Upon Reflection 2020

The professional learning and development of Wenona staff 2020

Issue No 06

Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

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OF COURSE, THE TRUE BENEFICIARIES OF OUR STAFF’S COMMITMENT TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT ARE OUR STUDENTS.”

CONTENT WELCOME FROM THE PRINCIPAL

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Drawing on the stoic philosophy that underpinned the leadership of Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, Dr Briony Scott talks about leading Wenona through a global pandemic, and the courage, strength, grace and wisdom of the Wenona community in adapting to profound change.

WELCOME FROM THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL (STAFF AND STRATEGY)

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As Mark Staker observes, there have been some silver linings as a result of the global pandemic, with the pivot to remote learning leading to growth, knowledge and collaboration.

FELLOWSHIPS

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Head of Drama, Ms Tiffany Crittle, travelled to New York, Paris and Amsterdam to immerse herself in physical theatre, while Junior School Teacher, Mr Nick Amato headed to North America to learn more about the IB’s PYP programme.

SEEDING GRANTS

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Ms Vanessa Furlong Alexanderson immersed herself in the French language and culture of New Caledonia, while English Teacher, Ms Sara Verge, headed to Northern Vietnam to teach English.

FEATURES

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From prestigious Science awards, to exploring eSafety, to promoting international mindedness, our staff share how their professional development has contributed to the School community this year.

ENGAGE & GROW

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From studying for a Masters of Educational Leadership to a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Education - Visual Arts), our staff are embracing further learning opportunities across the School.

NEW STAFF 2018/19

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Meet the newest members of the Wenona team, including our new Head of Junior School, Ms Justine Lind.

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

WELCOME

DR BRIONY SCOTT PRINCIPAL

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YOU HAVE POWER OVER YOUR MIND - NOT OUTSIDE EVENTS. REALISE THIS, AND YOU WILL FIND STRENGTH.” MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS

Between AD166 to AD180, a terrible plague swept across the known world. Known as the Antonine Plague, it plunged lives into crisis, killing a third of the population, and shrouding the social, political and economic order in a fog of uncertainty. During this time of fear and loss, Marcus Aurelius - Roman Emperor and the last Stoic philosopher of antiquity - wrote Meditations. He intended the book to be a series of notes to himself, a personal reminder if you will to remain calm in the face of adversity, to prize rational thought, to act on credible information, and in his words, to accept that: “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make of it.”

Meditations remained unpublished in Marcus Aurelius’s lifetime; it was discovered alongside his mortal remains. But Marcus’s abiding wisdom about human behaviour has proved to be an insightful tool for leadership. And never more so than now, a time of precipitous global uncertainty. A time when our collective character, resilience and courage are being tested like never before.

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The new year in Australia began with catastrophic fires that ravaged the east coast, destroying lives and livelihoods, towns and communities, forests and wildlife. On the Australia Day long weekend, as Wenona’s staff and students were excitedly looking forward to the new school year, Australia announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Although we didn’t know it at the time, the contours of our world were about to change dramatically.

As we settled in to Term 1, countries other than China began to report infection rates and mortalities. Stories about the escalating situation in northern Italy began to amplify. As the weeks progressed, concern grew about what tomorrow would bring, about the health and safety of our loved ones, and about our ability to live the lives we love.

No amount of leadership training or experience can prepare a school for the most serious health crisis the world has experienced in a century. In February, Wenona formed a Crisis Management Team, drawing on talent, expertise and capability from across the School community. This enabled us to act quickly and to respond decisively as the crisis unfolded. But the sheer unpredictability and overwhelming speed of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that unlike challenges we’ve faced in the past, there was no sense of déjà vu. COVID-19 is a generation-defining crisis. It has been impossible to respond as the School would in a routine emergency by following plans drawn up in advance. The still-unfolding crisis requires decisive leadership, agile decision-making processes; useful, accurate and current information; and collaboration.

We don’t do drama at Wenona. Our staff and our students strive to uphold behaviours and mindsets that embody the School’s values of courage, strength, grace and wisdom. Like Marcus Aurelius and the stoic philosophy that underpinned his leadership, we recognise that our control as a School is limited to what we do, think, choose, desire, and fear.

Put simply, we can only ‘control the controllables’.

When COVID-19 first hit, we came together as a community, in part because we trusted in the advice and guidance of our political leaders and health experts. This informed our response to crisis management and enabled us to pivot rapidly into solving the problems that were in our control.

This included listening and responding to the needs of our community; safeguarding their health and safety; and supporting the pace and scale of teaching and learning innovation as we prepared for Wenona’s distance learning program, the Athenaeum Learning Pathway (ALP), in anticipation of the Governmentmandated closure of the School.

Early on, we recognised the importance of assessing the crisis from multiple vantage points, anticipating what could happen next before acting. We are well versed in the practice of ‘pause-assess-anticipateact’ at Wenona, and this certainly helped the Crisis Management Team to maintain a sense of calm as the situation changed. But the collaboration and network of support from educational leaders across the globe has also proved invaluable. As the crisis escalated, school and tertiary education leaders from different countries came together via Zoom, webcasts, podcasts and Twitter to help each other navigate the pandemic. Together, we offered dialogue and debate, pragmatism and reason, bringing our experiences to bear while accepting new insights as they emerged.

As you will read in this edition of Upon Reflection, Wenona is a community that is committed to listening and learning from others and growing in knowledge and leadership. I am proud of the achievements of those who have undertaken Fellowships, Seeding Grants or engaged in further study over the past year to improve their practice or accelerate their learning, benefiting their own professional development, as well as the development of the School and our students. But I am also incredibly proud of the stoicism of the Wenona community – our staff, our students and our families - who have adapted to profound change with calm, courage and character despite facing extraordinary personal and professional challenges.

COVID-19 is the first time that much of our world has faced the sudden, unseen, and unremitting fear of an easily spread and deadly infectious disease.

The crisis continues to test our leadership, but our courage, strength, grace and wisdom will help us to emerge stronger from it. As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus once said: “Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”

I commend this edition of Upon Reflection to you.

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SILVER LININGS Pivoting professional learning amidst a global pandemic

BY MARK STAKER DEPUTY PRINCIPAL (STAFF AND STRATEGY)

Like many schools, Wenona’s professional learning community has been tested by COVID-19. But as Deputy Principal (Staff and Strategy), Mark Staker observes, the transition to remote learning has revealed great underlying strengths, leading to remarkable growth, knowledge and collaboration.

As with many industries, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the education sector to radical change, including its approach to professional learning and development. The rapid closure of schools, both here in Australia and overseas, forced educators to navigate the choppy waters of digital technology and fast! In the mad scramble to adapt pedagogies and curriculum to a brave, new online learning environment, many of us were left feeling emotional, vulnerable and uncertain. But what we’d failed to recognise is that these feelings are a normal response to learning.

Research into the efficacy of professional learning has highlighted that emotion is not an ‘unwelcome guest’1, but instead, a key driver when it comes to staff engagement. COVID-19 undoubtedly brought a sense of vulnerability and uncertainty to our professional learning community at Wenona. But we can be proud that as the challenges of launching our Athenaeum Learning Pathway mounted, we harnessed those feelings to drive change, to reflect on our practices, and to move forward and adopt new ways of working with a united sense of purpose. Put simply, the pandemic has been a time for us to develop new skills and pedagogies that we may not otherwise have had an opportunity to acquire.

Often the way we define success in the workplace hinges as much on our perceived strengths as our weaknesses, no matter how hard we try to hide them.

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1 Timperley,

But along with the physical restrictions to our daily lives, the shift to new behaviours and expectations as a result of the pandemic was unsettling. COVID-19 not only disrupted our professional routines and practises, but it forced us to reframe what it means to be successful in our roles. Only seeing their classes on a computer screen made it difficult for teachers to ‘scan the room’ to gauge how well students were learning. It was much harder to read a student’s body language online to check in on their emotional wellbeing. And navigating these uncertain times without the daily face-to-face interaction with colleagues also had its challenges.

But in many respects, COVID-19 has drawn out the very best from our staff. Despite social distancing, they’ve forged a new sense of connection and belonging. And their unwavering commitment to our students’ education and wellbeing has shone through any uncertainty. It’s also been heartening to see new leaders of professional learning emerge within our community, generously sharing their knowledge with staff, students and parents. In many ways, COVID-19 has been a timely reminder that we don’t always need to seek the wisdom of outsiders, looking for their ‘oneoff’ moment on stage, because we have a wealth of knowledge within.

Across the School, the agility and willingness of our staff to embrace change has been outstanding.

Leading the vanguard of change, has been our ICT and Digital Learning team, who’ve helped to upskill our community with Zoom-based professional development sessions across a wide-range of areas, often with little or no notice. And members of staff who’ve never presented in public before, have also stepped up, using the online environment to overcome their fear of public speaking and share their expertise.

While Wenona has long embraced digital technology as a key part of its teaching and learning, the pandemic has forced some of us to step out of our comfort zones and embrace new digital platforms with an acceptance that we might fail or that others in the Zoom ‘room’ are more technically proficient. We’ve embraced webinars, web conferencing and webcasts to improve our practice and enhance the virtual learning experience of our students. And we’ve had to explore different ways to connect with our students and their families across the globe.

The desire to collaborate with others, both in our community and beyond, has been exceptional.

Our staff have reached out through social media channels such as Twitter and LinkedIn to collaborate with schools worldwide, exchanging knowledge and ideas. And global coalitions of education leaders

Ell, Le Fevre and Twyford, Leading Professional Learning (ACER Press, 2019)

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ACROSS THE SCHOOL, THE AGILITY AND WILLINGNESS OF OUR STAFF TO EMBRACE CHANGE HAS BEEN OUTSTANDING.”

have formed. People who would never normally come together in real time, have connected to share their experience and insight into leading their school through unprecedented change.

As I reflect on 2020 - acknowledging that we are still only half way through the academic year - I can see a renewed appetite for risk from our staff when it comes to professional learning. With no possibility of travelling to conferences, seminars or training programs for the forceable future, our staff have embraced the collaboration, flexibility and personalised nature of online professional learning opportunities. While many still crave the intimacy and immediacy of face-to-

face contact, they’ve also come to realise that the virtual world offers high-quality, engaging learning experiences that are just as valid and enriching.

As you will read in this sixth edition of Upon Reflection, the professionalism of our staff is extraordinary. However, no article can truly capture the strength, wisdom, grace and courage our staff have shown in embracing radical change at a time of global uncertainty. Their commitment to professional development and improvement at Wenona in 2020 has been truly remarkable and will shape our professional learning future for the benefit of our whole community.

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Supporting the switch to online learning

BY ROLFE KOLBE DIGITAL LEARNING LEADER

As Digital Learning Leader at Wenona, I work closely with staff and students, so I am acutely aware of the hard work involved in the shift from our Teaching and Learning Program (K to 12) to the Athenaeum Learning Pathway (ALP). However, I also believe the hard work has been worthwhile, as it has been a catalyst for positive change.

While the School’s initial priority was to enact remote teaching at scale, COVID-19 has been something of a tipping point in the evolution of teaching and learning at Wenona. As the global education landscape continues to change, the technology, tools and practices we adopted during the ALP have highlighted new and exciting possibilities for how we can ‘do school’ moving forward.

In my role, I have the privilege of working with staff and students from across the whole School community, providing direction, and exploring ways to enhance, enrich, extend and enable greater learning through the appropriate and authentic use of technology. While we’d already embedded technology into the curriculum at Wenona, the pandemic and the need for distance learning accelerated our progress in this regard.

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When the COVID-19 outbreak first hit, I worked closely with the Director of ICT, Mr Reza Jalili-Baleh to choose a suitable platform for a remote learning environment. We then worked collaboratively with the Deputy Principal (Teaching and Learning), Ms Diana Drummond, as well as the Heads of Department and key staff from across the Junior School to determine digitally flexible approaches that would build a solid online learning community for all students.

The School Leadership Team also moved swiftly to support Digital Learning, redeploying Mrs Linda Blamey and Ms Bonnie Peake from the Library to my team to assist with training and to help develop digital resources for staff and students.

Pivoting to a remote learning environment prompted the School to evolve, to innovate and to embrace new pedagogical practices. For teachers, the ALP highlighted the need for greater clarity and consistency in their communication and content.

And it highlighted the need to do things differently, and in a smarter and more sustainable way. It meant planning around diverse student needs and sharing resources, challenges, successes, and failures. It was heartening to see our staff - and our students - harness a growth mindset, as they adapted to a new reality, mastering digital tools, integrating new teaching activities, and supporting each other to bring lessons to life in the virtual classroom.

For students, the ALP meant we needed to harness multiple avenues for communication, including embedded audio and video, instant messaging,

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PIVOTING TO A REMOTE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT PROMPTED THE SCHOOL TO EVOLVE, TO INNOVATE AND TO EMBRACE NEW PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES.” annotated notes, and online discussions. Delivering content in multiple formats helped to increase student engagement, offering them greater flexibility and choice in their approach to learning, and multiple ways to express themselves. Many of the tools available provided more opportunities for individual feedback, which gave students a better sense of their progress.

A key priority was to support staff with practical guides, professional development, and information that would empower them and their students to stay motivated and engaged with learning at home. Towards the end of 2019, we held an all-day Technology and Learning Conference to share best practice. In the lead up to lockdown, we increased our in-class sessions, individual and group support sessions, and ‘Techie Brekkies’, and we also encouraged staff to share their knowledge and expertise through individual presentations and workshops.

The growth and work done by our Junior School teachers was particularly impressive. Along with the challenge of how best to present and distribute work to students who had just started school, the Junior School teachers faced a steep learning curve to familiarise themselves with platforms and systems used routinely by Senior School. Similarly, the Junior School teachers have been impressed by the energy, enthusiasm and inventiveness of the students, who have actively built skills during the ALP that will keep them resilient now, and in the future.

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a sense of connection and unity. With synchronous options for meeting online, including real-time video, screen sharing and chat functionality, as well as breakout spaces, Zoom offered successful learning experiences for students and teachers alike. Staff also harnessed skills they’d learnt during professional development to create videos that expanded how they communicated with students and approached content, which allowed students to explore content in their own time. Getting the right mix of synchronous and asynchronous content was a constant balancing act during the ALP, and something that the Teaching and Learning Team reviewed regularly.

The School also leveraged tools like Microsoft OneNote, which offers a personal workspace for every student, a content library for materials, and a collaboration space for the whole class to work together. In conjunction with Canvas, OneNote provided more options for two-way interaction and collaboration. Teachers could efficiently share resources, providing students with rich, personalised feedback that they could respond to, creating a genuine dialogue around learning. We also made use of tools such as Flipgrid and Padlet to create innovative content, boost student engagement and assist with formative assessment and review of work.

This cadence - of learning new digital skills and sometimes failing at mastery - was an uncomfortable, yet critical component for the Wenona community during the ALP. But COVID-19 challenged us to find new and creative ways to reach out, to connect, to inspire and to engage. It forced us to see new opportunities and a wider world. And by collaborating both locally and globally, engaging with experts, learning new skills, wrestling with failure, and celebrating successes, even the small ones along the way, we’ve learnt to take risks and problem solve - together!

Wenona has been fortunate in that our Learning Management System, Canvas, has been a fantastic platform for class communication, delivering and collecting content, and providing feedback.

Sustainable practice and consistency were key drivers in the success of the ALP, so we asked staff to be diligent in recording instructions for lessons and work expectations on Canvas. This has paid dividends in building a high-quality online learning ecosystem.

In these uncertain times, Zoom proved to be an invaluable tool in helping our community to maintain

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Building digital confidence and capacity

BY LINDA BLAMEY LIBRARY TECHNICIAN

As a Librarian, the ability to adapt to the everchanging implications of technology within a library environment is critical. From online databases, to eBooks and Audiobooks, it is evident that the library of the future is digital.

Therefore, when I was given an opportunity to move to the Digital Learning Team to assist staff with the shift to the Athenaeum Learning Pathway (ALP), it felt like a seamless transition.

