The Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO) and the Australian Parents Council (APC) - the peak national bodies representing the interests of parents of students in both public and private schools in Australia - have brought together leading international and national researchers and commentators to explore the current state and future directions of education and how it shapes our society.
Addressing Australian educators, parents, academics and policy makers, leading figures in education from Australia and overseas will present at this conference:
Lyn Allison
Lyn Allison was a member of the Australian Senate from 1996 to 2008, representing the state of Victoria and was the last federal parliamentary leader of the Australian Democrats.
During her time in the Senate she established a reputation as a strong advocate of church state separation, federal government funding for public schools and nuclear disarmament.
Allison was awarded Australian Humanist of the Year in 2008 by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.
She currently serves as President of Dying with Dignity Victoria, which lobbies for reform of euthanasia laws, and is also a committee member of the Rationalist Society of Australia.
Allison is an atheist who spoke for the affirmative in a 2008 Australian Radio National debate “Would We Be Better Off Without Religion?”
Hon David Bartlett MP
Premier of Tasmania & Education Minister
Premier David Bartlett has a vision for a clever, kind and connected Tasmania. He is driven by a belief in the future of this State and a determination to see it reach its full potential.
He is committed to Tasmania taking on the big challenges of our times – from climate change to demographic change, while building a strong economy and a connected community.
David was educated at Mt Nelson Primary, Taroona High and Hobart College before completing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Graduate Diploma of Business in Professional Management at the University of Tasmania.
He is a product of the public education system which he now champions as Premier and Minister for Education and Skills. David’s decision to champion the Education and Skills portfolio makes him the first Premier for half a century to hold both positions.
David’s belief in Tasmania’s potential was developed through past positions as Manager of the Tasmanian Innovation Centre, a Tasmanian member of the Commonwealth-State Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council and Senior Private Secretary to the former Tasmanian Treasurer, David Crean.
David Bartlett was elected to Parliament as a member for Denison on count-back following the resignation from Parliament of former Premier Jim Bacon in 2004.
He retained his seat at the 2006 State election and was appointed Minister for Education, adding Deputy Premier and Minister for Planning and Workplace Relations to his responsibilities in early 2008 before becoming Premier.
As a father of two, David recognises the importance of giving children the best possible start in life and of supporting Tasmanian families. As Premier, he is very optimistic about the future and the great things that are possible for Tasmania in working together as a community.
Tamerlaine Beasley
Managing Director, Beasley Intercultural
Tamerlaine Beasley is an international management consultant and facilitator specialising in cross-cultural and diversity issues. She is also the founder and Managing Director of the successful cross-cultural consultancy and training company Beasley Intercultural. The focus of her work, and the work of her team is assisting client organisations to operate effectively in new and diverse cultural environments. Recently Tamerlaine was a participant in the 2020 summit, consulted on a joint venture project in Thailand and presented at the Ernst and Young Global Mobility Series on in-patriate management.
Tamerlaine speaks fluent Thai and basic Lao and Bahasa Indonesia. She is a skilled facilitator and her sessions have been voted 'People's Choice Award' by her peers at the Australian Institute of Training and Development at two consecutive conferences. Her interventions always focus on business or organisational outcomes.
Tamerlaine has lectured in the graduate program in 'Cross-Cultural Management' at the School of International Business at UNSW, delivered workshops at the Research Institute of Asia and the Pacific at Sydney University and guest lectures at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management MBA program. She is a frequent guest speaker at international business networks, a member of the NSW Asia Business Council, an Advisory Board Member of the Australian Mekong Resource Centre at the University of Sydney, and Vice-President of the Australia-Thailand Business Council.
Tamerlaine studied Asian Studies at the Australian National University, International Business at Penn State University and Thai at Chulalongkorn and Silapakorn Universities in Thailand.
Caz Bosch
President, Australian Parents Council
Liz Chick
Elizabeth Daly
Peter Garrigan
President, Australian Council of State School Organisations
Greg Gebhart
Greg works as a consultant, specialising in ICT and education and has been a keynote speaker at conferences throughout Australia and internationally. He is also the Multimedia and Information Technology Manager at Lowanna College.
