (NRL), hockey, cricket and tennis.

Bernadette Kinnell

English Teacher, Dean; Programme Leader
ACG English School

Bernadette Kinnell gained her Bachelors of Arts double major in French and German and stage 3 in Spanish from Massey University. She completed her Honours in German at Canterbury University and her Teaching Diploma in ESOL, foreign languages, and experiential learning at Christchurch College of Education. She also completed a language course in New Caledonia and was at language schools in Germany (1996-97) and Spain (1999). Bernadette joined ACG English School in 2001 when she returned from teaching languages (French, German, Spanish) at a large comprehensive school in London, UK. Over the last ten years her focus has been teaching English to international students. She completed her Masters in Comparative Literature at Auckland University while teaching at NZIC/Senior College (2002-3). Bernadette is currently teaching ESOL and acting as Dean of ACG English School.

Bill Pattle

English Teacher
ACG English School

After graduating from the University of Canterbury and attending teachers college, Bill taught geography, history and English in South Island schools from Palmerston to Nelson. After fourteen years of teaching, Bill fulfilled a lifelong ambition by establishing, and then for eleven years, running a successful inner city art gallery in Nelson. During this time he became interested in teaching English as a second language. He attended a Trinity College course at Nelson/Marlborough Institute of Technology and then was employed by the Polytech to teach ESOL. After three years at NMIT, he was employed as Head of English at one of the prestigious Chinese national schools in Hong Kong for seven years. During his time in Hong Kong Bill completed a Diploma in English Language Teaching from Hong Kong University.

The magnetism of a grandchild finally pulled Bill and his wife back to New Zealand in 2010 and after teaching English at Massey University in Albany for a year, he was employed by ACG English School as an English language teacher.

Dianne Reeves

English Teacher
ACG English School

Dianne has taught at ACG since 2010 and enjoys the challenges of a Language school. She finds the students are interesting and motivated. Prior to teaching at ACG, Dianne taught at St Peters College in Newmarket for nine months as an ESOL teacher. She also spent five years at Mt Albert Grammar as an ESOL teacher working with many refugee students. Dianne was employed by Team Solutions in the ESOL Department working in a variety of schools around Auckland. This position led to a contract with the Ministry working with new learners of English in four large secondary schools.
Dianne is married with three daughters. The family loves holidays and travelling together. Dianne also enjoys walking in the bush and Pilates.

Dusica Vemich

English Teacher
ACG English School

Upon completion of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Language and Literature, Dusica Vemich taught English language and literature at high school in Europe for many years before coming to New Zealand. She completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Second Language Teaching at the University of Waikato in 1999 and then taught in the Foundation Studies Programme at AUT before joining ACG in 2000.

Dusica first taught the English as a second Language Programme at Senior College and then moved to ACG English School in 2001. From 2001 to 2003, she was the Team Leader for Elementary Level and responsible for developing curriculum materials for this level. She now teaches all levels and all programmes at English School.

Dusica thoroughly enjoys seeing English language students achieve their goals and is passionate about helping them 'live in English'.

Elizabeth Kinnell

English Teacher
ACG English School

Elizabeth Kinnell is a French and Japanese graduate of the University of Canterbury, where she did her Honours degree in French in 1992, before heading to France in 1993-94 to teach English. Upon her return to New Zealand, she completed an MA in French in 1995 and continued with PhD research in French Studies at the University of Canterbury after that.

It was not until 2001 that Elizabeth decided to embark on her teacher training at Massey University. Upon completion of that, she taught Japanese, English, ESOL and French in three North Island schools before deciding to undertake training at Auckland University in translation studies. Elizabeth completed her MPSTD in 2005 as well as a Certificate of Liaison Interpreting (for French) at AUT. Elizabeth then undertook specific training in ESOL teaching in Auckland and taught ESOL and Business Communication for nine months at Auckland Wise Institute.

In 2006, she went to Corinth, Greece, for further TESOL training, after which she worked in Central Greece for four months. Elizabeth returned to New Zealand in January 2007 and immediately took up a position at ACG English School. She has been part of the English School since just before the move to Queen Street.

Elizabeth maintains contact with friends in Europe and enjoys the challenge of bringing the English language to life for her students at ACG. She has studied other languages to a lower level over the years and hopes to be able to find the time to improve her Italian. In the meantime, she is working on the iPad project with Matt Kelly in the English School.

Matthew Kelly

English Teacher
ACG English School

Matthew completed a triple degree in English Literature, Philosophy and Film in 2002 at Victoria University in Wellington. In 2003, he completed his teacher training and received an English teaching qualification in 2004. From 2004 to 2008, Matthew lived and worked overseas teaching English in Singapore and China. He has also lived in America. He returned to New Zealand in 2008 and has been teaching English at ACG since then. Matthew is currently working with Elizabeth Kinnell on a project to use iPads in classrooms to teach English. Matthew lives on the North Shore with his wife and three children.