From the outset, our priority was to help staff use available technology with confidence, so they could continue to deliver an enriching learning experience that would enable students to thrive in a virtual setting. The Digital Learning Team began by holding a professional development session to showcase tools such as Zoom, Canvas and Microsoft365 applications, including OneNote Class Notebook. We supplemented this with early morning ‘Techie Brekkies’ sessions, which gave staff an opportunity to delve deeper into more specific elements of these tools.

In the lead up to lockdown, I visited classrooms to provide real-time support to teachers and students, building their confidence and capacity with this new way of teaching and learning. As we moved to remote working, I was able to facilitate workshops via Zoom during the Wenona Staff Days, focusing on the topics of: Canvas blueprints, Canvas pages, tools for engagement, and finding and embedding videos. It was fantastic to see colleagues step up to facilitate these sessions, as well as their willingness to share their knowledge and expertise.

Another priority for the Digital Learning Team during the transition to the ALP was to support teachers with practical guides and how-to information to help empower them and their students to stay motivated and engaged with learning. We added - and are continuing to add - large amounts of instructional content to the Staff and Student ICT Guides on Canvas. These guides have become an important resource, and we are committed to keeping them up-to-date with relevant and useful information.

It has been humbling to see the resilience of both Wenona staff and students in what has been a period of great uncertainty and change. Staff who were initially hesitant about their technological abilities have proven themselves to be adept and confident in their skills. My hope is that as we move forward, we will continue to collaborate, connect, and create as a community, using the array of technologies available to us.

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CHANGE IS THE ESSENTIAL PROCESS OF ALL EXISTENCE.” MR SPOCK, STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES

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The Beauty of OneNote

BY MORGAN HUNTER MATHS TEACHER

I was introduced to Microsoft OneNote early in my teaching career. Students love hands-on learning and one of the beautiful things about OneNote is that it promotes student agency, enabling them to work at their own pace, and guiding their skill mastery and skill application in mathematics.

As any Mathematics teacher will tell you, the language of mathematics is represented by a diverse array of symbols, diagrams and characters.

Fortunately, OneNote provides a natural interface for mathematical language, supporting teachers to deal with its intricacies by enabling them to handwrite notes, and to gesture, annotate and diagram, thereby supporting non-linguistic thinking.

Live annotation is especially important in Maths. It’s a great way of recording the collective thinking of students during a classroom discussion, giving them access to a variety of different mathematical ideas.

After all, there is always more than one way to come up with the right answer. The strategic use of colour, symbols, words and diagrams in OneNote can help students to make mathematical connections and see mathematical structures. It’s a very visual way of breaking down complex problems and documenting different thinking processes. And it’s a great way for teachers to give differentiated support and feedback to students.

When Wenona introduced the Athenaeum Learning Pathway (ALP), it was easy for me to make the transition to online learning as I’d already learnt all the quirks of OneNote. I’d also developed a bank of digital resources in OneNotes’ Content Library, including handwritten notes, spreadsheets, interactive graphs, and videos. My colleagues in the Mathematics Department were able to use my work record on Canvas as a template for developing their own. I was able to show them how to use OneNote’s Collaboration Space effectively, so that students could work together and give one another feedback, as well as the student notebook section, which enables students to control and organise their

work independently. This was also a fantastic tool for setting differentiated work, enabling me to distribute enrichment tasks to some students and revision to others.

Along with Digital Learning Leader, Mr Rolfe Kolbe, I provided professional development sessions for teachers across the School, with a focus on how to use OneNote with Zoom. Having already worked closely with the Mathematics Department, I was able to offer advice on creating a collaborative and interactive classroom experience using OneNote, distributing work to students and conducting assessment and feedback.

I ran a second professional development session entitled OneNote Tips and Tricks. Both sessions were subsequently uploaded on to Canvas as part of the School’s ICT guides. This proved an invaluable resource for both teachers and students as it ensured that everyone adopted a consistent approach to using it.

It was an enormous task to move classes online and everyone at Wenona worked tirelessly to achieve it. I was proud to play a part in supporting both my colleagues and my students. They adapted quickly to the ALP and continued to work hard regardless.

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Sharing digital tools and techniques

BY ANDY DOUGLAS LANGUAGES TEACHER

Wenona’s journey in creating the Athenaeum Learning Pathway (ALP) gave me a renewed sense of passion and purpose as a Languages Teacher. It reminded me of how much I love to explore education through technology, and I relished the opportunity to support my colleagues and students through this unprecedented time in our lives.

Early in my teaching career, I realised that I needed to cater for students of mixed ability and motivation.

Video instruction allows me to focus student attention and rehearse my instructions for clarity, freeing me up to support and extend students in real-time, at a pace that suits them. I use tools like Education Perfect and Quizlet to give my students interactive opportunities to practise vocabulary and track their progress.

And I’ve also worked hard to transform assessment practises with technology in order to provide students with real-time feedback, support and adjustments for

learning difficulties or anxiety. This gives me more time to develop engaging content and deliver richer feedback.

As it became clear that a lockdown was inevitable and the School started to prepare for the ALP, I decided to research the best tools and techniques to convert paper-based worksheets into a digital format.

This included the use of Google Slides to make worksheets, which I knew most teachers at Wenona were already familiar with. To me, it made sense to help teachers reuse activities they could already successfully deliver, giving them more time to prepare for the incoming restrictions.

At the end of Term 1 and at the beginning of Term 2, I presented my research to staff in a TeachMeet (an informal, collaborative gathering where educators can share ideas and experiences, and support each other in our professional growth) via Zoom. Given the

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AS IT BECAME CLEAR THAT A LOCKDOWN WAS INEVITABLE AND THE SCHOOL STARTED TO PREPARE FOR THE ALP, I DECIDED TO RESEARCH THE BEST TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES TO CONVERT PAPER-BASED WORKSHEETS INTO A DIGITAL FORMAT.”

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STAFF AWARDS The following staff members received an award at the Board of Governors Dinner in May 2019: Going Beyond Award Lisa Broad (Communications and Publications Manager) Jasmina Hazrolaj (Laboratory Manager) Sonia Brennan (Director of Foundation and Community Engagement) pressure on teachers, I wanted to make sure that my professional development was relevant and could be easily adapted to busy teaching lives.

I also wanted to build the teachers’ confidence and inspire them to explore technology further. Before the TeachMeet, I’d pre-recorded instructional videos and created a series of templates, which I emailed to participants. It was rewarding to receive feedback afterwards about how useful they’d found these resources, enabling them to confidently prepare and distribute digital worksheets that were easily accessible by students.

Because I already used a ‘driver face-to-face’ model of blended learning in my classroom, it was easy to ‘pick and lift’ my resources and techniques into the ALP. Also, my students were already used to working in this way, so we lost very little momentum in our units of work.

However, remote learning helped me to understand that having students physically present does not equal engagement and progress. It forced me to examine the ways in which I collect evidence of student participation and progress. And it also prompted me to explore how to make my Canvas navigation clearer and more visual. While I might be technically-minded, I am not aesthetically-minded! I have since devised a new visual framework for my courses that I can build on moving forward.

One of the more thrilling aspects of this journey has been transforming assessment in Stage 4, moving away from scored summative assessments to a grade scale. This has made the day-to-day work more meaningful for students. It has reduced their anxiety (and mine!) because we can focus on what demonstrating success truly looks like in languages.

It’s not a single point in time on a test, but rather the growth and skills they exhibit in class through their ongoing speaking, writing and comprehension tasks. It supports a growth mindset by helping students to strive towards an end goal rather than a meaningless score out of 100.

Commitment to Improvement Award Stephen Colyer (English Teacher) Rolfe Kolbe (Digital Learning Leader) Mark Devine (TAS Teacher) Stepping Up Award Linda Macqueen (Science Teacher) Reza Jalili-Baleh (Director of ICT) Behind the Scenes Award Amani Rdiaan (Senior College Team Administration Assistant) Andrew Leake (Chief Operating Officer) Yvonne Grisaffe (Quality Assurance Manager) Ann-Marie Osborne (Head of Sport K-12) Outstanding Commitment to the Teaching Profession Award Kimberley Peck (Junior School Teacher) Andrew Douglas (Languages Teacher) Nicholas Amato (Junior School Teacher) Bridie O’Mahony (Junior School Music Coordinator - Acting) Commitment to Staff Development Award Patricia Davis (Director of Studies) Joshua Clark (Assistant Head of Science) Graeme Hutton (TAS Teacher) Promoting a Culture of Care and Support Award Michelle Bollard (Teaching Assistant) Leadership of Learning Award Justin Newall (Head of Mathematics) Janet McNally (Head of TAS) Equanimity of Spirit Award Wendy Wickham (PA to the Principal) Ut Prosim Award Catherine Seale (Director of Community and Service Learning)

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FELLOWSHIPS

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F EL LOWS HIPS

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ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE Leaving comfort zones behind to embrace the joys of physical theatre

BY TIFFANY CRITTLE HEAD OF DRAMA

A desire to help her students explore movement, led Head of Drama, Tiffany Crittle to apply for a Wenona Teaching Fellowship. It took her on a thrilling journey across New York, Paris and Amsterdam, where she immersed herself in the aesthetic rigour and radical purpose of physical theatre. It was provocative and joyful, and it has been transformative for her teaching.

I’m standing in a studio full of mirrors in Rochester, New York, wearing the tights and t-shirt I bought specifically for this occasion. We’re about to begin the first of our two-hour, warm-up sessions and I’m terrified. Lithe 20-somethings are limbering up around me, all looking impossibly fit. They seem to carry themselves with such confidence, while I’m trapped inside my head panicking about how awkward I feel.

Suddenly, our instructor, Darren enters the room.

“Lie on the floor!” he barks. For a moment, I freeze.

Then, I take a deep breath and shift my focus from my fear to my purpose for being here: to learn more about physical theatre from one of the most exciting companies in the world. I join my classmates on the floor and a new lease of creative life unfurls within me.

So begins my first day with the PUSH Physical Theatre Company…

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Let’s get physical As we know from the ancient Greek chorus, commedia dell’arte and Japanese noh, movement has been an integral part of storytelling since the earliest days of the theatre. Physical Theatre is a type of performance that puts an emphasis on movement, placing the human body at the centre of the storytelling process.

In 2000, Darren Stevenson and his wife Heather founded PUSH Physical Theatre in Rochester, New York, working ‘outside the box’ in an exciting hybrid of theatre and dance. At PUSH, acrobatics collide with circus skills, head-spinning leaps, dance, gesture and mime to cleverly expose how stories morph and mutate to lend meaning to our lives. The company has received international acclaim for its work, smashing the boundaries of theatrical conventions to create a strikingly visual form of storytelling.

From the moment I came across a video performance of PUSH, I was captivated by its emotional eloquence. It was visceral, raw and invigorating, yet there was an undertow of tenderness that touched me. I knew immediately that I wanted to attend one of PUSH’s three-week Summer Intensive programs so I could help my students at Wenona explore and extend their physical acting skills. Before I’d had time to second guess myself, I’d successfully applied for a Wenona Teaching Fellowship to go to New York, before going on to learn more about physical theatre in Paris and Amsterdam.

However, as my departure date drew nearer, I started to watch the videos of past intensives with a rising sense of panic. When I first enquired about the program, I was assured that it catered for all ages and fitness levels. Yet the past participants seemed so much younger and more supple than me, whirring across my screen in travelling spins, undulating fluently between floor and air to create human sculptures with their bodies.

I always tell my students to step outside their comfort zones. After all, that’s how we learn. And yet, the doubt lingered. Could I do this? Was PUSH a step too far for a 50-plus woman with fluctuating fitness levels? In June 2019, I travelled to Rochester, New York to find out.

F EL LOWS HIP

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A DESIRE TO HELP HER STUDENTS EXPLORE MOVEMENT, LED HEAD OF DRAMA, TIFFANY CRITTLE TO APPLY FOR A WENONA TEACHING FELLOWSHIP.”

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AS WITH ANY CHANGE IN LIFE, THE FIRST STEP IS THE HARDEST. AND ONCE I HAVE JOINED MY FELLOW CLASSMATES ON THE FLOOR OF THE REHEARSAL STUDIO AT PUSH, I START TO RELAX.”

Finding my core belief at PUSH As with any change in life, the first step is the hardest.

And once I have joined my fellow classmates on the floor of the rehearsal studio at PUSH, I start to relax.

Darren, PUSH’s Artistic Director, seems tough, but fair. For our warm-up, he focuses on developing our core strength. For the next two hours, we contract our stomach muscles and pull in our arms and legs in a repetitive sequence, while Darren barks instructions and clicks his tongue to help us keep time. It feels odd at first, but each movement is designed to help the body maintain different postures and improve our performance. Every day, Darren adds a more complex movement to our warm-up sequence. After two weeks, we can execute a series of core strength and body isolation movements, and we can do ballet jumps and mime sequences in unison. While I’m far from the best in the class, I can perform the entire sequence with ease and have a new-found awareness of my body and the space it inhabits.

Acrobatics and Mime After our warm-up session, the hard work begins.

Some days are devoted to acrobatics. At the start, I struggle to do a forward roll, but by the end I can spring from standing into a one-armed roll and do a headstand unaided. And to my delight, I learn

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to ‘fly’ over a partner while they lie on the ground, supporting me with their upturned legs.

Perhaps the exercise that resonates most is a ‘push and pull’ routine inspired by Frantic Assembly, one of my favourite physical theatre companies and among the most influential British companies for movement.

It gives me a whole new toolkit of techniques to use on stage at Wenona.

During the intensive, I also discover that there’s more to mime than Marcel Marceau, the so-called poet laureate of silence, whose white face and stripey top is forever etched in my mind. We spend the day submerged in a wordless world as Darren teaches us the vocabulary of Corporeal Mime, which has been described as ‘the art of the thinking body’. We learn the seven steps of picking up an imaginary flower. We lean against imaginary walls. And we learn to walk on the spot, which proves a lot harder than it first appears.

Then Darren treats us to a performance from his oneman show, The Soldier. We watch in awe as the dying soldier’s life flashes before his eyes. There are his childhood memories of playing baseball and his final farewell to his family as he heads off to war. Beneath the technical virtuosity of Darren’s performance, there is a poetic quality that hits at a deeper truth. The effect is both breathtaking and profoundly moving.

F EL LOWS HIP

Each day, we finish in the studio at around 5pm and head back to our accommodation at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester. After dinner, we reconvene with our instructors for a presentation and feedback session. It’s a critical part of our learning curve, an opportunity to reflect on our day - what worked, what didn’t - and to gain a greater understanding of the theory and dynamics behind different movements.

Fright night in New York After nearly three weeks of training with PUSH, I feel ready to put my new-found technical knowledge of physical theatre to the test. Sleep No More, by British theatre company Punchdrunk, is billed as an immersive retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with shades of Hitchcock and film noir. The performance takes place across six floors of New York City’s McKittrick Hotel. It puts the audience at the heart of the action by allowing them to follow roving actors at their leisure, selecting which scenes of “double, double, toil and trouble” they want to watch.

I’ve been allocated an arrival time, so I wait in the foyer of the McKittrick Hotel. It’s dark and there’s a haunted house vibe, which is unnerving. By the time I’m summoned to go in, I’m feeling a little like Macbeth and Banquo when they first encounter the witches. I join a group of people in a small room lined with black velvet.

I’m given a white mask to wear with a long beaky nose. While it’s not exactly Wes Craven’s Ghostface, it’s just as creepy. As we step into an elevator, we are given three instructions: don’t take the mask off; don’t touch the actors; and don’t talk. We ascend in silence.

The door opens on a random floor.

My sense of space and depth are already compromised by the mask, but stepping out into the dimly lit corridor, I feel like I’m entering the sludgy aura of a nightmare. Disturbing music adds to the sense of menace. “Out damn spot!” I think to myself. Then, to my horror, I notice my fellow audience members have started to run down the corridor. Terrified at the prospect of being left alone, I follow them. They stop at an open doorway. In the gloaming, I can see a couple getting dressed into beautiful 20’s clothing. I know they are actors because they’re not wearing masks. The man, handsome in his dinner jacket, suddenly looks at his watch and strides towards the doorway. We stand aside for him and he sets off at pace down the corridor.

Some people follow him. I hover behind, curious to see

what the woman left at the dressing table will do.

