Margaret Hesketh
Based in Wellington, Margaret is a PLD Consultant supporting schools nationwide to strengthen assessment, literacy, and leadership practices.
She is approved to deliver Ministry of Education PLD in the following areas:
Structured literacy approaches (Y4-8)
Mathematics and statistics
Assessment
Margaret also works with schools in the following areas:
Teaching as inquiry
Leadership and change development
Data analysis and evidence-based decision-making
Margaret brings over 30 years of experience in education, including 15 years as a deputy principal and seven years as a facilitator.
She has expertise in using informal and formal assessment data to inform and adapt teaching strategies, ensuring targeted support and improved learning outcomes for all students. This has included the use diagnostic and formative assessment tools, such as e-asTTle and PATs.
Margaret has led PLD initiatives including Accelerating Learning in Literacy (ALL) in the Wellington region and is a recognised contributor to literacy resources such as Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5–8.
Margaret’s facilitation is anchored in classroom-based practice that builds teacher and leader capability through observation, modelling, and collaborative inquiry. Her work has involved supporting teachers to clarify learning intentions, model explicit instruction, and embed formative assessment strategies into daily teaching. She has coached team leaders in practice analysis conversations, enabling them to guide pedagogical improvement across their teams. Margaret’s use of worked examples, timely feedback, and checking for understanding has led to measurable gains in student clarity, engagement, and achievement.
As our company’s online learning design lead, Margaret oversees the design and development of our online learning courses and instructional design for outside agencies. She has created an internal online course for Ministry of Education staff on the revised mathematics and statistics curriculum, as well as courses to complement Evaluation Associates’ own offerings – Assessment for Learning, Niho Taniwha, Leading Edge, as well as learning support courses for teachers and teacher aides.
Margaret holds a Master of Education with Distinction, a New Zealand Certificate in Learning Design, and Cox Campus Structured Literacy Program Certificate (IDA accredited).
Outside of work, she enjoys baking, great coffee, and spending time with family and friends.
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