Our people

Mel Ewart

Chair

Mel Ewart has been homeschooling her two children since 2015 and recently moved from Marlborough to the Wairarapa. Mel is originally from North Wales and came to Aotearoa with her (now) husband Ian in 2001. Mel has many years of governance and administration experience in the not for profit sector, in organisations such as Plunket, Playcentre, Queen Charlotte Yacht Club, Marlborough Colleges Sailing Club, NZIODA and the Wairarapa Youth Orchestra amongst others. She works part time as administrator to the Council of Medical Colleges in New Zealand. Through her teenage children's experiences, Mel has seen how limited secondary-age student sporting opportunities are for home educated rangatahi and is proud to support HESSA to address this inequity.

Peter Gore

Secretary & Advocacy

Located on a lifestyle block on the outskirts of Hamilton, Peter and his wife have been homeschooling their three kids for 11 years. They are also guardians to their (now) 18 year old foster child who was educated via the public school system to Year 13. They are an active family that enjoys a wide range of outdoor pursuits and sports. Peter’s wife coaches homeschool hockey and is fully engaged within the greater homeschool community. Their kids are also enrolled in Kumon Maths, extracurricular Physics workshops hosted at Waikato University, music, speech and drama, and other academic workshops that are offered within the homeschool community throughout the year. Their family places a big emphasis on academic learning. Peter is a LINZ accredited Property Consultant, as well as the founder of a tech startup company and he has been a director on two company boards. He has extensive experience in corporate governance and sports administration at a volunteer level. Peter has been a committee member of several clubs including Waikato Gun Dog Club and the Waikato Offroad Racing Club where he has held secretary and treasurer roles. Peter has also front footed the homeschool discussion with NZSSSC over the last 4.5 years advocating for the inclusion of the homeschool community in student sports.

Andy Mannering

Inclusion Officer and Interim Treasurer

Andy and his wife have two teenage boys, Lachie (15) and Jackson (14), and have been homeschooling since 2015. Over the last 25 years Andy has held a variety of leadership roles within for-purpose organisations, local government and now central government. He is currently employed by Kāinga Ora as the Waikato Kaiwhakahaere Hononga Hapori where he has the privilege of leading the Partnerships and Engagement Team for the Waikato. Prior to this he was employed by Hamilton City Council for 14 years, responsible for the relationship management of the community sector with the Council. He also managed the policy and allocation of the contestable funding environment of Council ($2.5millon per annum). For the last 8 years Andy has led the Flyers Junior Basketball Club in Hamilton city, managing every aspect of the club growth from administration and communications to coaching. The club has grown exponentially over this time and now sees 200 young people playing with 22 teams each term registered in Waikato Basketball led competitions.

Rico Van Niekerk

Health & Safety Officer and Interim Digital Officer

Rico van Niekerk and his wife Chantelle emigrated to New Zealand in 2008 and were based mainly in Christchurch before moving to Oamaru at the end of 2023. An Engineer with a second degree in IT, it was his time at Meridian Energy as a Wind Reliability Engineer for the wind turbines that cemented his passion for health and safety and the importance of both within an organisation. His family's homeschooling journey started when his oldest asked to be homeschooled after COVID-19 school closures because he felt he learnt so much more at home. He joined the HESSA team because of his passion and belief in sport and the wellbeing that it offers, and consequently creating an environment where all students have equal opportunity to fully engage in all aspects of student sport.

As a committee we:

Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Work to make decisions by consensus
Act in good faith by dealing respectfully with each other, respecting our diversity and celebrating our differences
Aim to achieve balanced representation in appointments and elected roles
Ensure that our members understand Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its importance to our kaupapa
Uphold international human rights instruments, especially but not limited to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Krystal Ward

Founding Member

Co-chair Krystal stepped back from HESSA at the 2024 AGM to concentrate on her studies but maintains an advisory role with HESSA. The HESSA team is indebted to Krystal for her passion and dedication to getting HESSA up and running and wish her every success with her studies.

Fran Cowie