To my dismay, she starts to sob.

Sleep No More is a nerve-shredding journey through a maze of rooms, corridors and stairwells, where vignettes of Macbeth wordlessly play out. I wander into a sanitorium with eight beds, each adorned with a patient’s chart and a crucifix. One bed is filled with potatoes. In a graveyard, I watch as Lady Macbeth floats silently in a bathtub, while blood-soaked letters flutter across the floor. In the psychiatrist’s office, I read notes from a therapy session with Lady Macduff.

And in the witches’ lair, the floor is strewn with hair, leaves, and crumpled papers scrawled with spells.

There are bird carcasses, headless baby dolls and a spine-tingling Birnam Wood. Despite my fear, I marvel at the physicality of the actors as they spiral past, slithering down staircases, climbing walls, and contorting into spiky shapes that almost defy gravity.

While it’s hardly a relaxing night at the theatre, the detail of the set is unbelievable, and the acting is sublime. However, for me, the performance is as terrifyingly claustrophobic as any horror film, and as I head back to my digs on the Upper West Side, I am plagued with such existential dread that I feel sure I will ‘sleep no more’!

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Pilgrimage to Paris I find the Cartoucherie in a deep, dark wood in the depths of Paris’s Bois de Vincennes. This former munition factory is home to Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil, and as I approach its pretty façade, I’m filled with awe. For me, this journey is something of a pilgrimage. In France, where Mnouchkine is the reigning matriarch of European theatre, she is known simply as ‘La Reine’ (‘The Queen’). Since founding the Théâtre du Soleil in 1964, Mnouchkine has become one of the most influential directors in the world, fuelled by her ability to meld the art of improvisation with her unique theatrical vision.

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I’m here to see a performance of Le Chant Du Pied, Voyage en Kathakalie. I’m aware that as an audience member, I am required to put in almost as much preparation as the actors, so I’ve done my homework. Mnouchkine herself trained with the legendary French physical theatre teacher, Jacques LeCoq, and her actors undergo intense physical training. They often spend up to six months rehearsing, refining and incubating their ideas.

Their performances draw from a rich mosaic of international influences, including commedia dellarte, bunraku puppetry and Javanese gamelan.

F EL LOWS HIP

Mnouchkine refers to her actors as ‘mécaniciens foux’ (‘mad mechanics’) for the way they pick up different theatrical tools and use them in creative ways. Kathakali, which this performance draws from, is an ancient form of Indian classical dance and storytelling, originating in Kerala in southern India.

It combines extravagant footwork, gestures, music and mime, with age-old martial arts movements.

It is typically enacted outdoors by male actors.

Voices chant the storyline, which the dancers perform, often accompanied by ear-splitting drumbeats and cymbals.

As I arrive at the entrance to the Cartoucherie, I’m handed a poster of ‘Le Chant Du Pied’ (‘The song of the Feet’), which features three sets of legs and feet. There are no reservations, so I find a place on a communal bench. It’s hot. I waft the beautiful woven fan I’ve been given in front of my face. Three women appear on stage and begin to speak in French, raising their hands and pressing their thumbs and pinky fingers together. They look like statuettes of Indian gods. I notice that the audience are mimicking their gestures, so I do the same. Then one of the actors starts to grimace, moving her eyes from left to right in an exaggerated fashion. Even with my schoolgirl French, I can pick out ‘à gauche’ and ‘à droit’, so I start to move my eyes, still gesturing with my hands. The actor begins to chant faster and faster, until my eyes feel like they are rolling around in my head like ball-bearings. It’s discombobulating.

“

SINCE FOUNDING THE THÉÂTRE DU SOLEIL IN 1964, MNOUCHKINE HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL DIRECTORS IN THE WORLD, FUELLED BY HER ABILITY TO MELD THE ART OF IMPROVISATION WITH HER UNIQUE THEATRICAL VISION. ”

The blistering heat. The chanting. The crowd of strangers. But just before it all becomes too much, everything stops. The lights go down, the audience is quiet, and the show begins.

Mnouchkine says, “You should go out of the theatre stronger and more human than when you went in.”

And I do. I find myself deeply moved by the show in a way that I don’t fully understand. It’s in the very fabric of a performer’s art to make it look easy. But as I watch the actors move with grace, using stylised gestures and facial expressions that take us on a magical journey through India, I marvel at how exceptional their ability is. It dawns on me afterwards, that the audience participation at the start of the show was all about them generously sharing their knowledge with us.

As I leave the Bois de Vincennes, I realise I’ve left my poster behind. My precious souvenir of Mnouchkine’s theatre is lost. When I get back to my hotel, I send a tentative email to the Théâtre du Soleil. Do they have any spare posters? Could I come back to pick it up? Their response encapsulates the spirit of the company. No problem. If I give them my home address, they will send a new poster to me in Australia. Which they do. Free of charge!

The Amsterdam Stomp No mobile phones in the rehearsal room. No food.

No alcohol during the week. Don’t come to class if you are sick. Don’t be late to class. In fact, arrive 15 minutes early so you can warm up your body and voice. Oh, and the door to the rehearsal room will be locked five minutes before class starts, so any latecomers will have to sit out the morning session! This is our welcome address from Dr Lynne Bradley, co-founder of Zen Zen Zo Theatre Company.

Wow, I think, this woman would make a great high school teacher!

Founded in 1992, Zen Zen Zo melds ancient Asian dance-theatre traditions with European avant-garde theatre and contemporary pop culture to produce radically different spectacles of light, sound and movement. Here audience members are literally pulled into the production, adding another layer to their performance and blurring the very notion of what it means to be a spectator.

The irony of travelling to the other side of the world to work with an Australian physical theatre company - Zen Zo Zo was on a teaching tour of Britain, Amsterdam and Turkey - is not lost on me. But the weirdness doesn’t end there. I discover that Lynne

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is a Wenonian, having attended our Junior School.

And her mum was the former Head of Mathematics at Wenona! Not that any of these connections help me when I hit the floor for a week-long training program with Zen Zen Zo in Amsterdam.

The program follows the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, which was developed by theatre director, Tadashi Suzuki. It’s a rigorous and highly physical method of acting training, designed to push the actor’s concentration, endurance and balance to the limit.

Suzuki argues that it is this point of extreme focus, where an actor finds his essential truth. Each day begins with the ‘Suzuki Stomp’. We must bend into a position that is almost like sitting on an imaginary chair, keeping our knees and ankles, together. While Lynne plays vigorous ‘stomping music’, we must lift our knees up and down, almost to waist-height, as we stomp around the room in time with the music. Lynne is like a terrier, snapping at our heels and barking instructions. Look up! Keep your knees level with your hips! Don’t slow down! We stomp to the back wall and drop to the ground. Then we rise, taking care to use our core muscles, and turn slowly towards the audience, arms raised. We are reborn!

Our days take on a prescribed pattern. After morning tea, we perform exercises inspired by Butoh, a Japanese form of dance-theatre that arose in response to the horrors of World War Two. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before. Its fascination with the dark side of life, make it both ugly and beautiful, and strangely liberating. After lunch, we explore ‘The Viewpoints’, which is a technique of theatrical composition that explores the use of movement, gesture and creative space. I’ve used it with great success in the classroom, so I’m keen to learn more. Lynne takes us through different elements of this framework, before we move into improvisation and composition. I lap it up, hungry to absorb her knowledge and insight.

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But it is the ‘Suzuki Stomp’ that almost breaks me.

It’s half way through the week, and I’m tired and sore. The thought of starting yet another session with stomping feels overwhelming. I really don’t want to do it, but I do. I barely make it through the exercise, and the next day, I feel sick at the prospect of doing it all over again. But then a strange thing happens. As I start to stomp around the room - trying to keep my eyes level, my hips down and my ankles together - I realise I can do it. It’s not easy, but I can do it. Tadashi Suzuki’s rigorous training method has pushed me to my limits, but in doing so, it’s shown me that I am able to do more than I believed I was capable of. When the music stops, I drop to the ground and I feel a new-found confidence blooming within me.

“

TADASHI SUZUKI’S RIGOROUS TRAINING METHOD HAS PUSHED ME TO MY LIMITS, BUT IN DOING SO, IT’S SHOWN ME THAT I AM ABLE TO DO MORE THAN I BELIEVED I WAS CAPABLE OF.”

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REFLECTION According to Noel Coward, the art of acting is simple: “Learn the lines and don’t bump into the furniture.” Of course, as any Drama student will tell you, physical theatre is anything but simple. It requires immense skill and discipline to transform yourself into something else. Just as professional musicians must practice daily to perfect their technique on an instrument, actors must undergo rigorous training to capitalise on the dynamism of space, and use the physicality, strength and dexterity of their bodies to express complex ideas and emotions.

My Fellowship took me on a worldwide quest to learn more about physical theatre. It was rigorous and intense. At times, it was confronting, but it was always inspiring. It’s enabled me to strengthen my physical capabilities and develop a much greater awareness of how the body can be used to communicate powerfully and with precision. But more importantly, it’s had a profound effect on my teaching for which I am truly grateful.

Working with some of the best theatre directors in the world has reignited my love of physical theatre: the collective energy and the sense of connection that allows you to unleash your imagination and explore your creativity.

I’ve learnt so many exciting new techniques and exercises to put into practice at Wenona.

This has reinvigorated my classroom teaching and accelerated my students’ learning, giving them a whole new arsenal of tools to develop the physical life of their characters on stage.

And it has opened my eyes to the exciting possibilities that physical theatre offers when I’m directing plays.

But above all, my Fellowship has shown me what it’s like to be a student again; to walk in their shoes. I will treasure the times that I felt frightened, elated or confused. When my students perform in front of their peers, I immediately recall the fear I felt when I stepped into the rehearsal room at PUSH for the first time. Moving out of my comfort zone was hard, so I have a new-found respect for my students when they move out of theirs.

On my return to Australia, I conducted a series of physical theatre workshops with Middle School students, as well as a playwriting workshop with award-winning writer, Lachlan Philpott. It is my hope that the students will continue to work with Lachlan to devise an original script for a physical theatre performance that will be staged at Wenona in the future.

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F EL LOWS HIPS

PYP: A JOURNEY TO NORTH AMERICA Exploring how learners inspire learners

BY NICK AMATO JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHER

Wenona’s decision to become a candidate for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme was the catalyst for Nick Amato’s successful Wenona Teaching Fellowship application. His journey across North America has brought innovation and inspiration to Wenona, helping to improve the education experiences of our students.

Framed by slopes of cedar and spruce, Mulgrave School boasts a striking vista of Vancouver. From the island-specked water below, to the glittering glass towers of the city’s skyline, to the majestic mountains that line the horizon, this K to 12 school is elevated by the dramatic landscape that surrounds it. But Mulgrave also enjoys a reputation for being one of the world’s best International Baccalaureate (IB) schools. And it was Mulgrave’s inspirational approach to the IB’s Primary Years Programme (PYP) that first attracted me to Canada.

In July 2019, I travelled to Vancouver to visit Mulgrave and other leading PYP schools in New York as part of my six-week Wenona Teaching Fellowship to explore best practice PYP teaching and learning in North America.

A slice of PYP I first encountered the PYP program during my Master of Teaching degree at Melbourne University.

A placement at the International School in Hong Kong gave me a window into inquiry-based learning. Asking questions is a central part of what it means to be a child, and I was struck by the way PYP cultivates the natural curiosities and capabilities of children.

By expertly guiding their enthusiasm for exploration and challenging them to pursue their own ideas, teachers at the school empowered students to think critically, solve problems and deepen their knowledge.

My interest in PYP was further ignited while teaching in Victoria, where I had the privilege of learning from experienced teacher, author and university lecturer Kath Murdoch. She was engaged as part of an Artistin-Residence program to help the school embed an inquiry stance across their teaching and learning. This reinforced my conviction that by fostering a genuine spirit of inquiry in our classrooms, we equip students with the space and freedom to grow intellectually.

So, imagine my excitement when in 2018, Dr Scott flagged her intentions to introduce PYP to Wenona!

I knew immediately that I wanted to play a role in supporting its implementation in the Junior School.

Visiting Vancouver Arriving at Mulgrave School last year, it was evident that this is a learning environment where curious minds thrive. The school opened in 1993, introducing PYP in 2007. In that time, Mulgrave, with its rich, varied and outward-looking curriculum and its restless pursuit of excellence, has become a centre of thought leadership for PYP. In 2019, it hosted the IB Continuum Schools and Districts Global Conference, sharing best practice IB teaching and learning ideas across the local region.

During my visit, I had an opportunity to attend staff meetings, listening in as teachers planned and evaluated their work. Engaging in collaborative design for inquiry-based learning requires a blend of thinking ahead while also being responsive to the interests and needs of students. Visiting different classrooms, I was interested to observe Year 4 working together on a writing task linked to a transdisciplinary unit. It was a stimulating class, with students leading and contributing to discussion. Before students began their writing task however, the teachers still took time to

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

IN AUSTRALIA There has been an IB World School since

1978

WORLDWIDE PYP Programme currently offered by

136 Schools

reiterate the key elements that make up a good story: setting, characters, problem, climax and resolution.

It was great to see that explicit teaching still has its place in PYP, helping to scaffold and guide students’ ideas and interests.

In Vancouver, I also visited Fraser Valley Elementary School and Stratford Hall. Fraser Valley, a coeducation school that opened its doors in 2007, introduced PYP in 2017. With its small classes and nurturing environment, the emphasis here is on encouraging students to take ownership of their academic progress. The PYP Learner Profiles are prominently displayed around the school and the teachers consistently referenced and discussed them with their students. I had the privilege of attending the students’ end-of-year PYP Exhibition, which was a showcase of student-led investigations and inquiry into topics or issues that interested them. It reinforced to me how passionate and engaged students can be when they are given the voice, choice and agency to lead their own learning.

With its split campus and its proximity to the city, Stratford Hall - one of the few Canadian schools that offers a complete Kindergarten to Year 12 IB programme - has striking similarities to Wenona.

It is proudly counter cultural and offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that compels its students to challenge assumptions and think for themselves. One of the main differences was its open plan learning spaces. To my surprise, these spaces were not as noisy as I’d expected, but instead engendered a high level of conversation, cooperation and collaboration.

What impressed me most about Stratford Hall was their focus on developing research skills. Given our

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158

countries offer IB programmes

5,278 Schools offer IB programmes

students have more information at their fingertips than ever before, having the fluency to find and use information successfully is becoming increasingly important to all aspects of life.

New York, New York It’s been described as a city on steroids and after the natural beauty of Vancouver, New York was something of an adrenalin shock to the system. I quickly understood that with its compact streets crammed with people, traffic and skyscrapers, school space is at a premium in New York City. It was also interesting to note that while the Australian education system is widely respected here, teachers grapple with similar concerns: high-stakes testing, a crowded curriculum and time constraints.

The first PYP school I visited in New York Global was Charter Community School in Harlem. I was astonished to learn that the school had only gained PYP accreditation in 2017. Student work was proudly displayed across the school, along with task objectives, marking criteria and colourful Learner Profile banners. The school has 400 students from diverse backgrounds, including African-American and Latino. Nineteen percent of students are English Language Learners and 21 percent of students have disabilities. This means that across every grade, there are co-teaching classrooms for students with individualised learning plans. With no outdoor space, students use an indoor gymnasium on a rotating basis for their recreational play time. At Wenona, our physical environment is part and parcel of how we teach and learn, so the lack of space here made me reflect on how lucky our students are to enjoy fresh air each day.

F EL LOWS HIPS

I spent time in a very inquisitive Year 3 classroom, who were presenting a research project on different countries. They were excited to have an Australian present and asked me lots of questions about Australia. Again, I was fortunate that my visit coincided with the school’s end-of-year PYP Exhibition, themed around the transdisciplinary unit ‘Sharing the Planet’.

Students had chosen to tackle complex global issues such as animal rights, child abuse and immigration. It was inspiring to listen as they passionately articulated their central idea and their lines of inquiry, responding to questions thoughtfully and eloquently. It highlighted how important it is for teachers to support young people to explore, develop and express their own values and opinions, while respecting other points of view.