He was awarded the Victorian Regional Achievers Award for 2003, the ICT Australian ICT Innovator of the Year in 2002, the Victorian ICT Educator of the Year in 2001 and recently was a state winner in the National Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Greg also established the Gippsland Education Leadership Program with the support from the 2001 GCLP group. Greg has run this program in a voluntary capacity for three years and in 2002, the program was awarded an "Office of Public Employment Award" for Best Practice in Managing People.
His other voluntary commitments include Adult, Community and Further Education, where he is the chair of the Gippsland Board as well as being an active member of the Moe South Fire Brigade.
Dr Neil Hawkes
Prior to 1992, Neil Hawkes’s career was spent in the UK as a teacher, deputy headteacher and in two headships. From 1983 until 1989, Neil worked as an Education Adviser for Buckinghamshire and from 1989 to 1993 as Chief Adviser/Principal Education Officer of the Isle of Wight Education Service.
He then decided to implement his values philosophy, by spending six and a half years (1993 -1999) as Headteacher of West Kidlington Primary and Nursery School in Oxford, UK. It was here that the school community worked together to devise and implement a unique system of Values-based Education. The school still attracts a lot of national and international visitors, keen to see how the values philosophy works in practice.
Between 1999 and 2005, Neil was a Senior Adviser for Oxfordshire, responsible for school improvement based on Values Education.
Neil currently works as an international consultant in Values-based Education.
Prof Ian Hay
Professor Ian Hay is the recently appointed Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania.
Before coming to UTAS, he was Professor and Head of the School of Education, University of New England. He has also held Associate Professor positions at the University of Queensland and Griffith University.
His main research interests are in the domain of students with literacy and academic difficulties, the role of motivation in learning, and students’ cognitive development.
Dr Philip Hughes
Philip Hughes is the senior research officer of the Christian Research Association. He has worked for the CRA since it was established in 1985.
Philip Hughes has post-graduate degrees in philosophy, education and theology. His doctorate in theology involved a study of the expression of the Christian faith in the Thai context.
He is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, although originally ordained in the Baptist Church. He has had pastoral experience in three churches: in the inner city, a rural town in Victoria, and a suburb of Melbourne.
Philip Hughes works four days per week for the CRA. He is also employed by Edith Cowan University on projects on church and community and insecurity and well-being.
Randal Markey
Communications Manager, Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA)
Dr Denis Muller
Dr Muller teaches in the public policy program at the University if Melbourne. He also lectures in research methodology at RMIT and Swinburne Universities, and has lectured in privacy at the Law School of the University of Melbourne.
He recently devised a course in media ethics for John Fairfax Holdings, and successfully piloted it in February 2006 among 33 journalist trainees of the Fairfax group and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Since late 2007 he has been engaged as an independent consultant by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to design and implement a system of editorial quality assurance. This is a particularly complex and sensitive task, and is pioneering work in the field of media ethics and accountability.
Over the past decade, he has undertaken and extensive range of work with school communities in all parts of the country, exploring the characteristics, evolutionary dynamics and profound social inclusion impacts of family-school and community partnerships in action.
Ruth Pinkerton
The Scripture Union’s Tasmanian State Director, Ruth Pinkerton, arrived from Scotland in 2007 to take up this new life challenge and opportunity. Prior to accepting this position, Ruth had worked with SU Scotland in their camps ministry for the preceding seven years.
Ruth studied Geology at Aberdeen University. A career in secondary teaching and then as an instructor in an outdoor centre led Ruth – via a Masters in Business Administration – to working for SU Scotland and then on to SU Tasmania.
Bronwyn Sheehan
Queensland Australian of the Year Bronwyn Sheehan founded The Pyjama Foundation in 2004 to make a positive impact on the lives of our community’s most vulnerable children.
