Jodi has winning rapport

Jodi Currie with students (from left) Aggie Shearer, 3, Hunter Gabolinscy, 5, and Hawaiki Tattersall-Walker, 4. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Jodi Currie, head teacher with the Hunterville Mobile Kindergarten, was one of the runners-up in the 2013 Warehouse Stationery New Zealand's Most Inspiring Teacher competition.

Last year Wanganui Intermediate School staff member Mary Dean was a finalist in the competition.

Ms Currie was nominated by Sharon New Zealand, whose grandson attends the kindergarten, who said she "deserves some serious recognition" for the work she did in the community.

"She loves our kids and it's obvious by the way she lights up when they enter the room and how they all respond to her in the same way.

"She takes time to focus one-to-one with the children on activities and is able to draw them into a learning lesson without them realising it's anything more than just a game or trip into imagination."

Ms New Zealand said Ms Currie also told children on their fifth birthday she would look out for them in the playground at school, "nurturing their security and allaying their fears in the transition to school".

As one of five runners-up in the competition's early childhood category, Ms Currie won a $1600 prize pack from Warehouse Stationery, presented to her at a ceremony at Hunterville Play Centre last week.

Wanganui Warehouse Stationery manager, Russell Burney, said the programme was created to "acknowledge the vital role teachers play in our schools and communities, and to give Kiwis a way of recognising these remarkable people" and that Ms Currie was a worthy prize recipient.