About

What we do

Home Schooling NZ's goal is to encourage and assist New Zealand families in the education of their own children by offering them the best advice and support we can.

HSNZ is staffed by professionally-trained and qualified teachers with a wide breadth of teaching experience. Since 1984, we have provided quality, professional educational assistance and support to thousands of parents and students throughout NZ and on the mission field around the world. HSNZ is able to offer students nationally-recognised qualifications tailored to meet each student's individual needs, whether that is to access the workplace, or a tertiary training environment (polytechnic or university).

The CENZ Level 3 Certificate is recognised by Universities New Zealand -Te Pōkai Tara as an entrance standard of equal standing to NCEA Level 3. This flexible certificate framework gives families the opportunity to craft a recognised university entrance qualification utilising a wide variety of curriculum options, including providers such as ABeka, Apologia, Saxon, Math-U-See, A.C.E., Alpha Omega, NCEA, and Cambridge (amongst others).

The most important thing is your child... who are they, how are they "wired", what do they require to get to where they need to go, and how can we help in that process?

As a charitable trust, our primary goal is to serve. Please feel free to ring, discuss things, and ask questions with no sense of obligation.

Contact HSNZ

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Our Advisory Team

Todd & Riety Roughton

Principal

Todd Roughton was educated in Whangarei and attended North Shore Teachers' College. He taught in Auckland, Bay of Islands and Whangarei before heading overseas for a period of twelve years. Nine of these were in Belgium, where he taught English as a second language, and worked closely with Youth With a Mission.

It was in Belgium that he met and married Riety, a Dutch-trained teacher of languages who at the time was teaching French to Operation Mobilisation mission teams. They returned to New Zealand in 1989 where Todd got involved in Christian education, first at KingsWay School in Orewa, and then later as Principal of Living Way Learning Centre in Wellsford.

In 1999 they took their four young children back to Europe to spend a year living in Holland in the same village as “Oma and Opa”. During this period, Todd homeschooled the four children while Riety returned to her former high school as a teacher of French and Dutch. Upon returning to New Zealand, Todd worked as a supervisor in an A.C.E. school at Maungaturoto before the family moved to Whangarei in 2002 and began homeschooling full-time. To fund this lifestyle choice, they ran their own educational business from home.

Todd is also SPELD trained, has worked as a private tutor, on Tertiary Education Commission contracts assisting school leavers who lack the Literacy and Numeracy skills to obtain their trade qualifications and as a high school Literacy specialist, as well as writing and publishing a weekly Literacy resource for schools in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Riety's degree is in French and Dutch language teaching. She has taught in primary, secondary, gifted kids, private tuition and Alliance Francaise settings. She also homeschooled four children. The oldest of these is now a legal executive, the next a nurse, the third is a qualified teacher and the youngest is a builder.

Todd was on the HSNZ Board for a number of years before taking over his current position. He has a passion to assist parents as they take responsibility for the education of their own children, and sees the role of HSNZ as being very much that of a servant to families to help them in this task.

Peter
Thomas

Associate Principal

Associate Principal Peter Thomas had fifteen years’ experience in the banking industry before attending Christian Teachers College of Aotearoa (subsequently known as Masters Institute). He first taught at Westminster Christian School in Glenfield, Auckland, before taking up the role of Principal at Living Way Learning Centre in Wellsford in 1999.

Peter is married to Tania and they have four children, three of whom are now married. The youngest has almost completed a Level 3 CENZ certificate with HSNZ. Peter and Tania homeschooled their children for many years. More recently however, their younger children attended Living Way Learning Centre where Peter was working.

In 2017, Peter began working for HSNZ on a part-time basis whilst continuing to serve as principal at Living Way. With the closure of the school at the end of last year, he is now working for HSNZ four days per week and is expected to become full time as the roll of HSNZ continues to grow. His wife, Tania, also works part-time for HSNZ keeping our accounting records.

Peter is keen to assist families to raise their children in God’s ways and sees the freedom we have in NZ to homeschool our children as a wonderful opportunity for families to do this.

Rebecca Pennefather

Advisor

Rebecca completed her secondary education through the A.C.E system before attending the University of Auckland. After attaining a Graduate Diploma in Teaching she taught NCEA English for six years in New Zealand and Cambridge English for one year while travelling in England.

Chairman

Derek Blight

BA, Dip Tchg

Trustee

Jason Winslade

Trustee

Ray Green

TTC, Principal Emeritus

Trustee

Stephen Jenkinson

BDS, BSC

Home Schooling NZ is administered by the Christian Education New Zealand Foundation Trust, a charitable body made up of highly qualified and committed people who have a vision for training our children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord”.

HSNZ is overseen by the Christian Education New Zealand Foundation Trust (CENZ), a charitable foundation that provides strategic direction, guidance, support and oversight.

Home Schooling NZ is a Christian ministry that is based upon the teaching of the Bible. Home Schooling NZ does not represent any particular denomination or church stream. Parents from all faiths may enrol with Home Schooling NZ, but in so doing, they need to accept that all HSNZ activities will be run in accordance with the HSNZ statement of doctrinal position.

About

What we do