In New York, I also visited the International School of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn School of Arts and Science. Both are PYP schools and both reflect the vibrant diversity of New York’s population. The International School of Brooklyn is a French and Spanish immersion school. Along with bolstering intercultural understanding and international mindedness through their approach to languages, the school also actively encourages students to champion sustainability initiatives. Building sustainable cities and communities will play a major role in our world’s future, and the students have found innovative ways to promote greener practices. This includes recycling waste, composting and cultivating the school garden.

“

IT WAS GREAT TO SEE THAT EXPLICIT TEACHING STILL HAS ITS PLACE IN PYP, HELPING TO SCAFFOLD AND GUIDE STUDENTS’ IDEAS AND INTERESTS.”

The students also produce their own sustainability blog to inspire action in their communities, allowing them to generate their own ideas for improving the places in which they live and learn.

With a high proportion of Spanish speakers in its student population, The Brooklyn School of Arts and Science teach classes in English and Spanish on alternate days, so that students are fluent in both languages. Transdisciplinary teaching lies at the heart of PYP, so I was particularly inspired to see how the school integrated maths into their curriculum in ways that were exciting, engaging and relevant to the students. Achieving a captivated and interesting class can open the door to a deeper understanding of maths, so I learnt a lot from observing how the teachers forged meaningful connections between curriculum areas.

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IB Conference, New Orleans After watching Hurricane Katrina decimate New Orleans in 2005, I was nervous to hear that Hurricane Barry was mooted to hit New Orleans at the same time as the 2019 International Baccalaureate Conference.

Fortunately, apart from some flooding, New Orleans largely escaped the hurricane unscathed and everything went ahead as planned. The IB Conference brought together IB educators from across the globe, and the atmosphere was one of excitement, hope and passionate enthusiasm as we brainstormed new concepts, teaching methods and best practices.

Over the past year, the Junior School at Wenona has worked tirelessly to implement PYP, working with specialists to build a Programme of Inquiry (POI), which provides a framework for the six transdisciplinary units across each year level. We have taken a rigorous approach to planning to ensure that we incorporate all aspects of this new program across K to 6. The conference was a fantastic opportunity to learn from other PYP educators about their approach to planning and programming. It highlighted the importance of having a coherent vision, and how critical it is to set aside regular time to collaborate, communicate, reflect and evaluate as a team.

A dynamic session about nurturing student agency gave me lots of practical tips and strategies about helping to engage the passions, wonders and curiosities of young learners. And I also derived a lot from a session about incorporating maths into a transdisciplinary framework, supporting students to interrogate information, develop critical thinking skills and apply their thinking in different contexts.

It helped me to better understand how an inquirybased approach to maths can fit into a world where standardised testing and a focus on ‘back to basics’ can make it challenging to try new things.

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ITSE and PBL My Fellowship journey ended with the three-day International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE) conference in Philadelphia, followed by a Project Based Learning (PBL) workshop in Boston.

The rapid evolution of technology has highlighted the need to advance how education is delivered to young people. With tech giants like Microsoft, Adobe, Google and Apple in attendance, the ITSE conference was nothing short of mind-blowing. There was an opportunity to learn from those at the cutting-edge of ‘edtech’ and see how the latest apps, platforms, tools and games can improve the educational experiences for all students. As teachers, we have a responsibility to guide the next generation of digital citizens and I was excited to see the transformative classroom potential of the latest in virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing, Microbits and coding with robotics.

Overall, the ITSE conference gave me lots of practical ideas, skills and resources to enrich the learning environment, which I was able to put to good use in my teaching when I returned to Australia.

I finished up my PYP journey in Boston where I attended a Project Based Learning (PBL) workshop with other educators. Together, we explored how to better use online platforms and resources to promote learning. As a teaching method, PBL is closely related to inquiry learning. Students are challenged to reflect on real, tangible problems, using technology to find relevancy and purpose in their learning and gain a more conceptual understanding. The workshop had a great energy, with lively discussion about how to integrate different platforms to drive student agency, engagement, motivation and learning. We also developed PBL units of work together, using real-life situations for children to explore and solve.

REFLECTION As a learning community, Wenona has long embraced critical thinking, resourcefulness, risk-taking and reflection. By applying to become a PYP school, Wenona will join an influential, international teaching community that shares up-to-date, evidence-based teaching practices and offers staff high level training. This will help to further drive our students love of learning and enhance their motivation to succeed.

would not have been out of place on the world stage at a Global Sustainability Summit. It was hugely encouraging to see the PYP approach in action, with students engaging critically with the media. Observing them reflecting deeply on social, political and environmental issues and holding important, but respectful conversations in the classroom was equally inspiring.

My six-week PYP journey across North America was truly life changing. It not only reinvigorated my passion and enthusiasm for my job, but it also confirmed to me that PYP is best practice teaching. Initially, it was hard to process all the information and ideas that I’d taken away from my Fellowship, particularly as the schools I’d visited in North America were considerably more advanced in their PYP journey than Wenona. But as the second semester got underway, I hit my stride, applying my learning to develop a new PYP unit with the support of my colleagues and the Year 5 students.

The insight and ideas I gained from visiting leading PYP schools have proved invaluable in planning the scope and sequencing of different inquiry units, and in helping to develop lessons and resources to share across the Junior School.

It has been a privilege to share information with my peers, working across different year groups and stages to support the Junior School staff as they implement PYP in their classrooms. Moving forward, I hope the international network of IB educators I met on my Fellowship will support our teachers and students to collaborate on global projects that extend teaching and learning in new and innovative ways.

One of the key takeaways of my trip was to avoid ‘over planning’, but instead allow natural connections to unfold within the learning experience. This helped to increase student agency and engagement immeasurably. For example, our unit ‘How the World Works’ was set against the backdrop of Australia’s worst ever season of bushfires. As we followed this story in the media each day, the students became increasingly passionate about climate change and its effects on the Australian landscape. They began to make authentic real-world connections to their learning, asking intelligent questions that

The implementation of PYP has made it an exciting time to be a teacher at Wenona. Given that the IB program is still in its infancy in Australia, there’s an opportunity for the Junior School to stand in the vanguard of teaching and learning here, playing an active role in the future development of the education landscape both in Australia and around the world. My Fellowship confirmed to me that our students will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the PYP program, providing them with a fresh and challenging education that will equip them for the world of tomorrow.

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SEEDING GRANTS

Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

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SEEDING G RAN TS

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“

AS PART OF MY ONGOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, I WAS AWARDED A WENONA SEEDING GRANT TO DO A FRENCH LANGUAGE IMMERSION COURSE IN LA NOUVELLE-CALÉDONIE.”

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SEEDING G RAN TS

MY ISLAND HOME Discovering a slice of France on Sydney’s doorstep

BY VANESSA FURLONG ALEXANDERSON SPANISH/FRENCH TEACHER

Located a short flight away from Sydney, La Nouvelle-Calédonie was an unforgettable opportunity for Languages Teacher, Vanessa Furlong Alexanderson, to live life ‘à la française’.

Here, she perfected her spoken French, all while immersing herself in the country’s exotic mix of French and Melanesian culture.

It’s said that when British Explorer Captain James Cook first discovered this South Pacific archipelago in 1774, he named it New Caledonia because its pristine wilderness reminded him of Scotland. Flying over Grande Terre, the baguette-shaped mainland of New Caledonia, I was immediately struck by its beauty. From the air, I could see a dreamscape of sugar-white sand fringed by pine trees and glittering lagoons, with green mountain peaks running down its central spine.

This island paradise - just a hop, skip and a jump from Sydney - has been home to the Kanak people for more than 6,000 years, yet French influence can be felt ‘partout’ across this island chain. Motorists drive on the right-hand side of the road. French is the main language. The hypermarchés are piled high with French wine, cheeses, patés and buttery croissants.

And in the tropical heat of the afternoon, locals can

be seen playing a lazy game of pétanque in shady city squares.

But nowhere feels more French than the country’s bustling capital, Nouméa, which was to be my island home for the duration of my stay. Over a third of the island’s 268,000 residents live here. And with its ritzy cafés and chic boutiques, it’s easy to see why it has been dubbed the Paris of the Pacific.

Why La Nouvelle-Calédonie?

As part of my ongoing professional development, I was awarded a Wenona Seeding Grant to do a French language immersion course in La NouvelleCalédonie. My aim was to further my knowledge of French language and culture while exploring La Nouvelle-Calédonie as a potential destination for any Wenona students interested in undertaking a French language exchange program. Rather flying for more than 24 hours to France - and coping with the challenges of jet lag and distance - the flight to La Nouvelle-Calédonie takes less than three hours.

This makes it an ideal choice for Language students who want to hone their French conversation skills, while also absorbing the country’s intoxicating mix of history, culture, lifestyle, traditions and environmental diversity.

Meeting my French host family Even though I’ve travelled widely and love the visceral thrill of being somewhere new, I was still nervous about meeting my French host family for the first time. The pressure to forge an instant connection felt overwhelming and it made me reflect on the courage it takes for our students to participate in an exchange program overseas.

Fortunately, my concerns dissipated as soon as I met my ‘French mum’ Claire. Along with Claire’s husband Daniel and their daughter Gabrielle, my ‘French family’ were warm and welcoming. They embraced my learning journey, assisted me with my homework every night and patiently helped me to perfect my spoken French. Claire kindly took me under her wing socially too, letting me tag along to her yoga, line dancing and aerobics classes. She invited me to social events with her friends, as well as taking me to do the weekly food shop at the local hypermarché, all of which gave me lots of additional opportunities to practise my spoken French.

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La cuisine It’s hardly surprising that the cuisine in La NouvelleCalédonie is heavily influenced by Gallic flavours, but along with the croissants, cassoulet and crêpes, I also sampled traditional Kanak cuisine. This included, Bougna, a generations-old casserole of chicken or fish mixed with sweet potatoes, yams and coconut milk, which is then wrapped in a parcel

of banana leaves and cooked over hot stones.

Civet de Rousette - another popular dish - is a surprisingly delicious ragout of red wine and stewed bat! And of course, a bounty of seafood is pulled fresh from the sea each day, including the fabled obsiblue prawns, which have become an unrivalled delicacy on Michelin-starred tables worldwide.

New Caledonia

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SEEDING G RAN TS

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THERE IS SOMETHING INTELLECTUALLY LIBERATING ABOUT DISTANCE AND I RELISHED MY FORTNIGHT OF INTENSIVE FRENCH CLASSES.”

Attending French School There is something intellectually liberating about distance and I relished my fortnight of intensive French classes at le Centre de Rencontres et d’Echanges Internationaux du Pacifique (CREIPAC).

The school has been providing personalised language tuition to both adults and high school students since 1992. Located in a seaside setting, CREIPAC prides itself on helping its students to discover the French ‘art de vivre’.

Each day, my group - which included a sea captain, a yoga teacher, business people and retirees focused on writing, listening, reading and speaking in French. The course follows the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERFL).

It incorporates French language syllabuses and curriculum guidelines, the design of teaching and learning materials, and the assessment of foreign language proficiency.

reflect on how I could respond more empathically to their doubts and insecurities about the language’s complexities.

In addition to CREIPAC, I also had a one-and-ahalf-hour private lesson each day, which enabled me to expand my vocabulary, finesse my grammar and perfect my pronunciation. I found that my conversation skills really flourished here, and I was able to converse at length about topics such as the recent independence referendum, lifestyle differences between ‘New Cal’ and France, and my observations about the country’s culture, food and traditions in comparison to life back home.

At the end of the course, we had to sit an exam.

Given that I hadn’t sat an exam since my university days, it was daunting to say the least. We had an hour to complete a reading, writing and listening section, before having an impromptu 10-minute oral exam. This experience gave me a newfound appreciation for my own students and made me

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Learning about cultural diversity A visit to the stunning Tjibaou Cultural Centre, designed by Renzo Piano and located on its own lagoon on the outskirts of Nouméa, was a chance to delve more deeply into the region’s past. Named after the Kanak political leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou (19361989), the centre celebrates the history and culture of the local Kanak people, and recognises the cultural diversity that exists within the wider Pacific region. This was an opportunity for me to appreciate the richness of tribal art, learn more about local traditions and better understand the close relationship that exists between the Kanak people and the environment.

This was further reinforced by my visit to a local primary school, where the students were learning about the importance of ecosystems. They were excited to tell me about the abundant marine life that surrounds them, including the turtles, fish and coral reef. Similarly, they had lots of questions for me about Australia’s native flora and fauna. During my stay, the upcoming 2020 independence referendum was a frequent topic of discussion. In the 2018 referendum, which had been long-deferred, long-awaited and for some, long-feared, the country decided against independence by 56.4% votes to 43.6%. Although the referendum took place peacefully, it continues to cause friction and divide between local people.

Throughout my stay, I was careful to remain openminded, responding in a respectful way to any comments about deep-seated political issues.

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Les Tricot Rayés A day trip with my host family to beautiful Amadee Island, just off the south west coast of Nouméa, forced me to confront one of my biggest fears: snakes! The island’s surrounding lagoon is a UNESCO World Heritage site and its crystal-clear waters are teeming with sea turtles, colourful coral and fish. However, Amadee is also home to a large population of venomous striped sea snakes. Dubbed ‘tricot rayé’ (striped knit) by locals, the snakes hunt for the eels, small fish, crabs and squid that live in the shallow waters of the coral reefs, before returning to land to digest their food. While my host family assured me that the snakes are very timid and slow on land, I wasn’t convinced - particularly when I found out that their venom is more potent than a cobra’s, there is no known antidote, and if bitten, death occurs within minutes! While I appreciated the island’s beauty, I was relieved to bid ‘au revoir’ to the ‘tricot rayé’.

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REFLECTION Even in this increasingly homogenised global age, we can still marvel at the diversity of human cultures, traditions, beliefs and lifestyles, and my trip to La Nouvelle-Calédonie certainly served to reinforce this. By immersing myself in the home life of a French family and engaging in study there, I was able to increase my linguistic and cultural competency immeasurably and improve my pedagogy.

The Australian curriculum emphasises the importance of engaging in different linguistic and cultural spaces. And it challenges students to notice, compare, analyse and reflect on their own language and culture. Sharing my cultural and linguistic insight with my students has resulted in some fascinating classroom discussions - and encouraged them to consider La Nouvelle-Calédonie as a destination for a French exchange program!

Talking about the differences and similarities between Australian, French and Melanesian culture has increased student engagement. And linking the French language to their lives in a

personal way has led to deeper intercultural reflection. This level of inquiry is critical to the development of our Language students, but it’s also important for Wenona students more broadly, equipping them with a more holistic understanding of the world and honing their critical thinking skills.

There’s a strong culture of reflective practice at Wenona, and my trip to La Nouvelle-Calédonie has given me an opportunity to discuss cultural and linguistic connections with my colleagues in the Languages Department. These collaborative conversations have been beneficial to our pedagogy. They’ve enabled us to broaden our understanding of how to teach French, helped us to adjust to the specific needs and preferences of each student, and encouraged us to infuse more passion and playfulness into our classroom activities. Above all, improving my linguistic and cultural knowledge of French has equipped me to deliver the aims of the new curriculum with confidence and creativity.

‘Merci beaucoup’ Wenona!

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM The real education of teaching English abroad

BY SARA VERGE ENGLISH TEACHER AND HEAD OF RALSTON HOUSE

Braving Vietnam’s final frontier to volunteer as an English language teacher, was both rewarding and enlightening for Sara Verge. The experience tested her patience, creativity and sense of humour, but it also gave her a much better insight into teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students.

“Horse! Horse!” I’m prancing like a sweaty, middleaged pony in front of 35 six-year-olds, overenunciating those tricky English sounds that are difficult for Vietnamese ears to hear and Vietnamese mouths to say: “Horrrrrrssssss!” Now my arms are up like a roof over my head. “Howwwwwssssss!” the children shout. “Howwwwwwssssss!”

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It’s my first lesson with Grade 1 at Kim Dong Primary School on the outskirts of Hà Giang in northern Vietnam. These children started school for the first time a few weeks ago, so they’re new to sitting still in a classroom. They can’t read or write in Vietnamese yet, let alone English. Lessons need to include lots of games, singing and dancing to keep their interest.