In less than five years, The Pyjama Foundation has won a number of awards, garnered corporate and government support, and inspired a large team of community volunteers.
A nurse and midwife and business owner, Bronwyn herself was inspired by the work of foster carers. She said that people think that when a child is moved into foster care they are suddenly OK, but this is not the case. They require a great deal of support to overcome emotional, physical and developmental issues. Bronwyn was alarmed at statistics highlighting the poor literacy levels of children in care, and determined to find a way to address this issue.
This was the beginning of The Pyjama Foundation Love of Learning Program. The Pyjama Foundation recruits, screens, trains and supports volunteers from the community who are called Pyjama Angels. Pyjama Angels are matched with a child in care and visit them once a week for an hour to read books aloud, play educational games and help them with their homework.
The program focuses on literacy skills but Pyjama Angels become inspiring role models for the children.
Bronwyn Sheehan is the 2009 Queensland Australian of the Year and 2008 Queensland Winner of the IBM Community and Government category of the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.
Dr Becky Shelley
Dr Becky Shelley is the General Manager of The Smith Family in Tasmania and was appointed to the Tasmanian Community Fund Board in late 2008.
Becky also has also worked at senior levels of government with the Department of Premier and Cabinet and as a ministerial adviser, as well as tutoring at the University of Tasmania.
She has a PhD from the UTas School of Government and has authored a number of publications, papers and articles.
Dr Tim Sprod
Tim Sprod is currently the International Baccalaureate Diploma Coordinator at The Friends’ School in Tasmania, Australia.
He has twenty- five years of experience of classroom education in Australia, Britain, Papua New Guinea, and the Bahamas, from kindergarten to senior secondary, plus six years researching and lecturing in the universities of Oxford and Tasmania (where he remains an Honorary Associate of the School of Philosophy).
He is a past Secretary of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children (ICPIC, based in UK), past Chair of the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA) and current Chair of the Association for Philosophy in Tasmanian Schools (APTS).
Recognised by ICPIC as a teacher educator, he has presented workshops for teachers and researchers in philosophical inquiry for schools in Australia, the UK, the USA, Japan, and Thailand. This is his first visit to STU and Singapore as a trainer.
Dr Sprod is the author of a 230-page volume entitled “Philosophical Discussion in Moral Education: The Communty of Ethical Inquiry” (2001), published by Routledge.
He is also the author of “Books into Ideas” and (with Laurance Splitter) “Places for Thinking”, both of which address the use of the community of inquiry with picture books in early childhood. His research interests cover the place of discussion in education for scientific and ethical inquiry.
Angie Wilcock
With a history of international sporting representation in track and field, multiple NSW and Australian Championships and records and dual City-To-Surf wins, Angie understands what it takes to reach one’s potential in any field – including education. Her motivation and desire to achieve and her ability to motivate others ultimately led her into the field of education.
Gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sydney University and a Diploma in Education, and after three years in journalism and then private enterprise, Angie decided to use her ability to motivate in the classroom.
Working as a primary school teacher since 1981, Angie has had experience with teaching children from Kindergarten through to Year 6. Her classroom experience with a gifted and talented class in 2005 and 2006 served as the catalyst for developing a program to support the needs of both students and parents in transition to high school.
Angie’s aim is to give each and every student the opportunity to reach his or her own individual potential – and parents the chance to be part of the process. Other programs are offered to support and advise students on how to maximise their learning and parents on how to monitor and support their child’s progress and organisational skills at home. Specialised staff programs are designed to support teachers with a range of practical, useful ideas they can use immediately in the classroom.
Her work with mentoring and motivating extends beyond the classroom. Angie has been involved with the Athletics Australia / Athletics International National Under-19 Talent Squad Mentoring Program, working with a designated athlete who had been identified as a potential international representative, providing encouragement and motivation to reach her desired goals.
High Hopes Educational Services is based in Sydney, Australia.
For further information, contact ACSSO by phone on 1800 183 066 or by email at admin@acsso.org.au.
