2022 Masters of Education

Valerie Gould became the Executive Director of the Association of Independent Schools of WA in July 2008. She has worked for many years in the Western Australian education system with her first four years teaching Economics and Mathematics. The following seven years were spent working in New York with Ernst and Young, and being greatly involved in the introduction of microcomputer applications into business. She returned to WA in 1986 as Director of Computing at St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School for seven years.

During the early 1990s she worked with the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (at the time the Secondary Education Authority) for four and a half years before joining AISWA as the Manager of Curriculum and Australian Government Targeted Programs. She has been with AISWA for more than 10 years and has worked closely with schools and other stakeholders in the areas of curriculum change, Curriculum Framework and Senior Secondary Education; and in meeting government regulations from a national and state perspective. Valerie has a Bachelor of Economics and a Diploma of Education, and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and the Australian Council for Educational Leadership.

Lynne joined the Inclusive Education team at AISWA in April 2017 where her roles have included Inclusive Education Consultant, Inclusive Education Coordinator, and currently Consultant - Child Protection.  She brings experience in filling various roles within schools, particularly in the areas of disability and leadership. During her time as Principal, Lynne has been passionate about creating an inclusive school culture and community, and quality teaching and learning. She has been involved in supporting and mentoring school leaders, and school registration, particularly in child protection and disabilities. 

Lynne currently provides support to all AISWA schools in child safety and child protection. She is the AISWA contact in assisting inquiries related to child abuse including mandatory reporting and works with other child safe /child protection agencies. 

Therese has worked at AISWA for a number of years, previously in the Aboriginal Schools Support Unit and in the administration of a Commonwealth funding program for the CGA. 

Since 2014 Therese has worked in the area of school registration and compliance, which involves supporting schools with their renewal of registration process and assisting all member schools with queries related to school registration and compliance with the Registration Standards and Requirements. Therese works in this role alongside her colleague, Gary Robinson.  When not visiting schools she and Gary are a contact point for school compliance queries and are involved in presentation delivery, school constitution review, the development, review and maintenance of policy and procedure guidelines, governance guidelines, production of the Registration and Compliance Focus newsletter and other documentation associated with registration and compliance.

After graduating with a Bachelor in Science (Chemistry) and a Diploma in Education Gary started teaching in 1979 as a science teacher at Norseman District High School. After teaching for 9 years in Department of Education schools in a range of subjects including Chemistry and Physics he moved to Albany, with his family, where for the next 20 years he taught at Bethel Christian School. He was Principal of the school for his last 8 years in Albany. From Albany Gary and his wife moved to Esperance to teach at Wongutha CAPS, a boarding school for Aboriginal students. Gary was offered and accepted a position at AISWA in 2007.

Gary’s first role at AISWA was to support the Aboriginal Independent Community Schools (AICS) as they took on older students as a consequence of the raising of the student leaving age. Gary then worked in the newly created Policy and Registration space for a few years before taking on the management of the AICS support team. Since 2013 Gary has been back as a consultant in the Registration and Compliance area where he works alongside Sarah Kennedy.

Deb Martin is an Early Childhood Consultant with AISWA who has been working in Early Childhood classrooms since 2006. Her area of expertise and school support is in the area of high quality play based pedagogies, guiding young children's behaviours, Early Childhood literacy and the On-entry assessment. Her work also includes supporting leaders and in particular, their educators, in pedagogical change and embedding evidence based appropriate pedagogies including play-based and inquiry pedagogies and Reggio Emilia inspired practice. Other areas Deb presents in include; helping educators gain a deep understanding about the ever changing neuroscience and recent research related to young children and how this can be translated into high quality classroom practice, looking at the high quality interactions between children and their educators including sustained shared thinking. Due to Deb’s recent experience in the classroom, her practical experiences and rich stories help educators see the possibilities of high quality practice, including a guidance approach to managing behaviour and supporting self-regulation.

Ron is Deputy Director of AISWA. He has extensive experience in teaching and leading a diversity of schools in WA and Victoria.  Ron manages innovative programmes and university partnerships for AISWA. He is a member of the Global Educators Leaders Partnership and has been awarded Fellow of Australian Council of Educational Leadership (WA). Ron is also past-Chair of the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation, advocating for Australian authors and illustrators and working closely with the Australian Children’s Laureate.