And shouting. Lots of shouting. These small children are loud and enthusiastic shouters.

After 40 minutes the lesson is over and I’m exhausted.

But it’s time to trot next door and do it all over again with another class. “Horse! House!” My Vietnamese teaching partner and I deliver this lesson three times in two hours. The students learn two new words each lesson. Tomorrow it will be “goose” and “goat”.

Hà Giang, Vietnam’s final frontier Located in the northernmost reaches of Vietnam on the border with China, the isolated province of Hà Giang is off the country’s well-trodden tourist track. With its dazzling sweep of towering peaks and sculpted rice terraces, Hà Giang is one of those rare places in the world that hasn’t yet been corralled by modernity. But intrepid travellers are starting to brave the seven-hour bus trip from Hanoi to Hà Giang city, drawn by the opportunity to trek through the stunningly scenic mountains to the north of the city and experience the diverse cultures here. The area, which is a UNESCO-listed geopark, is home to people from 17 different ethnic minority groups, including the Hmong, Dao, Tay and Lolo people.

For many of these people, English is a third language.

Their ethnic language is their first language, and Vietnamese - the language of the majority Kinh people of Vietnam - is their second language.

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THANKS TO A WENONA SEEDING GRANT, I LEFT SYDNEY IN OCTOBER 2019 TO SPEND FOUR WEEKS AS A VOLUNTEER ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IN HÀ GIANG.”

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

As is common to Indigenous peoples across the world, these ethnic minorities face a range of social and economic disadvantages. Helping ethnic minority groups to learn English enables them to participate in the economic opportunities that are unfolding as a result of the emerging tourism industry, opportunities that would otherwise be taken up by businesses owned by people from Hanoi.

opportunities. In my adult conversation class, there was a mother of three who was planning to open a homestay, a young woman who wanted to be a chef in Hanoi, and several young men who were working as ‘Easy Rider’ guides, taking tourists as pillion passengers on motorbike tours of ‘The Loop’ - a four-day route from Hà Giang city up into the mountains.

Applying my Diploma in Applied Linguistics and TESOL Thanks to a Wenona Seeding Grant, I left Sydney in October 2019 to spend four weeks as a volunteer English language teacher in Hà Giang. For the past two years, I’ve been studying for my Diploma in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at the University of Technology, Sydney. My time in Vietnam enabled me to consolidate my academic understanding and hone my classroom skills in English language teaching. Additionally, through volunteering my time and skills, I was able to make a positive difference to a marginalised community in northern Vietnam, putting into practice Wenona’s motto of Ut Prosim, that I may serve.

Instagram posts and YouTube videos of switchback roads winding through spectacular limestone mountains, and village marketplaces thronging with Hmong and Dao people in colourful traditional clothes, have inspired an increasing number of tourists to travel to this isolated part of the country Vietnam’s final frontier. As a result, English-speaking guides are in high demand here.

Highland Community Centre, Hà Giang As well as teaching Grades 1 and 2 at the Kim Dong Primary School, I taught teenagers and adults at the Highland Community Centre in Hà Giang city.

Being able to speak English is a valuable skill, and one that gives people increased access to job

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English is a difficult language for Vietnamese speakers to learn, just as Vietnamese is fiendishly hard for English speakers - at least, I found it to be so. There are sounds in Vietnamese that don’t exist in English - and vice versa. Vietnamese speakers’ ears are not attuned to certain English sounds, and their lips and tongues are not used to creating them. Pronunciation was a big focus in the classes I taught, as this is an area where some of the Vietnamese English teachers I worked with struggled. My next (and final!) subject in my university diploma is Phonology and Pronunciation.

My time in Vietnam has taught me that this is a vital component of language teaching and learning.

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MY MONTH IN HÀ GIANG HAS DEEPENED MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE VALUE OF SERVICE AND SPARKED A DESIRE TO DO MORE VOLUNTEER WORK.”

It was interesting working with different Vietnamese English teachers and comparing their pedagogical approaches. The teacher I taught with in the primary school used a lot of games, physical activities and rote learning.

In the adult and teenage classes I was often working with the Head of the Highland Centre, who was a big fan of grammar exercises and written worksheets. Sometimes the vocabulary was outdated and overly formal, so I worked with her to create more relevant dialogue for the students.

Visiting the orphanage While in Hà Giang, I also spent time at the local orphanage. Most of the children there were from ethnic minorities, but not all were orphans.

Some had parents who were unable to care for them. Life in the mountains can be harsh and difficult. Families here are often large and face a range of social and economic problems.

REFLECTION My time in Hà Giang was of immense benefit to me, both professionally and personally. While studying for my Diploma in Applied Linguistics and TESOL is providing me with the academic framework behind teaching English as an Additional Language, being able to complement this pedagogical knowledge with extended hands-on experience has been invaluable. As Wenona forges closer links with schools in the Asia-Pacific region, we may expect to see increasing numbers of EAL students in our classrooms, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be better equipped to meet the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Additionally, the experience of living in Hà Giang for a month and experiencing another culture first hand was fascinating.

Getting to know the Vietnamese teachers I worked with, and the students I taught, working in a Vietnamese school, being invited into students’ homes, doing craft with children in the orphanage, exploring the backstreets of Hà Giang city, travelling into the mountains and to isolated valleys where people still wear traditional dress, meeting other volunteer teachers from all over the world - all these experiences were eye-opening and invigorating.

Finally, volunteering my time and working to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and adults was personally rewarding. Speaking English is a way out of poverty for the ethnic minorities in this isolated area of Vietnam. My month in Hà Giang has deepened my understanding of the value of service and sparked a desire to do more volunteer work.

My intention was to teach the children some vocabulary, but I quickly discovered that they were not really interested in English lessons. Not that I could blame them. Sunday is their only day away from school, so they wanted to play, do craft or have stories read to them. Fortunately, I had brought along some picture books made by some of our Year 8 students at Wenona in their Design and Technology classes. They were a big hit with the children at the orphanage.

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FEATURES

Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

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OVER THE PAST YEAR, EACH MEMBER OF OUR STAFF HAS CONTINUED TO LEARN, TO REFLECT, TO SEEK CHALLENGE, TO EXPLORE NEW IDEAS AND TO EMBRACE NEW WAYS OF DOING THINGS.”

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Nominated for the 2020 BHP Foundation Science and Engineering Awards - Australia’s most prestigious school science and engineering awards - Head of Science, Sandra Woodward is an inspiring scientist with a clear vision for the future of science education.

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MY PASSION FOR SCIENCE HAS BEEN MY SPRINGBOARD TO LEARNING, PUSHING ME TO DEVELOP MY KNOWLEDGE BASE AND BROADEN MY PERSPECTIVE.”

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THE SCIENCE OF DISCOVERY Inspiring the next generation of scientists

BY SANDRA WOODWARD HEAD OF SCIENCE

Science has always fascinated me. Even as a young child, I was constantly asking questions, trying to make sense of the world around us - a world that is increasingly shaped by science and technology. As the field continues to advance, it presents us with an ever-widening pool of challenges and opportunities. Whether it’s finding new cures for cancer or identifying and exploring new galaxies, science encourages us to imagine, to create and to discover. But to come up with innovative solutions to the complex problems we face, we must always begin by asking questions.

Lots of questions!

Science textbook with fellow educators taught me the value of clear communication. As Albert Einstein said: “You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother”. Similarly, in facilitating workshops for students and staff, I’ve realised the importance of tailoring content to meet the needs and interests of a target audience.

Staying curious Early in my career, I was fortunate to have a wonderful mentor who gave me some sound advice. He told me to stay curious and to learn from everything I do because the moment we think we know it all, we stop evolving.

Experiencing science is something that allows students to engage and develop their thinking. Handson activities, problem-solving and investigations are all important and effective means of motivating students to engage in deep learning. I was humbled to be selected as the NSW nominee to the 2020 BHP Foundation Science and Engineering Awards, which is an award that recognises work in this area.

My passion for science has been my springboard to learning, pushing me to develop my knowledge base and broaden my perspective. Throughout the course of my career, I’ve had opportunities to learn and evolve - from a personal and scientific aspect by collaborating with people from both industry and academia. For example, co-authoring a high school

Last year, I was awarded a scholarship to be part of The Lead & Expert Teachers Colloquium. Although this is not science-focused, it has helped to foster my leadership skills and provided me with insight into how I can better assist the development of colleagues.

Embracing a new syllabus I have been teaching long enough to have been part of four syllabus changes in Science. Each iteration has tried to find a balance between helping students engage with the material and develop the skills

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

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IN LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER, WE ARE MODELLING WHAT WE ASK OUR STUDENTS TO DO, WHICH IS TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY TO DEVELOP NEW SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEX PROBLEMS.”

they will need beyond school. The new Science syllabus is exciting, teaching students to engage with concepts and develop skills instead of focusing solely on the memorisation of a body of facts. Yes, the syllabus is challenging, but who doesn’t love a challenge?

As a department, we have worked tirelessly to familiarise ourselves with the new syllabus. We’ve attended many different professional development activities, working with Science educators across the sector to develop the best possible programs and experiences for our students and to share best practice. And we’ve hosted workshops here at Wenona, pooling ideas, knowledge and resources with leading experts and educators to devise exciting new techniques and strategies to teach Science.

In learning from each other, we are modelling what we ask our students to do, which is to work collaboratively to develop new solutions to complex problems.

Exciting new learning spaces Science is all about discovery and Wenona’s new state-of-the-art building, the Athenaeum, which opens this year, will be an opportunity to showcase Science as it should be: inspiring, imaginative and collaborative. This exciting new space will promote greater flexibility in our teaching and learning. But it will also allow our students to work at the very edge of the unknown, applying the tools of scientific inquiry to areas they are passionate about and enabling them to develop independent research and investigation beyond the syllabus.

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REFLECTION In the words of American astronomer, Carl Sagan, “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.�

And this is reflective of our approach to science education at Wenona. We recognise that science and technology offer part of the solution to global issues like climate change and inequality. With a new building on the horizon, and a new syllabus and new teaching strategies and techniques to inspire us, we are looking forward to planting the seeds of discovery for our future scientists, and preparing them to do amazing things for society and the world.

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

AN INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION Communicating across cultures

BY GREG MIKKELSEN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

Pioneering takes courage, curiosity and a spirit of adventure. On Boxing Day 1969 - long before overseas excursions were commonplace for Australian schools - the then Principal of Wenona, Miss Barbara Jackson led 18 students on a study tour of South East Asia.

As Henry Miller famously once said, “One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.” For this intrepid group of schoolgirls, the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history, culture and communities of the region was a magical way to learn more about themselves and the world they lived in.

The group blazed a trail across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, travelling through dazzling rice paddies and swaying sugar palms to explore the fabled ancient temples of Angkor. They touched down briefly in Vietnam – where a cluster of US war planes on the airstrip was the only visible sign that the country was at the height of the Second Indochina War - before heading off to the bright lights of Hong Kong. Their journey ended in the Philippines, where they took a trip in dugout canoes, travelling through dramatic gorges hemmed in by towering cliffs, to see the spectacular Pagsanjan Falls - a decade before they were made famous in the final scenes of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic war movie, Apocalypse Now. A global learning community More than 50 years have gone by since that first overseas school tour and in that time, thousands of Wenonians have crisscrossed the globe to engage

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with the world in all its diversity. With a Principal who has run the Great Wall of China and walked all 96 kilometres of the Kokoda Trail, one would expect nothing less!

Today, Wenona’s students travel far and wide to enhance their knowledge of the natural and manmade world, of the past and the present, of science, sport, art, languages and music. Through cultural and service learning experiences in communities the world over, students are encouraged to be outward-looking, resourceful, and creative in their thinking, and to have empathy and respect for other people’s perspectives.

The welcoming and dynamic nature of the School’s North Sydney campus attracts a diversity of boarders and international students, as well as an increasing number of staff and students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Diversity in the classroom makes for a lively and productive learning environment, one that reflects the world our students will live and work in when they graduate.

Wenona has a culture of language learning that goes beyond the classroom. This includes exchange programs, native-speaking language assistants and encouragement and provision for students who have a high level of competency in different languages that are not offered as part of the curriculum.

It was Wenona’s commitment to creating an outstanding global learning community for its students and staff that attracted me to join the School as a Chinese Teacher in 2016.

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Greg Mikkelsen’s strong international perspective and abiding interest in Asian languages made him the perfect candidate to take on the role of Wenona’s inaugural International Development Coordinator.

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The value of seeing things differently From an early age, I learnt that the most valuable perspective is the one you don’t yet have. My father is Danish, so we welcomed a constant stream of international visitors to our home. They brought an outsider’s perspective to our life, shining a light on the familiar and prompting us to see our routines, customs and stories through different eyes.

My family also hosted exchange students from countries like Japan, Korea, China, Denmark and Tonga, whose different languages, cultures and backgrounds expanded our worldview. Most of us don’t realise how culturally conditioned our behaviours and routines are because to us they are ‘normal’, but our exchange students added a deeper layer to the way we understood ourselves and our life in Australia.

In Year 10, I too became an exchange student, travelling to Tonga, where I had to negotiate language barriers, learning to greet people appropriately and observe and interpret their gestures. This experience expanded my insight and my ability to communicate

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MY FLUENCY IN MANDARIN HAS BEEN INVALUABLE DURING MY CAREER, BOTH AS A SOLICITOR AND AS A TEACHER AT WENONA.” and relate to others away from my familiar support network. But most of all, it highlighted to me the value of seeing things differently.

A love of Asian languages I studied Japanese at school from Years 4 to 7. I then elected to continue via distance education in Years 9 and 10, which was challenging. I think this was when I first developed an interest in Asian languages and culture. After school, I became a specialist English teacher at a high school in the north of Thailand.

Initially, I didn’t intend to learn the language, but I fell in love with the people and the culture, so I started studying Thai every afternoon until I was able to read, write and speak the language proficiently. In 2019, I had an opportunity to revisit Thailand as part of a Wenona service learning tour. My host family didn’t speak English, so my Thai was really put to the test. I was delighted that I could recall enough of the language to write a thank you note before we left!

My abiding interest in Asian languages prompted me to study for a Combined Bachelor of Laws and Arts at The University of Sydney, majoring in Chinese Studies and Government and International Relations. In 2009, I received the Dean’s Award and was subsequently awarded a scholarship to study Chinese in Taiwan. This enabled me to develop my language skills to such an extent that in 2011, I was awarded a place to study at China’s most prestigious tertiary institution: Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Taking classes in Mandarin on Chinese foreign policy alongside the best and brightest students in China really accelerated my language acquisition.

The case for language learning My fluency in Mandarin has been invaluable during my career, both as a solicitor and as a teacher at Wenona. I also have an Advanced Diploma of Translation and have worked as a professional

translator (NAATI Level 3 Professional Translator Accreditation).

Working in Hong Kong for international law firm, King & Wood Mallesons, my ability to communicate with Chinese clients was a considerable asset. When I took up a subsequent role at a commercial law firm in Denmark (where I was able to connect with my Danish identity culturally and linguistically), I continued to write articles in Chinese for the firm’s Chinese language website.

Along with sharing my love of Asia and Mandarin with my students at Wenona, I have represented the School at expos in Australia and in China.

Here, I visited schools in Beijing (including my alma mater, Tsinghua University), Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai, helping to foster interinstitutional relationships and develop Wenona’s global links. I have hosted Chinese government delegations and Chinese education officials at Wenona, and interpreted for presentations, tours, workshops and Q&A sessions. And my language skills have also helped to strengthen ties between the School and the Chinese-speaking community, both locally and overseas.

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.” For me, the ability to speak more than one language has expanded my world, enabling me to connect with a diversity of people and cultures in new and exciting ways.

Intercultural understanding More than ever, students are exposed to news media that often presents over-simplified or biased perspectives on world events such as climate change, racism and radicalisation.

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EVERYONE IN OUR COMMUNITY - STAFF, STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES - BENEFITS FROM EXPOSURE TO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY, WHICH TRANSLATES INTO A GREATER CAPACITY TO FLOURISH IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY.”

