Head of Senior School
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Margaret van Meeuwen is the Head of both the Junior High and Senior School at Diocesan School for Girls.

Margaret van Meeuwen MA (First Class Hons/Cert School Middle Management/Dip Tchg)

Margaret has been at Diocesan since 1997 when she joined the staff as an English teacher before becoming the Head of Faculty English in 2004, joining the senior team in 2009, and promoted to the current position in 2017.

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Head of Senior School

In her 22 years with the school Margaret has taught many, many Dio girls and nothing gives her more pleasure than seeing the girls grow and develop and graduate to fulfilling lives beyond school.

She is yet to teach a girl whose mother is an old girl, but there are several girls whose mothers and father she taught at Macleans. Contact with old girls, at school or in the supermarket, is part of the specialness of Dio; it is exciting to be part of such an extensive community who share that same love of their Dio years.

Margaret grew up in Christchurch but has spent all her adult life in Auckland, teaching at Macleans College and then Diocesan. She has a Master of Arts (first class honours) from the University of Canterbury and a Certificate of School Middle Management and while at University was awarded the Federation of University Women Scholarship. Her degree was in English, with minors in French and German but she also studied Latin and te Reo in her undergraduate years. It is fair to say language and literature have always played a big part in her life.

Margaret was instrumental in the establishment of the IB Diploma programme at Diocesan in 2008. She taught the English Group A subject for several years and enjoyed the depth and breadth of reading and study of international literature that the course demanded. She has also had a heavy involvement with NCEA, marking examinations from level 1 to Scholarship English, running workshops for Scholarship teachers and working closely with NZQA to ensure consistency across the 3 levels of English and the 3 external standards.

Diocesan has been a huge part of Margaret’s life and career and has always been a hugely rewarding place to work, and not just because of the amazing resources and facilities. The physical environment is great, but it is the human one which makes the day. The girls are passionate, quirky, determined, creative, diligent and inspiring – sometimes all at once – and it is a pleasure to work closely with them and all areas of the wider community, including parents and old girls. Margaret is a keen supporter of the arts and sport and will often be seen on the side lines from netball to underwater hockey. She loves supporting music and drama activities but freely admits that with two left feet, dance is a performance by which she is often left bewildered.

Margaret is married with two children and one grand-daughter – the great reward after growing up with 4 brothers and only producing sons.

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