'Introducing' myself

I have known many of you for several years, some I am just getting to know, and some I have yet to meet. As we are focussing on 'connecting' I just wanted to tell you a little about myself so that children and families get to know me a little more.

My name is Debbie Thompson. I have been teaching the gifted and talented enrichment groups since 2010 at Whangaparaoa Primary. I also used to work for the Gifted Education Centre and taught One Day School for 5 years.

I spent my pre-school years in Whangaparaoa, and then my family moved up to Point Wells (near Matakana). I went to Matakana Primary School, and Mahurangi College. I grew up on a market garden next to the sea and have many happy memories of my time there - building huts in the hedges, making wooden contraptions in the shed, helping out picking watermelon, rockmelon, pumpkins, courgettes, tomatoes, strawberries, grapefruit, tangelos etc etc
I lived with my parents and two younger sisters. Mum was a primary school teacher too, and Dad was a quantity surveyor before he decided to give market gardening a go.

I spent many happy holidays at my grandparents' place at Manly Beach. My grandad  was a big part of this community - he started 'peninsula players' theatre group (I helped him when he was working on building the clubrooms at the back of Whangaparaoa Hall - now used by artlab). He was also a councillor, and helped get the leisure centre for our community. He was very involved in Manly sailing club too. My Nana was the practical one who made all his big ideas work!

I first started teaching in 1990! I took a break from teaching after a few years to travel to London, where I lived, worked and travelled around for 6 years with my husband.

I have been married to my lovely husband for 25 years - we met at school! We have two children who are both at Whangaparaoa College, and who both came to Whangaparaoa Primary School. They are teenagers, and are both taller than me! We also have a crazy little dog, two cats, and a turtle.

The things I love most are to read, travel, play board games, walk, spend time with my family.

I really enjoy teaching and love the challenge of trying to encourage curiosity and support interests. I am so lucky because I love to learn, and teaching is a job where you are constantly learning! I am looking forward to another year working with the Quest groups, and getting to know you all a little more.

Please forgive me if I forget names sometimes - it is not a strong point, and something I need to work on, but with so many names and faces from various groups I can sometimes have a momentary memory lapse! I will do my best to work on this :)