Rowan de Beer

South African

Head of Commerce

Rowan has been teaching only for two terms in New Zealand and is already feeling the benefits of ‘Kiwi-friendliness’. “The staff are really friendly here and I’m meeting loads of new people through our children and the church,” says Rowan. “In fact we must stop making new friends because soon we won’t be able to keep up with everyone!” he jokes.

It was Rowan’s desire to rejoin the teaching sector which led to his job at Papakura High School. He’d been working as a financial accountant for nine years in Johannesburg, South Africa and prior to that teaching accounting for 10 years there.

“I used websites such as TeachNZ’s to research various countries and their education system, standard of living and the like. Auckland at the time was rated in the top 10 cities in the standard of living survey and the economic growth potential for New Zealand was better than Australia’s so New Zealand became my first choice,” says Rowan. He was also encouraged by the lower teacher pupil ratio in New Zealand schools compared with South African schools.

Before securing his job, Rowan came to New Zealand to make personal contact with principals and it was through Oasis Education Ltd recruitment agency that he quickly found his current position, Head of Commerce at Papakura High School.

“I’m enjoying the well-organised management structure and the safer working environment at this school,” says Rowan. “It is well resourced in terms of computers and textbooks,” he adds.

He finds Papakura is very similar to the schools he taught at in South Africa. The biggest difference for Rowan is the emphasis that’s placed on commerce in the curricula in the two countries. “It took me a while to get used to commerce being part of the social studies curriculum in the junior school. In South Africa the emphasis on commerce is huge and students are studying it from year 9, whereas here specific commerce subjects are studied only from year 11 onwards.”

Rowan has adapted easily to teaching the new NCEA qualifications in New Zealand but advises prospective overseas teachers to become familiar with NCEA before coming here.

“You can’t expect to come to a new country and everything to be easy right from day one. For me it’s been a short adjustment, the greatest sacrifice being away from extended family but I’m already feeling settled in and it’s only term two.”

Rowan is adamant about becoming a Kiwi and has supported the All Blacks since his arrival. “Since day one, I have enjoyed being in New Zealand. Every opportunity we get in the holidays, we explore a different part of New Zealand. We are enjoying the beauty of the landscape, the beaches –the whole family feels it is the best place to live.”