Tena Koutou, tena kotou, tena kotou katoa.
Welcome to the 30th birthday celebrations of Kiwi English Academy. Today we are delighted to welcome our director, Guy Herbert.
Over the past 30 years Kiwi has supported students from around the world to achieve their language goals – whether it be to progress on to further study at tertiary / secondary level, for enriched employment opportunities or simply for communication purposes.
Students at Kiwi have access to qualified and dedicated staff who are committed to our students’ success. I would like to acknowledge oru loyal and hardworking staff, both academic and admin without whom Kiwi would not be in the place it is today. In particular, I would like to mention Lena who has been a central figure in our organisation for 22 years.
The last 2 years of Kiwi’s journey have brought significant challenges with closed borders and the cutting off of the flow of international students. Although we have seen our staff and student numbers seriously impacted, conversely, it has also offered us new opportunites to venture into on-line delivery. It has enabled us to focus more closely on individualised learning plans at the same time as maintaining relevance in an ever-changing world.
Kiwi English Academy enjoys its location in Newmarket, where retail, transport and commercial opportunities merge seamlessly together. We have been here since our humble beginnings in May 1991 when we opened with only 3 students. Since then many thousands of students have passed through on our doors on their journeys ; we stay in touch with lots of them and are always happy to share stories of our alumni. Some photos showing snapshots of the past 30 years are on display here today.
Looking to the future, we envisage a combination of physical classes on site at Kiwi in Newmarket as well as a growing offering of online courses , particularly for those students staircasing to other academic institutions both in Auckland also further afield. We are grateful to all our staff for embracing the new technology and delivery modes that arose out of the Covid-19 pandemic and will continue into the future.
Thank you all for the part you have played in Kiwi’s journey. We look forward to hopefully a less bumpy road ahead.
Dr Kate Herbert
31 May 2021