Wellington City

Overview

Life Education Trust Wellington City has been successfully delivering the Life Education programme to children throughout Te Whanganui-a-tara/Poneke since 1990. This has given us a proud history in the community and helped our programmes to become respected in the education sector.

Being a health resource, Life Education takes children on a journey through five subject strands; identity and resilience, food and nutrition, human biology, relationships and substances. Exploring these strands helps them to understand the wonder of their own bodies, and how best to take care of them. Since Covid, we have also been working with a particular emphasis on building students resilience.

In order to keep the costs to schools as low as possible, the Trust relies on donations and grants received to continue to deliver our service to the children of Wellington City through our highly skilled educator, and modern learning environment – the mobile classroom.

If you require more information on how we can work with you and your school, or would like to find out how you can support our trust please get in touch! 

 

Our Educator

Emma Stove

Emma grew up in the Northern Suburbs of Wellington and now lives in Wellington Central. Emma’s previous teaching experience was in kindergartens all around Wellington, from the Northern Suburbs to Berhampore. Emma loves an indoor plant – her home looks a bit more like a jungle. She is excited to bring her passion for health education to the Wellington City whānau.

Emma always had a love for bringing fun and technology into the classroom. Emma remembers fondly entering the mobile classroom herself as a tamaiti and is very excited to be able to pass that same experience on to the next generation.

Our Region

From Khandallah to Seatoun

 

Our vehicle

We’re incredibly lucky to have been donated a car by Rutherford & Bond and King Toyota. This is used by our educator so that she can get to the classroom (and Harold) every day. We cannot thank Rutherford & Bond and King Toyota for their generous donation, as it makes a world of difference for our educator.

Our Charity Luncheon

In 2023 and 2024 Life Education Trust Wellington City held a charity luncheon to raise funds to support our work with Wellington tamariki and schools, and to purchase a ramp for our mobile classroom. 

This wonderful event includes guest speakers, food and drinks, music, a charity auction and lots of laughter.

We are incredibly grateful for the support of our community, with about $40,000  raised each year which goes toward supporting the health and wellbeing education of thousands of children in the Wellington City region.

Our Team

	Sarah Churstain – Chairperson Sarah is a partner of Ford Sumner Lawyers, specialising in commercial and corporate law. Sarah has been involved with the Life Education Trust (Wellington City) since 2020. During this time, Sarah has been a trustee and supported the Trust from a governance and legal expertise perspective. Having had the benefit of the Life Education learning experience as a primary school student in rural Waikato, Sarah appreciates the invaluable education and life skills Life Education offers our tamariki.
Michelle Dow - Trustee Michelle was previously an Educator for the trust for 7 years, before moving to Life Education Trust NZ as Education Support Manager.  She joined as a trustee to help the trust working with our Wellington City schools and tamariki.  Having taught in schools, both as a class teacher and as an Educator for Life Ed, Michelle has seen first-hand the amazing impact we can have to support schools with their health teaching.
	Helen Pinson – Trustee Helen has been a Trustee since 2019. She supports Life Education Trust because of the great work they do developing and delivering excellent health education programmes in our schools.
Stuart Darvill – Trustee Stuart joined the Trust in 2024. He is a partner of Darvill Mellors & Co, a Chartered Accounting firm based here in Wellington. Stuart provides the accounting and finance function for the Trust. He has two school aged children that have enjoyed Harold visiting their school and he thinks it’s a great service the Trust provides. Stuart values being able to give back to the community, he previously was Treasurer for the Upper Hutt Rams Junior Rugby Club and is the current Treasurer for Hutt International Boys’ School.
	Lauren Taylor – Trustee Lauren is currently studying at Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University) after working in administration and compliance for a number of years. She had the opportunity to be taught by Harold (and our lovely educators) at both primary and secondary school. Lauren has been a trustee of the Wellington City trust since late 2018 and is really enjoying it. Life Education is incredibly important for tamariki in New Zealand, and she is proud to be able to help.
Paige Jardine – Trustee Paige works at Forsyth Barr and is registered as a financial adviser, is accredited as an NZX Adviser and holds a New Zealand Certificate in Financial services. She has 11 years of experience in the financial services sector managing and building clients wealth for the long-term. Paige remembers the excitement she had of Harold visiting her in primary school. Having two young boys she has an vested interest in the work Life Education do, ensuring all children are given all the support they can get so they can thrive.
	Joanna Simpson – Trustee Joanna, a former secondary school teacher, has been a real estate agent at Tommy’s since 2008. She is also a mother and grandmother and believes strongly in Life Education Trust’s mission. She is thrilled to be helping educate and support tamariki in Wellington.
Kristi Fitness – Trustee Kristi is a senior consultant at Merkle Aotearoa, a data-driven customer experience consulting agency that specialises in experience design, cloud service transformation and enterprise-grade implementations. She is passionate about giving our tamariki the knowledge and confidence to best take care of their mind and body. Kristi was lucky enough to experience the Life Education classroom during her time at school, and is excited to be a part of the team that keeps the magic alive for the tamariki of today.

 

Proudly Supported By

The Life Education Trust, Wellington City, would like to thank Tommy’s, Rutherford & Bond and King Toyota, and Trade Me Property for their continuous and generous support of our trust. It’s incredibly important and we are so grateful.

Current Local Donations/Services

Grants

Service Providers

 

Harold Club

Life Education is the largest, independent provider of health and wellbeing education for primary and intermediate children in New Zealand.

Making the decision to contribute to Life Education Trust Wellington City will mean that we can continue to deliver a high-quality health and wellbeing programme to support our local schools, where children learn in a fun and unique environment to empower them with the knowledge and confidence to make healthy decisions.

We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on grants and local fundraising, plus a small contribution from the schools, to cover the costs associated with our programme delivery.

By joining the Harold Club, you will become part of a caring group of people who are invested in building the future of children and the community.  We will recognise your support by advertising you on our Wellington City website, you will receive a ‘Harold’ Toy, you will be invited to an annual Harold Club event, and you will have our permission to advertise on your own social media that you are a supporter of our Trust.

To discuss membership opportunities, please contact our Trust Chair, Todrick Taylor, for a confidential discussion.

(Life Education Trust Wellington City is a registered charity CC22384.)

Contact Details

Chairperson: Sarah Churstain, [email protected]

Educator: Emma Stove, [email protected] 021 390 991

General Enquiries: Lauren Taylor, [email protected]

Instagram: @lifeedwellingtoncity