Ready for the world As an outward-facing school, Wenona recognises that its students are part of the world’s first truly global generation. As such, it is important we equip them to successfully live, study and work across different cultures and languages in a globalising world. We also recognise the significant contribution that our international students - and our CALD staff and students - bring to the School. Not only do they deliver a fresh injection of culture, ideas and perspectives, but they also strengthen our international and cultural ties, and diversify our social mix. Everyone in our community - staff, students and their families - benefits from exposure to social and cultural diversity, which translates into a greater capacity to flourish in a global economy.

In 2019, I was appointed as the inaugural International Development Coordinator for Wenona. The objective of the role is to embed a coordinated, best practice approach to international education across the School; to develop and enhance Wenona’s reputation as a centre of global excellence for teaching, learning and innovation; and to forge innovative partnerships with education, government and industry that will enable international education at Wenona to diversify and grow.

In 2018, I established a Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA), along with fellow Languages Teacher, Ms Vanessa Furlong Alexanderson. The aim of MUNA is to help students foster international mindedness by debating global challenges such as climate change, racism and radicalisation from the standpoint of a particular country, sometimes delivering their speeches in that country’s native language. The program has encouraged students to develop their cultural sensitivity and understanding and respectfully engage in tough conversations with people with different viewpoints and values to their own.

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International Education In October 2019, I attended the Australian International Education Conference in Perth, along with 1,500 leading international education professionals across the secondary and tertiary education sector. We discussed best practice in international education, including issues such as the internationalisation of the curriculum, international student enrolments, international student wellbeing programs, overseas student exchanges, international partnerships and transnational education programs. One of the most interesting presentations was from the Victorian Department of Education and Training. I drew inspiration from learning how the department is integrating global learning and engagement across its schools, which I hope will help to inform Wenona’s approach moving forward.

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100 hours

For high school students (Years 7-10), the Australian minimum requirement for study of Languages Other Than English (LOTE) is 100 hours

Wenona students do over

In Australia

350+ hours

22.2%

of LOTE

(Languages other than English) learning across Years 7-10

There has been an increase of

of households speak a language other than English at home

181%

over the preceding four years in the proportion of job advertisements seeking bilingual candidates

REFLECTION Forging a strong partnership with the outside world, goes to the very core of Wenona.

The opposing global reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates that we are living in a world polarised by different political, cultural, religious, environmental and economic views. Now, more than ever, our students need the knowledge, skills and attitudes to appreciate and respect people from different communities and cultures.

It is critical therefore, that we successfully prepare our students for life as active, informed and engaged citizens with a global outlook.

The Director of Global and International Studies at Wenona, Mr Antonio Boschiero is currently working to establish a sister-school program in different countries. The aim is to: • Broaden students’ perspectives • Develop students’ intercultural capabilities • Increase student understanding of themselves and their own culture • Enhance and promote student language learning • Contribute to a whole school program of internationalisation • Build teacher capacity

While Wenona has a unique professional development program for its staff, which includes international Teaching Fellowships and Seeding Grants, a sister-school program will provide additional collaborative learning opportunities for our staff. It will enable them to benchmark their practice against other school systems, increase their awareness and understanding of different pedagogies and curriculum, and strengthen their intercultural understanding and sensitivity to different points of view.

As International Development Coordinator, I am also establishing a Global Learning, Engagement and Diversity Framework for the School to promote a strategic whole-school approach to international education. Under the Framework, a Global Steering Committee, comprised of a diversity of students and staff, will help to create a Global Action Plan to develop Wenona’s global networks and perspectives, with the flow-on effect of internationalising the ethos of the whole school learning community.

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MAXIMISING THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR CHILDREN AS THEY GROW UP IN A CONNECTED WORLD IS CRITICAL, BUT WE MUST ALSO TAKE STEPS TO MINIMISE THE RISKS.”

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WEAVING A NEW WEB Safeguarding our online world

BY ROBYN WAINE PDHPE TEACHER AND ASSISTANT YEAR COORDINATOR

Maximising the opportunities for our children as they grow up in a connected world is critical, but we must also take steps to minimise the risks.

Robyn Waine attended the eSafety Conference, with politicians, business leaders, academics and experts coming together to create a safer and more civil online world.

On 15 March 2019, a lone gunman killed 51 people and injured 50 others as they worshipped at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. For an agonising 16 minutes and 55 seconds, the gunman live-streamed the first attack on Facebook, with the aim of spreading hate and fear. The scale of this horrific video’s reach was staggering. In the first 24 hours, it had been viewed some 4,000 times before Facebook removed it. A further 1.5 million copies were subsequently taken down, but the video remains available on the web despite the measures taken to remove it.

Social media platforms give a powerful voice to the voiceless. Regardless of a person’s geographic location, educational background, gender, or socioeconomic status, all voices on social media platforms have value. But the same technology that allows people to galvanise democracy, education and equality can also be used to promote racism, misogyny and homophobia. No one should have the ability to broadcast mass murder. Nor should we, or our young people, be exposed to violent, incendiary or toxic content when we log on to our social media.

It seems reasonable to expect that along with government regulation, the world’s most innovative

companies should use their ingenuity to censor hate speech. And yet far too many people continue to inadvertently fall down the online rabbit hole of disinformation, manipulation and incitement. So, what measures can we take to change this? eSafety Conference 2019 In September 2019, I had the privilege of attending the third trans-Tasman eSafety Conference at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. Hosted by eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant and Martin Cocker, CEO of Netsafe New Zealand, the twoday conference brought together a smorgasbord of academics, policy makers, business leaders and thinkers, with the shared purpose of reimagining our online world and devising concrete steps towards positive change. There were video addresses from the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. The discussion panels were thought-provoking and at times, harrowing. But ultimately, they offered a framework for enlightened public policy and evidence-based educational solutions to make our online - and our offline - world a better, safer and more civil place.

Beyond the Christchurch Call Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recorded a moving opening address for the Beyond the Christchurch Call panel. She highlighted the harms that can be caused by terrorist and violent extremist content online, a threat that continues to evolve. Along with French President Emmanuel Macron, Ardern has led the Christchurch Call, an action plan that commits government and tech companies to a range of

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IN AN AGE WHEN CHILDREN LEARN HOW TO USE AN IPAD BEFORE THEY LEARN HOW TO RIDE A BIKE, THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET IS AN ONGOING CHALLENGE.”

measures. This includes developing tools to prevent the upload of terrorist and violent extremist content; countering the roots of violent extremism; increasing transparency around the removal and detection of content; and reviewing how companies’ algorithms direct users to violent extremist content.

Highlighting the mounting number of attacks on immigrants and other minorities worldwide, panellists raised their concerns about the connection between inflammatory speech online and violent acts.

They also discussed the role of the media and its potential to magnify discord by publishing terrorist manifestos or graphic details about victims. Above all, they emphasised the need for governments across the world to work together with civil society, harnessing the creativity and technical know-how of tech companies, to reconcile free expression with non-discrimination in order to make the world a safer place for all.

Online child exploitation In an age when children learn how to use an iPad before they learn how to ride a bike, the exploitation of children on the internet is an ongoing challenge.

It’s critical that technology companies work closely with child protection experts and the police to block and remove exploitative photos and videos and prevent online grooming. This panel focused on the work of Australia’s eSafety Commission in combatting child exploitation online. It has joined forces with child protection organisations internationally to build a comprehensive global database that identifies and removes child sexual abuse content from the internet. It is also piloting Project Arachnid, an automated web crawler and platform based at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. Project Arachnid’s aim is to reduce the online availability of child sexual abuse material. One of its outcomes is the psychological relief offered to survivors of child sexual abuse material, who have had no control over the distribution and ongoing sharing of their recorded sexual abuse.

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Image-based abuse Our digitised lives have given rise to new concerns as technology alters the way we interact. In this always-on world, having an online presence often extends to our personal relationships too. This panel highlighted the difficulties of helping young people to navigate this tricky terrain through adolescence, particularly for the parents and teachers who aren’t as technically-literate as their children or students.

Our young people are connected. They share photos on Instagram. They send Snapchats to their friends instead of calling them. But they don’t always make wise decisions about what they’re posting; nor do they necessarily understand the legal and emotional consequences of what they’re sharing.

And unfortunately, an impulsive moment to send a photo can ruin lives.

Sexting, according to the standard definition, is the sharing of sexualised or explicit images or texts through the internet using digital devices, emails or apps, regardless of consent. Image-based abuse occurs when intimate, nude or sexual images are distributed without the consent of those pictured. This includes real, altered, and drawn pictures and videos, and humiliating and degrading filming, such as schoolyard fights or hazing videos where there is no consent to being filmed. Image-based abuse can also include the threat of the image being shared.

The panellists acknowledged that while laws to protect children are a necessity, criminalising cruel or childish behaviour will not solve the problem we are trying to overcome. And we must also ensure that we do not compromise our young people’s right to self-expression and sexual agency. Telling them to abstain from sexting does not work. Instead, we must teach them about online risk, respectful relationships and positive, healthy online behaviour.

Cyberbullying Large social media companies, including YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat, have a significant number of young users, so it’s imperative that they mitigate against the risk of online harm. This includes sexual abuse, pro-suicide content and cyberbullying. The panel noted that in the case of young people, almost all online abuse is peer to peer and has a nexus to social conflict within schools. Children who are victimised in the playground are often targets online too, so there’s a need to address the root problems of bullying in all its online and offline forms.

The panel also observed that as a society, we’re far more aware about the effects of sexual abuse and domestic violence, yet in the online world, our

capacity for pity, empathy and compassion seems to be diminishing. There has been a marked increase in the levels of invective and vitriol online, particularly towards women, minorities and the LBGTQIA community. And while advances in technology have enabled us to connect in real-time, they have also served to facilitate abuse, with GPS tracking devices and spyware allowing perpetrators to continuously harass their victims, causing added emotional and psychological distress.

Building a culture of responsibility It is evident that to create a brighter digital future, we need a combination of government support, industry self-regulation and law enforcement. But we also need an evidence-based national prevention education program, with clear policies and guidelines. It will enable us to create safe spaces for our young people to understand privacy and pornography laws, as well as strategies to encourage open debate about the potential consequences of engaging in risky online behaviour. It will also support our young people to develop the skills and tools to be safe, kind and ethical online, without compromising their freedom and agency.

Schools can lead the way Schools can play a leading role in supporting young people to be good digital citizens. By teaching and modelling responsible behaviour - both offline and online - we can support them to be ‘upstanders’, not bystanders, in the face of bullying, abuse or exploitation. And by integrating our approach to topics such as healthy relationships, healthy communication, emotion regulation, identity, diversity and tolerance, we can empower our children to safely balance the enormous possibilities of the internet.

But the burden of online safety education cannot fall to schools alone. We need to bring parents into the conversation too, making digital citizenship a community effort. If parents are empowered to confidently navigate the online world with their children, they can start conversations at home and set age-appropriate boundaries. Together through our joint efforts, we can support the next generation to thrive in a rapidly changing digital world.

REFLECTION As an Assistant Year Coordinator, I am passionate about fostering the social and emotional health and wellbeing of our students. This extends to supporting students to be safe, confident explorers of the online world. Attending the eSafety Conference was an opportunity for me to better understand how educators can empower students to use technology wisely, enhancing their real-life connections and creating a positive impact for others.

Following on from this professional development opportunity, I presented key findings and recommendations from the eSafety Conference to staff. It was a chance to highlight the fundamentals of responsible digital citizenship, including safety, privacy and security and recommend some of the resources on the new eSafety Commission website. It has led to productive discussions with colleagues across the School about how to safely embrace the remarkable rewards that digital technology has to offer. I have also devised a new PDHPE Cybersmart Unit of Work for Year 4 students, helping them to learn, explore and stay safe online, both inside and outside the classroom.

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ACROSS THE SCHOOL, IT IS REWARDING TO SEE OUR STAFF EMBRACE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES THAT HAVE A TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECT ON OUR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE.

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I BELIEVE THAT POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS ARE CENTRAL TO THE WELLBEING OF BOTH STUDENTS AND TEACHERS.�

REFLECTION Studying part-time for a Master of Educational Leadership at UNSW has given me a clear understanding of the latest research, theory and practice in educational leadership. It has also developed my ability to apply disciplinary principles and practices to some of the complex challenges and situations I encounter in my role as the Head of Middle School. My coursework has exposed me to different leadership styles and has given me practical ideas and skills for mentoring staff and implementing and leading change. Through my self-directed research project, I plan to build on my earlier research around the high attrition rates of early-career teachers. My focus will be on staff wellbeing, supporting teachers to find a sustainable balance in their lives, so that ultimately, we can continue to attract and retain the best teachers to the profession.

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AN EVERYDAY LEADER Creating good humans

BY AMY WEBB HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL

Fulfilling a dual calling to be a great teacher and a great leader has its own challenges. A Master of Educational Leadership has enabled Head of Middle School, Amy Webb to invest in her own learning and development. But it’s also helping her to empower students and staff to cultivate the leadership capacities they need to thrive.

As one of the most successful teams in sporting history, the All Blacks’ warrior mentality is legendary.

But back in 2004, the All Blacks had hit a rocky patch.

They’d been unexpectedly knocked out of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and had been on a losing streak ever since. Morale was low, discipline was poor and senior players were threatening to leave. Dramatic change was needed if this iconic team was to pull together and regain their place at the pinnacle of world rugby.

In 2004, a new management team was appointed under Graham Henry. Their mantra was ‘Better People Make Better All Blacks’. Together, they set about creating a culture that emphasised character, unity and personal leadership over individual brilliance. Everyone needed to share responsibility for decision-making, problem-solving and the embedding of team protocols. And it all started with humility and personal discipline. After every game, some of the most famous names in world rugby would come together with their team-mates to clean out the changing rooms, proving that they weren’t too big to do the small things. Of course, the rest is history. The All Blacks went on to achieve stratospheric success, winning back-to-back World Cups and achieving an incredible win-rate of over 77 percent.

Learning from the All Blacks Given my background as a PDHPE Teacher, I’ve always drawn a lot of inspiration from the sporting arena. For me, the All Blacks in particular have been exemplary leadership role models. Most notably, I like their culture of thinking as a collective, so that individuals don’t learn and grow in isolation, but support each other to flourish. As Harry Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

Teaching PDHPE has, and always will be, my first love.

It’s a privilege to work alongside young people, helping them to develop a sense of purpose and cultivate the learning and leadership skills they need to thrive in an increasingly uncertain and disruptive world. But teachers are often promoted because of the skills they’ve developed and demonstrated in the classroom and in 2017, I was appointed Head of Middle School.

Power of relationships The scope and weight of my responsibilities are, inevitably, wider than they were before. As well as my teaching commitments, I oversee the pastoral, academic and service opportunities for our students in Years 7 to 9, and I work with their parents too, closely supported by the Middle School staff. It takes effort and humility to lead a team. I recognised early on that to do the role well, I needed to foster open, transparent relationships and honest communication. Schools are complex ecosystems and there are many variables that enable them to flourish. But above all, I believe that positive relationships are central to the wellbeing of both students and teachers, and that a strong sense of connection underpins a successful learning environment.

Working as a team ‘Whanau’ is the Maori word for extended family; and it’s symbolised by a spearhead. To work effectively, all three tips of the spearhead must move in the same direction.

Nobody is an expert on everything and in my experience, the best leaders see the best in others, acknowledge their contribution and show them that they value it. They strike the right balance of support and challenge by helping and guiding their team, but also by holding themselves to account when necessary. And they do so with hope, humility and humour.

Studying for a Master of Educational Leadership at UNSW has helped me to consolidate my leadership skills and embrace the bigger picture. Wenona has a clear vision for its students, helping them to develop as leaders who can make a genuine contribution to their communities and to society more broadly. It is a privilege to play my part in giving future generations the best opportunity to thrive by equipping them with the leadership skills to find their way in an increasingly complex world.

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ART OF THE MATTER Channelling creativity into a new career

BY ANGELA FERREIRA PERSONAL ASSISTANT TO THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL (STUDENT WELLBEING)

As any successful Visual Arts Department will tell you, students flourish when they have access to a broad range of teachers, all with their own interests, talents and passions.

When accomplished artist, Angela Ferreira graduates as a Visual Arts Teacher, she will bring her own creative flair and unique life experience to the classroom.

