My name is Nikki Murray. I am a passionate mother of four amazing boys – Carl, Nathan, Ashton and Nikau who are my pride and joy. I am happily married to my best friend Matt who shares my love of creativity, positivity, and hard work. Our family loves to laugh, dance, and spend time together.

My background is in the Arts. I studied at Waikato polytechnic and graduated in 2008 with a degree in Media arts - particularly interested in painting and illustration. I am currently studying at Nanette Cameron School of interior design and loving it. I love how a space, when well designed, can inspire emotion and purpose. My passions lie in all things creative - from cooking, painting, gardening and sketching, to music. I believe that the fine arts bring rhythm and colour to life and learning, opening the mind to another realm not otherwise accessed in traditional learning styles.

I have  trained in the Standard Feuerstein Insrumental Enrichment programme. 

I home-schooled my children for three years, as a response to my eldest son’s difficulties in the educational system. At age 6 he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD. Our family – both us as parents, and his brothers, were in a constant battle with behaviours stemming from his frustration inside the home, the classroom and the world in general. At near exhaustion 2 years later, we decided to home-school him and then our other boys followed. It was the best decision we ever made for our family. I used to wish there was a place that Carl could attend where his differences were celebrated. Somewhere where he could express himself creatively and love to learn.

Now our children all attend main-stream schools of their own accord and are very successful in their own right.

My desire as a member of the Believe team, is to share my passion for creativity, my love for education and for children, and to assist every child in this centre to discover their place in this world. Rebecca is one of the finest characters and educators I know and I am just thrilled to be working beside her.