Rachana Trivedi

English Teacher
ACG English School

Rachana comes from a family of teachers. She grew up learning values like serving the society. She chose to be a teacher to make a difference in the lives of her students.

Rachana has been a teacher since 1995 and taught English to students ranging from first generation learners to advanced learners. She is fond of creative writing and has edited quite a few school publications overseas. She also started a creative writing club for the students in her previous employment in India. Rachana holds a Master of English Literature and has also acquired M. Phil. in English Literature. She has taught adolescent and adult English students for more than 12 years. Rachana is a Registered Teacher in NZ and has been with ACG group since May 2010. She started at ACG as an English teacher for Norton College teaching the foundation course for AUT. In 2010, she became a teacher in the ACG English School.

Rachana likes to play around with new ICT applications for the benefit of students in her classroom teaching. She enjoys teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Rosemary Wucinich-Lawson

English Teacher
ACG English School

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University with a major in Spanish and a minor in English and French, Rosemary began her teaching career at a secondary school in Phoenix, Arizona. She started in the English Department and then moved on to teach Spanish and French. While at Independence High School, she was the department chair, Girls' Track & Field coach and also the sponsor for the Sister Cities group taking students annually to Delicias, Mexico. After 10 years of teaching, Rosemary returned to university to finish an MBA at Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management. From there, she became involved in consulting and worked with companies looking to target cross cultural communication issues.

Rosemary first moved to Auckland in 1999 and began to work for Borders Books and Music where she was in the marketing department as their corporate sales coordinator. Her first position with ACG started in 2002 at the Symonds Street English School where she was an instructor and dean.

In 2004, Rosemary returned to the US and Independence High School to teach ESOL & reading and continue as the department chair and also work on Arizona's state committee for ESOL curriculum standards. In addition to secondary classes, she worked part-time from 1990 to 2011 at a local university teaching Spanish and French. Rosemary has returned to New Zealand and is now a member of the faculty at ACG English School.

Stephen Parker

Property Officer

Stephen joined us as a property officer responsible for the ACG City Campus and Senior College. 
Stephen came from the UK Media industry with a strong background in Senior Management including Operational, Financial, Commercial, Quality Control and Human Resources. Stephen has a solid commercial background and was responsible for many significant change processes in a complex and highly competitive Market. This involved promoting business development throughout Europe and Australasia.

Stephen is a keen Crystal Palace FC supporter and has a few Marathons to his credit.

Jorinde Ottaway

Administration

"In my role as Student Learning Centre Manager, my main duties include management of Library resources, ID card production, supplying stationery for the English School, supervision and tutoring assistance for students, Wi-Fi connection, photocopying/laminating support, First Aid help, Student Education Counselling, orientation and exam supervision and general reception enquiries.

I have an extensive background in performing arts and run Music and Dance sessions for students to take part in. I also enjoy assisting students with preparing musical items for Graduation ceremonies.

I attended University of Auckland and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, French, Russian, Spanish and Education. I am a qualified teacher and have 12 years teaching experience in public high schools and primary schools. I also have several years work experience in marketing and office administration. My ability to speak several languages and my past work experience equip me with a highly suitable background for providing a range of helpful services to ACG staff and students."

Karen Holland

Administration

Karen joined ACG New Zealand International College as Receptionist and the Principal's Personal Assistant in 2010. She has many years of experience in Office Administration in a wide variety of Secretarial and PA roles. Prior to joining ACG, Karen spent 9 years as the Administration Assistant to the Director and Dean of International Students at one of West Auckland's Secondary Schools.

"In my role as Receptionist for ACG New Zealand International College, I enjoy assisting students from a variety of different cultural backgrounds with general enquiries and greeting and welcoming visitors to the City Campus. As well as providing personal assistant duties for the Principal and Campus Deputy Principals, I provide administrative support to the teaching staff when required."

Terri Lee

Administration

Terri Lee was employed at ACG January 2009. Her work included double roles as an attendance officer and main receptionist. She has experience in recruiting international students, supporting their requests and answering their enquiries, as well as experience in marketing. She has also worked as an agent in a local educational agency.

With her experience and knowledge in international education, she has been able to work with students and parents, helping them to achieve their educational and university entrance goals.

In 2012, Terri Lee's main role at ACG is to monitor the students' attendance record closely, meet parents and assist the Principal and Deputy Principals and inform parents and their children of attendance issues and concerns. She also provides a wide range of student service in relate to administration, for example, documentation for current and former students and creating enrolment records for the Ministry of Education.

As a Korean speaker, Terri Lee provides translation and interpretation for the Marketing Department and ACG campuses as well as for Korean students within the campus.

Terri Lee has studied first year law at a university in Korea, and studied Marketing at AUT.