Artmaking has always been my favourite ‘me time’ activity, but in our always-on digital world, time is precious. Working full time, studying part time and caring for my family means opportunities to escape to my studio are limited. Nevertheless, my head is continually swirling with ideas for my next artwork and whenever I unlock the door to my studio, I’m literally bursting with excitement about what I want - and need - to say.

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WHAT I’VE DISCOVERED IS THAT I WANT TO COMBINE MY LOVE OF ART WITH TEACHING IN ORDER TO INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS TO UNLEASH THEIR CREATIVE POTENTIAL TOO.”

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A blank canvas can be intimidating. Picasso referred to it as ‘the scaffold’, evoking the fear so many artists feel when faced with executing the painting they’ve been percolating so vividly in their mind’s eye. I’m no different. But as soon as I daub that first brush of colour across my canvas, the anxiety evaporates.

Quietly cut adrift from all forms of technology, the physical process of artmaking consumes me - the smell of paint, the palette of colours, the feel of different textures and materials to experiment with.

And while painting is never an exact science, it always reinvigorates a part of me that other aspects of my life can’t reach.

It’s easy to lose myself in the flow of creating something that is impossible to achieve in my busy day-to-day life as the Personal Assistant to the Deputy Principal (Student Wellbeing) at Wenona. My role is very process-driven and even though I’m a creative person, scheduling meetings, responding to emails and tackling paperwork all give me the sense of satisfaction of a job well done. But like so many of us, my ‘To-Do List’ can become overwhelming. Art allows me to journey within and explore what Henry David Thoreau so beautifully described as “the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being”.

Growing up in South Africa, my heart was set on a career as an artist, so I completed a three-year Fine Arts Diploma at Technikon Natal in Durban. Studying against the backdrop of a repressive and racist apartheid regime was life-changing. I’d enjoyed a relatively sheltered childhood and felt ill-equipped to give a thoughtful critique of South Africa’s political, economic and social systems at the time. I decided that without a strong voice, I wasn’t suited to a career in art. In retrospect, I’m grateful for this because it

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REFLECTION It takes four years of full-time study to gain a degree in secondary education, so it’s an ongoing challenge to accept that it will take time to qualify as a Visual Arts teacher. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy working behind the scenes at Wenona, absorbing as much as I can about teaching and learning in this environment.

I will also continue to exhibit my work through the Ku-ring-gai Art Society, where I am the Membership Secretary, as well as participating in other art shows across Sydney.

liberated me to follow my own artistic path and tap into something central within. My art is about connecting with landscapes, emotions, memories and people. It’s deeply personal yet at the same time, universal. I feel fortunate that my work has always found an audience and that I continue to give joy and inspiration to others through my art.

Working at a school like Wenona has allowed me to observe, to listen and to learn. What I’ve discovered is that I want to combine my love of art with teaching in order to inspire future generations to unleash their creative potential too.

For the past year, I’ve been studying for a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Education - Visual Arts) through Curtin University. There’s an incredible synchronicity between what is unfolding in my studies each semester and what plays out each day at Wenona. I feel fortunate to be surrounded by such talented teachers, all highly skilled specialists in their field. They are not only happy to share their knowledge with me, but also never baulk at my ‘First Year’ questions. And of course, I’m always inspired by the insane creativity, bravery and maturity of the Visual Arts students here. I can’t wait to step into the classroom and work with them.

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AS A TEACHER OF WELLBEING, I BELIEVE THAT BY EDUCATING OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT DIVERSITY, IT ENCOURAGES THEM TO BE RESPECTFUL TO OTHERS.”

REFLECTION I will complete my Master of Student Wellbeing at the end of 2020. There is no sugar-coating the difficulties that come with juggling work and study. While it has been hard to balance it all without resorting to polishing off a block of Cadbury’s Crispy Mint Crème each night, it has also been incredibly rewarding. My postgraduate degree has given me an opportunity to focus on the topics I find genuinely interesting and engage with them in depth. It has reshaped my understanding of what it means to be a learner and reaffirmed my passion for ensuring that all students are given the opportunity to flourish. Above all, it has highlighted that Wenona has an excellent Pastoral Care program in place, which supports girls at all stages of their development. I am proud to be developing my own skill set so that I can contribute to student wellbeing in a more creative and meaningful way.

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STANDING STRONG Supporting students to thrive

BY CHARLOTTE KARSTEN HISTORY TEACHER AND HEAD OF HOOKE HOUSE

As Head of Hooke House, Debating Coordinator and a History teacher at Wenona, Charlotte Karsten is well versed in guiding, advising and assisting students as they make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Studying for a Master of Student Wellbeing has helped her to consolidate her skills and promote the flourishing and excellence of the girls in her care.

At Wenona, pastoral care isn’t something that just happens when things go wrong. We provide a constant network of support to our students as they navigate the inevitable challenges of growing up. As a Pastoral Care teacher specifically and as a Head of House more broadly, I’m often the girls’ first port of call, and my focus is always on empowering them to lead happy, healthy and successful lives. Undertaking a Master of Student Wellbeing at Southern Cross University has given me a better theoretical understanding - as well as evidence-based tools and strategies - to help my students maintain a healthy perspective on school, life, and everything in-between and beyond.

Growing up in a digital age The principles of wellbeing are universal. We all want to feel wonderful and function at an optimal level, but this generation of young women are growing up in a digital age and they face different pressures to those we may have dealt with in our own childhoods. Our young women are smart, articulate and tech-savvy.

And intellectually, they understand how the media works. But they must also contend with a constant barrage of ‘fake news’, which can serve to undermine their confidence and sense of self.

Navigating social media As an historian, I know better than most the effect that propaganda can have on people, but the internet has amplified this age-old problem. More than ever,

our young women need the ability to think critically in order to withstand the latest marketing trends and the pressure to live up to unattainable standards of beauty and lifestyle from online influences. With hundreds of people vying for their attention on social media, it’s easy for our young women to forget the importance of making real connections Staying strong During my studies, it has been interesting to reflect on change and continuity in the education sector from a historical perspective, as well as thinking about the external forces that have transformed the nature of our school environments. From a pastoral care point of view, it has been fascinating - and at times, overwhelming - to consider the impact technology has had on the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of our young people. Ultimately, my aim is to better support my students to thrive in this rapidly changing, complex world. And while we cannot protect them from every psychological and social challenge they will ever encounter in their lives, my course has extended my capability to support students and encourage them to stay strong in the face of adversity.

Valuing diversity As a teacher of wellbeing, I believe that by educating our young people about diversity, it encourages them to be kind and respectful to others and prepares them to take on the world with understanding, empathy, and love. Therefore, a highlight of my course has been a unit on valuing diversity, in which we reflected on how to best support the needs of students with unique personal attributes. When diversity - both within the classroom and beyond - is explored, discussed, and celebrated, it enables students to see that we are all part of large, meaningful groups, but we also have characteristics and experiences that make us individual and unique.

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EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING Growing as learners and leaders of learning

BY RENEE DE ROSSI GIFTED EDUCATION COORDINATOR

Research shows that quality teaching is fundamental to student success. Gifted Education Coordinator, Renee De Rossi, is passionate about promoting the professionalism of teachers. This includes mentoring her peers to undergo national teacher certification to improve their practice for the benefit of their students.

Teachers, like students, are always learning.

We live in an age where new technologies, new curricula and new pedagogical practices are constantly disrupting the educational landscape.

As a result, they are reshaping the way we think about learning, creating shifts in our approach to pedagogy, and changing the dynamics of our classrooms. If we are to meet the evolving needs of our students, it is critical that we take time to reflect, evaluate, innovate and collaborate, and in doing so, continuously improve our practice. In 2013, I was accredited as a Highly Accomplished Teacher, one of the higher levels of teacher accreditation, and gaining increasing prominence as more teachers attain national certification.

This rigorous three-year process involved classroom observations and feedback, collating documentary evidence of my pedagogical practice, and sourcing written statements from referees. It challenged me to unpack my teaching methods and evaluate the impact I was having on learning outcomes. It helped me to develop critical insights into the craft of teaching and sharpen my professional skill set. And it gave me a framework for supporting others, enabling me to have targeted and fulfilling professional conversations with colleagues in order to amplify best practice. Since I gained my Highly Accomplished Teacher certification, I’ve taken the opportunity to mentor teachers in other schools, supporting them to work towards accreditation.

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At Wenona, the learning of young people comes first, and quality teaching thrives. It is an environment where teachers work collaboratively to have the greatest impact in the classroom. And the School encourages us to seek out professional development opportunities that contribute to the culture of continuous improvement that exists here.

In May 2019, I travelled to Darwin to attend the National Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) Summit at the Darwin Convention Centre.

Chaired by Laureate Professor, John Hattie from the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, the event brought together education thought leaders such as Dr Lyn Sharratt, Dan Haesler and Renez Lammon.

With such an immense pool of professional knowledge and intellectual capital to draw from, it was an invigorating environment to listen and learn from others. Collegial conversations with peers provided opportunities to discuss best practice and explore ways to better share expertise with colleagues.

The program also included interactive workshops that challenged our thinking on topics such as how to empower more women to succeed in school leadership positions.

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AT WENONA, THE LEARNING OF YOUNG PEOPLE COMES FIRST, AND QUALITY TEACHING THRIVES.”

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For me, the opportunity to visit a local school was a highlight. I visited Leanyar Primary School in the outskirts of Darwin, where I gained a greater appreciation and understanding of the unique cultural and educational contexts that exist in the Northern Territory. The school serves a diverse multi-cultural community, with 47% of students coming from Languages Other Than English (LOTE) backgrounds.

Assistant Principal and Lead Teacher, Ebone Coats

shared some of the initiatives that were contributing to the school’s success. This included programs for teacher mentoring, student self-regulation, coteaching and sustainability. Stepping into classrooms adorned with the joyful creations of students, I was struck by the happy buzz of learning and the warmth of staff-student interactions. It reinforced the positive impact that these programs are having on wellbeing, inclusion and language development.

REFLECTION The HALT Summit inspired and challenged me to think more critically about how we can collectively grow the expertise of the teaching profession to improve outcomes for all students. Nearly 600 educators across Australia are now formally recognised for their leadership and expertise, but it would be great to support more people to attain national teacher certification. Moving forward, I’d like to help develop a forum, whereby new educators and aspiring leaders can learn from more experienced colleagues, particularly during the accreditation process.

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HEALTHY COMPETITION Building connections, skills and networks

BY REBECCA DONG REGISTRAR

In an era of increased parental choice, competition between schools has intensified. We all need competition. It motivates us to achieve more, inspires innovation and improves quality.

But it is collaboration that is helping to amplify best practice, as Registrar, Rebecca Dong discovered when she visited three of Melbourne’s leading schools.

As the Registrar at Wenona, I oversee the admission process for all entry points (K to 12), as well as enquiries from prospective parents. Whether it is prospectus requests, the organisation of tours, interviews, orientation days or boarding, or simply a question about day-to-day life at Wenona, I am generally the first port of call.

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Enrolments have a huge impact on the successful management and operations of a school. Based on Wenona’s leadership, reputation, HSC results and vision for the future, we are a school of choice for many in the local community and beyond. Our waitlists are healthy, with a growing number of enquiries from around the world. But we can’t afford to be complacent. To remain a preferred education

WENONA HAS A STRONG CULTURE OF ASPIRATION, COLLABORATION AND EXCELLENCE, WITH THE SHARING OF BEST PRACTICE FROM PRACTITIONERS ACROSS THE EDUCATION SECTOR.”

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provider and stay ahead of the curve, we must always look to new ways of communicating, engaging and building trusted relationships with prospective families.

My counterparts in other schools will often ask about the length of our waitlists, the number of scholarship applicants we have or how close we are to meeting next year’s targets. Conversations with other registrars can provide useful insights into the latest trends or drivers shaping parental choice. But while there’s plenty of willingness to lend support, there’s also an underlying pressure to differentiate Wenona from our competitors. Learning to manage the tension between competition and collaboration is a skill worth acquiring because it can bring greater value and success to our school and others.

For this reason, I decided to reach out to three of the leading schools in Melbourne: Haileybury College, Melbourne Girls Grammar and Mentone Girls Grammar. All have compatible strengths with Wenona, so I was keen to connect, engage and learn from their Enrolments Departments. I deliberately timed my visit to coincide with the Victorian/ Tasmanian Educate Plus Conference hosted by Haileybury College in order to maximise opportunities to network with leading professionals in my field.

As Melbourne’s first vertical school, Haileybury’s city campus has successfully and creatively met the challenge of meeting high demand in a densely populated area. A 12-storey building caters for 800 students from Early Learning to Year 12. It has two floors dedicated to art facilities, a professional standard drama studio, a sports hall and universitylevel science labs. There are outdoor terrace spaces, including lots of climbing spaces for younger students, an indoor running track and a rooftop space with a gymnasium. The school is located opposite Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne’s oldest park, so

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students also make use of this as an outdoor space.

Parents drop their children off in an underground basement and the school has ample bike storage.

I found it highly interesting to talk with Haileybury’s Enrolments team about how prospective parents have responded to this new educational setting, and how their approach to marketing has evolved as a result.

Choosing a school for your child is a huge decision.

A common theme in my conversations with Haileybury College, Melbourne Girls Grammar and Mentone Girls Grammar, was that regardless of geography, we all face similar challenges in meeting - and exceeding - the expectations of prospective parents. Parents don’t see a school advertisement and enrol their child straight away. Instead, they will have multiple touchpoints across various channels before they make their decision. Every family

deserves to feel special, but the challenge is how to engage and communicate with a prospective family in a way that resonates with them.

As I discussed with my counterparts in Melbourne, nurturing each prospective family takes time. It requires phone calls, meetings and regular followups, which can quickly eat into a registrar’s day.

When you factor in repetitive administration tasks, it’s easy to understand why enrolments departments can become overwhelmed. It was useful therefore, to brainstorm ways to streamline tasks and to learn more about the different databases schools are using to automate day-to-day tasks, freeing up time to build personal relationships. This includes developing email communications, newsletters and blog posts targeted to parents who are still considering your school.

REFLECTION It was refreshing to connect and collaborate with registrars from like-minded schools, and to talk to them openly and honestly about the challenges and opportunities we face in our roles. To effectively market our schools, it is imperative that we understand the processes that parents walk through in order to make their enrolment decision. This enables us to speak to parents on their terms and according to their interests. It highlighted to me how important it is to have a clear and defined purpose in all our communications, and how technology can help us to manage the entire lifecycle of a prospective family.

Wenona has a strong culture of aspiration, collaboration and excellence, with the sharing of best practice from practitioners across the education sector feeding into the continual professional development of staff. Having an opportunity to extend my professional network beyond Sydney was extremely worthwhile. It has given me more people to reach out to for advice and support as I continue to navigate the complexity of enrolments.

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BUILDING CAPABILITY Enhancing personal and professional development

BY ANDREA BRISLAND HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Andrea Brisland’s role as Human Resources (HR) Manager enables her to have a unique perspective of Wenona. Not only does she have a clear understanding of our culture, priorities and challenges, but she is also working hard to ensure the School is accredited as an ‘Employer of Choice’ for a diversity of talented staff.

In a sector built around people, it is inevitable that increasingly, schools are looking to hire experienced in-house HR professionals to navigate the complex nature of employer and employee relations. The HR function can help schools to attract, develop and retain the best people. But it can also help them to remain abreast of the latest trends, best practices and ethics in Human Resource Management (HRM), supporting them to successfully deal with the day-today challenges that arise in any organisation when it comes to managing people.

In many ways, HRM forms the backbone of an organisation as it provides the hidden structure that keeps everything moving forward. Understandably, the behind-the-scenes nature of my role as HR Manager at Wenona can sometimes make it difficult for others to understand what it is that I do. Put simply, I am responsible for supporting the life cycle of every staff member, from their hiring to their eventual departure from the School, and everything in between.

The success of any school - and ultimately, the social, emotional and academic outcomes of its students depends on the careful management of its resources, which of course, includes its staff. One of the main reasons I was attracted to working at Wenona is because it is such a relational school. People are valued and supported to do their jobs here, and both teachers and professional services staff work hard to contribute to student success. My focus is to maximise these contributions by helping to recruit the right people and supporting them to flourish.

