Penny Braid and Adelle Holmes

Penny Braid Penny is Head of English at Ballarat Clarendon College. She has led teams and taught English in the earliest years of schooling through to VCE. Penny champions explicit instruction to strengthen understanding and long-term retention and has worked collaboratively with teams to design coherent learning sequences that ensure high expectations for all learners. […]

Dr Greg Ashman

Dr Greg Ashman is originally from the UK where he taught in government schools for thirteen years before moving to Ballarat, Australia with his young family. After securing a job at Ballarat Clarendon College, Greg fed a growing fascination with education research, writing a popular blog, now the Filling the Pail Substack newsletter, a number […]

Rozanne Donald

Rozanne Donald is Associate Principal at Rutherford College. She has 25 years’ experience as an educator and senior leader in the tertiary and secondary sectors. In 2019 she was awarded an Aitken Fellowship based at the Centre for Educational Leadership at The University of Auckland. Her leadership approach draws on collaborative complex problem-solving and the […]

Dr Michael Johnston

Dr Michael Johnston has been a Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative since early 2022. He has published numerous reports for the Initiative, on topics including modern learning environments, initial teacher education, AI in education, and industry training. Michael is a cognitive psychologist by training. He has taught in Australian and New Zealand Universities […]

Emeritus Professor James Chapman

James Chapman is Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at Massey University. He received his M.A. with Distinction in Education from Victoria University of Wellington, and his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Alberta. Before working on his PhD, James trained and taught as a secondary school teacher In New Zealand. He joined Massey […]

Lauren Wing

Lauren is a Deputy Principal at Long Bay College, and a co-developer of the Colleges approach to Teaching and Learning: Tino Akoranga. Lauren oversees professional learning at the college where she works to secure pedagogical and leadership development with staff and leaders.

Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin CNZM

Gaven has won fellowships and prizes from almost every international research funding agency in the world received the CNZM for his services to mathematics and education this year.  His research has solved some of mathematics’ most challenging problems, and his advocacy has contributed to a recent transformation of the New Zealand mathematics curriculum. He has […]

Nilesh Naran

Nilesh Naran is the Assistant Principal of Teaching & Learning at Wellington College where he has taught for over a decade. He is also a former student of the school, and teaches English. Over the years, Nilesh has held a number of middle management roles including being the e-Learning specialist, coordinator for beginning teachers, and […]

Dr Helen Walls

Dr Helen Walls is a professional learning facilitator and educational researcher, with twenty years’ experience working in schools. She is committed to raising achievement in writing by sharing evidence-based, practical methods that will engage every student. Helen is Managing Director of The Writing Teacher – a consultancy which provides writing workshops and resources for teachers, […]

Professor Brigid McNeill

Brigid McNeill is a Professor of Education and Dean of Postgraduate Research at the University of Canterbury. She is an internationally recognised researcher in literacy education, with a focus on designing and evaluating evidence-based approaches that can be successfully implemented at scale. Professor McNeill works at the intersection of research, policy, and classroom practice, supporting […]