The vastly experienced educator, who has spent the past 10 years working at the top level of education governance in the country — commuting between Dunedin and Wellington — is delighted to have her feet firmly back on home soil.
‘‘This role is interesting and felt like coming full circle for me, so I was really pleased and excited to be appointed,’’ she said.
Jane trained as a primary school teacher and her first teaching role was at Bluff School teaching new entrants to secondary level, before she moved into special education.
In 2008, she moved to Dunedin with her husband, Paul, and son, Mason, both fishermen, to take up a role as an Education Review Office (ERO) review officer in Otago and Southland.
In 2014, she was seconded to Wellington to lead national work for ERO and projects, and became the deputy chief executive of review and improvement services with oversight of all the school and early childhood education (ECE) reviews across the country.
At that time, she led a team of regional review officers, covering about 2700 schools and 5000 early childhood centres.
Seconded to the Public Service Commission, she became an assistant commissioner with oversight of the performance of chief executives and their government agencies.
Eventually, she returned to ERO to conduct the government-mandated restructure, before becoming the establishment chief executive of the Charter Schools Agency and opening the first tranche of charter schools in February 2025.
‘‘When I look back on it, that was quite a busy 10 years of my life.
‘‘And throughout it all, I continued to live in Dunedin and commute each week to Wellington — at my own expense, because this place is home.’’
Due to the pace and intensity of working in these government roles, Jane was planning to take a break when the role of Dunedin Kindergarten Association chief executive came up.
‘‘It appealed to me as a role when you can see the results of your decisions as chief executive coming to fruition on the ground.’’
The placement of the Dunedin Kindergarten Association offices in Forbury Rd, within the grounds of Helen Deem Kindergarten, means she can look out from her office and see children at play.
Jane started the chief executive role in December 2025 and has spent much of her time since getting to know the staff who care for and teach about 900 children at the 24 kindergartens across Dunedin and Mosgiel.
‘‘What has been really affirming and rewarding is the commitment and professionalism of staff — I have been quite in awe of it.’’
After a challenging period a couple of years ago, the association now had a board that was settled and was looking towards moving forward, she said.
The previous chief executive, Nicola Hogg, had done ‘‘a stellar job’’, and the job now was to move the association forward in providing high quality education.
‘‘From my personal perspective, the association is well-placed to move forward and meet its strategic priorities,’’ she said.
Among the major goals were ensuring kindergartens were ‘‘sustainable’’, attracting families into the service, supporting the quality of teaching and learning and ‘‘engaging with local communities and whānau’’ to ensure their needs and aspirations were met.
‘‘We have quite an extensive work programme under way this year.’’
This would involve looking at how the Dunedin Kindergarten Association supported kindergartens in their work, and ways to reduce the administrative burden on teachers.
‘‘It is also important that the community knows about the kindergarten association, that we are here and focused on setting up children for life-long learning.
‘‘We do that through play-based learning with a strong focus on early literacy and numeracy skills, social and emotional skills — developing well-rounded learners.
‘‘From my perspective, it is also important to value parents and caregivers and the aspirations they have for their children as well.
‘‘The children and families are at the heart of the matter.’’
Kindergartens were not-for-profit, provided 20 hours’ free education and were happy to work with all families.
‘‘That affordability allows families to have 100% qualified teachers with a focus on intentional teaching and to focus on their needs, and to support schools in their delivery of education and care.
‘‘We are here to get children ready for life.’’