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Given the School’s culture of excellence, Wenona attracts high quality candidates who are passionate about working here. The hiring process can be long, from drafting up job advertisements, reviewing applications, selecting the right candidates for first-round interviews, performing various pre-employment tests and checks, and making recommendations to the Principal.

This part of my role requires flexibility, attention to detail, excellent communication and listening skills, negotiation skills and professional discretion.

As part of the School’s strategy to attract and retain the best people, I am working closely with the Executive Leadership Team to become accredited as an ‘Employer of Choice’. To receive this accreditation, organisations are required to demonstrate their achievements across five key areas: Organisational Culture and Leadership; Employee Education, Training and Development; Employee Health, Safety and Satisfaction; Performance Management; and Recognition and Remuneration.

Another priority for Wenona is to embrace workplace diversity by continuing to foster an inclusive environment where everyone thrives. Drawing from a workforce with a diversity of views, genders, abilities, backgrounds, cultures and education levels, helps to drive innovative thinking, which of course, is highly beneficial to our students.

I am fortunate to work closely with both teachers and professional services staff at every stage of their career.

I have observed that career paths in the educational sector are becoming more fluid and less traditional, with a growing emphasis on collaboration and multidisciplinary capability in teaching and learning. Wenona actively supports staff to develop in their current roles or experience new ones. This enriches their exposure to different fields and disciplines, and expands their skills, knowledge and networks, which again benefits our students.

ENGAGE AND G ROW

“

GIVEN THE SCHOOL’S CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE, WENONA ATTRACTS HIGH QUALITY CANDIDATES WHO ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WORKING HERE. ”

REFLECTION While there are specialist HR roles, most positions in a school setting require HR professionals to be involved in multiple functions. We must excel at recruitment, selling the school brand to talented prospective employees.

And we must be adept at all-round good people practice, which includes onboarding, engagement, career planning and performance management. I enjoy the broad scope of my role at Wenona. It has given me the opportunity to influence innumerable aspects of the organisation, which I hope will help to drive teaching and learning outcomes for students. I have also enjoyed working closely with the Executive Leadership Team, focusing on the bigger picture and participating in long-range planning to champion better work and working lives for staff. I love the fact that HR is not a stand-alone function, but part of Wenona’s core infrastructure. As a field, HR is an evolving science and it’s exciting to know that there are always new strategies, approaches, technologies, and skills that we can embrace to further develop Wenona’s capability and brand as a leading independent school.

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NEW STAFF

Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

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“

OVER THE COURSE OF MY CAREER, TEACHING, AND EDUCATION MORE BROADLY, HAS BECOME MORE COURAGEOUS AND INNOVATIVE.”

NEW STAFF

Ms Justine Lind HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL

I would probably describe myself as a ‘teacher tragic’. I always, always wanted to be a teacher, and having just celebrated my 30th year in a career I love, I feel very fortunate to spend my days in a role that never feels like work.

Before joining Wenona as Head of Junior School, I was the inaugural Head of Junior School of Oxley College in the Southern Highlands for five years.

Prior to that, I taught in a variety of Independent Schools, as a classroom teacher, a gifted education specialist and a leader of curriculum. I was the Deputy, Teaching and Learning at St Andrew’s School in Adelaide, where I discovered the exciting PYP and MYP programmes. And I also led the establishment of The Honours Program at The Scots College in Sydney, while completing a Masters of Educational Leadership.

It’s important to me to feel a sense of cultural alignment with the schools I work in. Wenona is a happy place, alive with wonderment and a sense of awe about the world. It is optimistic about future possibilities and has a deep sense of nurturing its people. The School’s mission of intentionally

empowering young women to take their place in a global society of the future, and to be a force for good, resonates strongly with me. It means that we must respond to the innate capacity of young girls to explore the big ideas of our time and give them age-appropriate opportunities for self-determination.

Over the course of my career, teaching, and education more broadly, has become more courageous and innovative. This is important as education is all about the future. It is legacy building stuff! We touch the future through the children we teach today, so we need to acknowledge our responsibility to equip all children with the skills, knowledge and self-belief they will need to stay safe and strong, with a heart for servant leadership, in order to shape the world for the good of all.

Working with such an energetic, talented and diverse community of staff and students is an extraordinary privilege. Wenona is a daily reminder of the potential of education to inspire and empower individuals and whole communities.

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

“

I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT BEING PART OF A COMMUNITY THAT EMPOWERS YOUNG WOMEN TO FIND THEIR SPARK.”

Ms Danielle Dwyer BUSINESS MANAGER

As the mother of two daughters, I am passionate about being part of a community that empowers young women to find their spark, and face opportunities and challenges with compassion and resilience. Wenona appealed to me as I was already familiar with the Renaissance Women’s Leadership Network prior to joining the School and have a strong alignment to Wenona’s values of courage, grace, strength and wisdom.

In my role as Business Manager at Wenona, I lead a team of professional services staff, overseeing the financial management and business administration of the School. I work closely with the Principal, School Executive, and the Finance and Governance subcommittees of the Board. I liaise with the School’s Property Manager and the Director of ICT to oversee budgets, risk management, contracts, compliance and insurance. My role also supports the Wenona Uniform Shop, the Independent Theatre and the Print Room, as well as liaising with external contractors who manage the Wenona Café and the catering and maintenance of the Wenona Boarding House.

Prior to joining Wenona in 2019, I worked at Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta for 10 years.

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I first joined OLMC as their Finance Manager, then progressed to Director of Business Services, and spent five years leading governance and business operations, including finance, property and IT. I have also worked as a Chartered Accountant in public practice for 10 years, specialising in tax and business services.

I hold a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) and was awarded The Institute Prize from the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance, as part of my undergraduate studies. I am an active member of the Association of School Business Administrators (ASBA), a member of the NSW State Committee and the Professional Development Committee. My interest in governance led me to complete studies at the Australian Institute of Company Directors recently, and my next professional development goal is to start an MBA or a post-graduate diploma in property management.

It has been wonderful joining the Wenona community.

People have been endlessly generous in sharing their knowledge and expertise, and I’ve relished the opportunity to explore processes improvements, with emphasis on the user experience through new technologies and the extended connectivity of our systems.

In my spare time, I love the simple things, spending time with family and friends, bushwalking and swimming. After a busy week at work, there’s something incredibly soothing about following that black line!

NEW STAFF

Ms Annette Swinfield HEAD OF HISTORY

I have always loved studying History. In fact, as a young child I could not wait to open the pages of yet another History-focused book that my father had sought out for me. I would also eagerly await school library day when I would choose yet another History text to read. My curiosity for and love of History flourished throughout my high school and university years and of course, through travel and visiting archaeological sites.

I have 27 years of teaching experience. I hold a Bachelor of Education and Masters of Education.

Previously, I was Head of History Curriculum and Lecturer of Education at the Australian Catholic University, and I have worked as Head of Gifted and Talented and Head of History at numerous Independent schools, including most recently, at Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview. I am an Ancient History HSC marker and I’ve acted in school executive positions, presented at Educational conferences and published my academic work. My interests include curriculum innovation and design, mentoring and leadership development.

I was drawn to Wenona due to my regular attendance at the Renaissance Women Leaders’ Network led by

Dr Scott. I have found these events to be inspirational and empowering as a female educator and middle leader, and I wanted to be a part of a community that nourished the development of Renaissance women through a holistic education.

While 2020 has been a year to embrace the unexpected, adapt, be flexible, encourage change, nurture resilience and seize each day as it emerges, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed returning to girls’ education.

History students are highly motivated, curious and love to be challenged. It is so satisfying to see them engage in critical thinking and debate. The students are passionate learners and enjoy immersing themselves in historical investigations about personalities, events and societies. Their energy and thirst for knowledge is palpable, and it is wonderful to contribute to their education. As such, they are my daily inspiration.

“

I WANTED TO BE A PART OF A COMMUNITY THAT NOURISHED THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENAISSANCE WOMEN THROUGH A HOLISTIC EDUCATION.”

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Dr Kasey Wood

Ms Sarah Simpson

Ms Aoife Quinn

Dr Wood holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry from UNSW. She has worked in both industry and academic settings, as a research and development scientist for an Australian pharmaceutical company and as a post-doctoral research associate at UNSW. Her work has been widely published in peer reviewed journals and she has presented at the STANSW chemistry and annual conferences. Prior to joining Wenona, Dr Wood was the Stage 5 Science Coordinator at Pymble Ladies College.

Ms Simpson is a Science and Biology Teacher, with a keen interest in evolutionary biology and genetics.

She has taught in Australia and New Zealand, in both public and private schools. Prior to joining Wenona, Ms Simpson taught at Kambala in Rose Bay. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of Auckland, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary).

With a Masters Degree in Physics from Queen’s University, Belfast, Ms Quinn was awarded a scholarship from the Institute of Physics to study a Post Graduate Diploma of Education. Prior to joining Wenona, Ms Quinn spent considerable time honing her teaching skills in a variety of schools in the UK. She is passionate about helping to instil a love of Science in young women.

Ms Sacha Truskett

Miss Laura Monk

Ms Lydia Parker

Ms Truskett has more than 10 years’ experience in scientific research.

She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Pharmacology, as well as postgraduate qualifications in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Nutrition. She has worked in therapeutic drug design and research in neuroscience, cancer and bone disease, and has experience in a wide range of laboratory techniques and equipment. She has presented her work at national scientific conferences and instructed new researchers.

Miss Laura Monk is an innovative educator with experience in both the classroom and public policy. After gaining her Bachelor of Primary Education (Honours Class I) at the University of Sydney, Miss Monk spent a year working as a Graduate Policy Officer for the Federal Department of Education and Training. Most recently, she has taught Year 6 at Chatswood Public School, gaining experience in educating gifted and talented students.

Ms Parker is a passionate educator with a Bachelor of Arts/Education from UNSW. Prior to joining Wenona, she taught at Mater Maria Catholic College, where she taught Extension 2 English and was actively involved in the public speaking program, plays, musicals, TheatreSports and extracurricular Drama classes. She was also the Assistant Year 9 Coordinator. Ms Parker is a licensed volunteer wildlife rescuer for WIRES.

Assistant Head of Science

Laboratory Technician

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Science Teacher

Junior School Teacher

Science Teacher

English and Drama Teacher

NEW STAFF

Ms Christine Messinesi

Miss Georgia Perrie

Mrs Christa Rowe

Prior to joining Wenona, Ms Messinesi worked for Formist, collaborating with the Australia Council to deliver the visual identity, art catalogue and exhibition signage for the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Before that, she worked for Sydney Theatre company, creating ad campaigns and running photography workshops for school students. She also taught graphic design, letterpress printing and experimental typography at UNSW Art and Design.

Miss Perrie holds a Bachelor of Education from Charles Sturt University.

She has held classroom and leadership positions around the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Most recently, Miss Perrie taught for three years at a leading international school in Singapore, where she was also Head of Curriculum. Her global experience has given her a rich understanding of how children thrive in a global learning community.

Mrs Rowe holds a Certificate IV in Education Support. Previously, she worked in funds management and holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investments.

Mrs Rowe is a volunteer at Teresa House, which provides free and safe overnight shelter for people at-risk of homelessness and disadvantage, and volunteers at her local church.

Ms Angela Band

Ms Andrea Brisland

Ms Jade Goodfellow

Ms Brisland holds a Masters of Arts in Human Resources Management.

Prior to joining Wenona, Ms Brisland has had extensive HR experience, working in the not-for-profit, healthcare and telecommunications/ICT sectors in both Australia and the United Kingdom.

She has also worked in HR at a British university. Her motivation is to add value by helping people and institutions become more effective.

Excelling in customer service, Ms Goodfellow has had extensive experience in driving and managing client relationships in the financial and technical services industries. She has also worked as a Client Relations and Logistics Manager for a national commercial furniture company. She brings her organisation, technical and interpersonal skills to her role at Wenona, where she supports the Enrolments Team.

Visual Arts Assistant

Personal Assistant to the Deputy Principal (School Operations)

Ms Band holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Theatre Studies from the University of Otago, and a Masters of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne. For the past six years, she worked in the not-forprofit sector, most recently working as the Office Manager for the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy (NASCA). She is passionate about the arts, indigenous affairs, education and empowering women.

Junior School Teacher

HR Manager

Teacher’s Aide

Administration Assistant (Enrolments)

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Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

Ms Maryanne Lang

Administration Assistant (Foundation)

With extensive experience in the media and ICT industries, Ms Lang also owned and managed the North Head Café at Manly Hospital for 13 years. Prior to joining Wenona, Ms Lang worked in finance for an event management company. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Communications), a Certificate 4 in Bookkeeping and a Certificate 3 in Food Safety Management. She is also a gifted seamstress.

Ms Janine Edwards

Administration and Teaching Assistant (Woodstock)

An experienced event planner, Ms Edwards worked for Walt Disney in Florida, and more recently, in the banking industry in Australia. She has qualifications in event planning from TAFE and is also a Justice of the Peace. She enjoys making things, and has brought her love of art, craft and creativity to her role at Woodstock.

Mr Hassan Gholipour

ICT Infrastructure Technical Lead

With more than 18 years’ experience in a variety of ICT roles in both Iran and Australia, Mr Gholipour is an experienced ICT professional. He holds a Bachelor of Information Systems, and is currently completing his Masters at Newcastle University. In Iran, Mr Gholipour worked in the network security field industry. Prior to joining Wenona, he worked at Regents Park Christian School for five years as an IT System Administrator.

Mr Kevin Xu

Ms Anna Gregori

Mr Vinod Gopal

Mr Xu graduated from Trinity Grammar School in 2015 with a Distinction in the IB. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from UNSW, where he also received the Computer Elite Award. While at university, he became the Secretary for the PC Enthusiasts Society. He is passionate about technology and outside of work, he loves exploring the latest tech trends, building computers and playing video games.

A fully qualified Certified Practising Accountant (CPA), Ms Gregori has more than 20 years’ experience in the finance industry, including accounting and auditing. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accountancy and a Masters of Business Administration. For the past three years, Ms Gregori has lectured in accounting for the University of Sydney Business School’s Masters program.

Mr Gopal joins Wenona with eight years of experience in the banking and finance sector, both in Australia and overseas. Before joining Wenona, he worked as an Accounts Officer for FlexiGroup. In his spare time, Mr Gopal enjoys playing cricket and badminton, and was awarded medals in both sports during his time at University.

ICT Solutions Engineer

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Accountant

Accounts Officer

NE W STAFF

Ms Umadevi Suppiah

Ms Lisa White

Mr Nicholas Chukwu

Ms Suppiah has 15 years’ experience in administration, including payroll, production and logistics. Prior to joining Wenona, she worked as a Program Coordinator for a health and safety organisation, where she helped to coordinate their health and safety training programs. She holds a Diploma in eCommerce and is keen to improve her knowledge of graphic design.

Ms White has extensive experience of working with children and adolescents in the not-for-profit sector, including organising camps for children with high medical needs. She has also volunteered for the Raise Foundation, where she worked as a mentor to teenage girls. Previously, Ms White was an Event Manager, helping to support elite athletes and organise large-scale sporting events.

Mr Chukwu is originally from Cameroon, where he worked in a family business farming cocoa. Since arriving in Australia, Mr Chukwu has been busy refining his English skills, while working as a barista in a cafĂŠ and settling into the Australian way of life.

He has recently enrolled in a Certificate 3 in Horticulture. He enjoys playing basketball and soccer and contributing to his church community.

Photocopy Clerk

Boarding Assistant

Assistant Gardener

Editor and Writer: Lisa Broad I Design: Janine Stieger Page 77 Photography: Mike Bell, Raw Life Studios I Rowena Clarke, Rowena Clarke Photography I Janine Stieger I Wenona Staff

Wenona I Upon Reflection 2020

WENONA SCHOOL LTD ABN 83 000 250 304 CRICOS 02275A

176 Walker Street North Sydney NSW 2060 T (02) 9409 4400 E reception@wenona.nsw.edu.au www.wenona.nsw.edu.au

FOUNDED 1886

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