Sense of Place Workshops

Roni Forrest is the Coordinator of the program. Roni is a Menang-Ngadu woman who comes from south east coast of WA.

Through her role, Roni supports the students throughout their secondary schooling education and onto training/employment of further study.  It involves working with school-based personnel and the students themselves, providing a broad range of support to all schools in assisting them in understanding the full range of opportunities available for schools and Indigenous students by linking them through various Government and Non-Government services.

Roni is passionate about her work, particularly in supporting Aboriginal students to be culturally strong in order to fit into the boarding school system and complete school with a graduation certificate. It is through this work and high level of commitment that resulted in her recently being awarded a Certificate in Education Excellence by the Australian Council of Education Leadership.

Roni has an amazing comprehensive, far reaching, in-depth knowledge of the Aboriginal community of WA and in particular of the south west and mid-west regions. She has extensive experience working in all sectors of the wider community, be it with the Government sector, at local, State and/or Commonwealth/Federal levels; the Non-Government private sector and wider community organisations.

Maree Whiteley works with teachers and curriculum leaders to bring innovative and practical pedagogies into the classroom, through special projects and whole-school planning. Currently working as an AISWA Consultant in the Primary Teaching and Learning area, with specific expertise within the Humanities and Social Sciences Learning Area, this gives Maree the perfect platform to go beyond the curriculum, exploring areas of global imperatives for our young people, such as ethical and humanitarian issues, critical thinking and cultural competence. Maree continues to enjoy sharing her experience, knowledge and expertise with others in workshops, conferences and in online forums.

Kate Reitzenstein has worked as Consultant for Languages of the Association of Independent Schools of WA since 2014. She organises professional development activities and provides advice to schools and teachers on policy, curriculum and resources. Prior to this role, Kate worked as an Indonesian language teacher for fifteen years at three secondary schools, with experience using the Curriculum Framework and the Middle Years Program and Diploma Program of the International Baccalaureate curriculum. She has worked as an EFL/ESL teacher in Australia and abroad, and has had experience as an International Student Coordinator and at establishing overseas school partnerships and in-country study tours. Kate places importance on effective language teaching methodology and the need to link theory to practice in the Languages classroom.

Pat Kershaw is a Literacy/English Consultant and has been with AISWA since 2009. She has taught at primary, secondary (English) and tertiary levels and has been involved in many research projects within the university sector and within AISWA, with a focus on literacy in cross-curricular and collaborative projects, which model approaches that teachers can take in the classroom. Her main areas of interest are writing, grammar, oral language and literacy across the curriculum. She works with teachers of literacy and/or English from P-10, as well as principals and teacher teams across WA to support schools with literacy requirements.