Description
Briefing the Board is AISWA's annual conference for school governors and school leaders. Keynotes and workshops cover a range of issues relevant to leading schools from the perspective of governors and school leadership. Conference presentations will include keynotes on governance lessons co-presented by Ms Diane Smith-Gander and Mr Mark Paganin, creating healthy learning environments for young people presented by Sir John Jones (UK) and a presentation by Ms Valerie Gould on government funding and legislative arrangements for Independent Schools. Workshops will cover school finances, legal and industrial issues, school registration and compliance, catering for diverse student populations, ICT and working in a digital age, risk and resilience... among other topics.
Presenters
Valerie Gould (AISWA Staff)
Executive Director
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.
Ron Gorman (AISWA Staff)
Deputy Director
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.
Gary Robinson (AISWA Staff)
Registration And Compliance Consultant
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.
Therese Bamford (AISWA Staff)
Registration And Compliance Consultant
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.
Peter Crosbie (AISWA Staff)
Assistant Director
Peter Crosbie was appointed Assistant Director in January 2016. This leadership role includes developing AISWA’s capability in STEM and learning technologies and working effectively with teachers and other stakeholders across the state.
Peter has a professional engineering qualification and has extensive industrial and business experience which includes working for defence establishments and a variety of engineering consultancies.
He has worked for many years in the Western Australian education system including 12 years at Hale School as a teacher and Head of Technology. Whilst at Hale School for more than seven years, Peter was an Adjunct Lecturer in Design and Technology at Edith Cowan University Perth. He has been a member of many state and national educational working groups and steering committees. He is the Contact Liaison Officer (CLO) for Scootle in the (WA) Independent School jurisdiction and is responsible for the registration of schools new to Scootle and training of Scootle administrators and teachers.
Claire Sly (AISWA Staff)
Business Manager
Claire joined AISWA in April 2015. She has worked in education over the past 18 years in both primary and secondary schools, predominantly as a science and maths teacher. Since moving to Western Australian in 2010, she has worked in both the Catholic and Independent sector, most recently at a large Independent school as Head of Learning Enrichment. Claire has a First-class honours degree in Chemistry, a Master of Education, specialising in special educational needs and she is currently undertaking a Doctor of Education at UWA, focusing on pedagogy and curriculum.
Nigel Briggs (AISWA Staff)
Industrial And Workplace Relations Consultant
Nicola Davidson (AISWA Staff)
Manager Of Leadership & Teaching Quality
Ian Curlewis
Partner, Lavan
Ian is the lead partner in the employment and safety practice at Lavan. Ian has practised in WA for over 30 years in workplace relations, equal opportunity and school law. Ian conducts reviews for both government agencies and the private sector, assessing the client’s compliance with statutory requirements and general employment law principles. Ian is experienced in drafting, negotiating and interpreting employment contracts and industrial agreements. He represents employers before industrial and equal opportunity commissions and the Courts. He has over a long period managed and advised about the employment aspects of workers’ compensation claims, stress claims and bullying allegations. Ian has extensive experience in advising secondary and tertiary educational establishments on operational issues including sexual harassment, dress codes, privacy and policy issues, keeping of records, duty of care, and workplace safety, child protection statutory compliance and governance. He has advised on the implementation of disciplinary processes and workplace disputes. His clients in the education sector include a large number of Independent and Catholic schools and local universities. Ian is a current member and past Chairman of the AISWA Board. Ian is a member of the Board at John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School and a member of the Teachers Registration Board of Western Australia.
Michael Jensen
Senior Associate, Lavan
Michael is a senior member of the Industrial Relations and Employment Law team at Lavan. Before joining Lavan (which was then Phillips Fox) in 1995 Michael spent 7 years working as an industrial advocate for a major Western Australian employer association. Prior to that he worked as a cartographer with an engineering firm, based both in the office and on site.
Michael advises clients on industrial action, unfair dismissals, employment contracts, enterprise bargaining, equal opportunity matters and discrimination issues. He regularly provides advice in relation to disciplinary and dismissal proceedings and represents employers in State and Federal Industrial Commissions and the Equal Opportunity Commission. He has a thorough understanding of the interrelationship between workers compensation claims and employee relations and has previously represented Risk Cover and other insurers at Work Cover.
Michael has broad-based knowledge and experience in the areas of EEO, employee relations and workers compensation. He provides strategic advice on industrial relations, EEO and workers’ compensation issues to public and private sector organisations.
Diane Smith-Gander
Non-executive Director
Diane Smith-Gander is non-Executive director AGL Energy, Wesfarmers Limited, Chair of Safe Work Australia, Asbestos Safety & Eradication Council, a board member of Keystart Loans, Henry Davis York, CEDA and immediate past President of Chief Executive Women, Australia’s pre-eminent women’s advocacy group.
Diane has held a wide range of non-executive roles in the past including Chairman of Broadspectrum, Deputy Chairperson of NBNCo, non-executive director of the CBH Group, commissioner of Tourism WA and board member of the Committee for Perth.
Diane’s last executive role was Group Executive at Westpac; a member of the leadership team of the corporation, responsible for all Information Technology, back office operations, global vendor management and property. Diane was a General Manager at Westpac for 10 years in the 1990s responsible for back office functions, retail networks and support functions.
Prior to re-joining Westpac Diane was a partner at McKinsey & Company in Washington and New Jersey serving clients in diverse industries globally. Diane became a senior advisor to McKinsey in Australia in 2016.
Diane has been active in sports administration and is a past Chairman of both Basketball Australia Limited, the sport’s peak body, and the Australian Sports Drug Agency, the government agency responsible for deterring the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Diane holds an MBA from the University of Sydney and a BEc from the University of Western Australia (UWA). In 2015 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Economics from UWA. She is a Fellow of the AICD and Governance Institute of Australia and an adjunct professor of corporate governance at UWA where she serves on the advisory
board of the Business School. She is also a Council member of Perth’s Methodist Ladies’ College.
Diane is a keen down-hill skier and operates a vineyard in Margaret River.
Sam Kronja
Director of Finance & Corporate Services, Presbyterian Ladies’ College
Sam has been the Director of Finance & Corporate Services at Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC) since 2007. Currently he is a Board Member of AISWA (since 2011) and Chrysalis Montessori School (since 2014). Previously he was the Business Manager at Corpus Christi College, Bateman, from 2003 to 2006 and was appointed to the Catholic Education Office Finance Committee in 2005 to 2006. He has been on the Board of St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Mt Lawley and a former President and Vice President of the Association of School Business Administrators (ASBA) in Western Australia and also on the National Executive of ASBA.
Sam commenced work with Ernst & Young in 1991 and was admitted as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1994. He has worked in a number of different sectors including mining exploration, entertainment, information technology, managed investments, retail and education. Sam was admitted as Chartered Secretary with Governance Institute in 2002 and admitted as Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management in 2010.
Experiencing a life as a WAFL and AFL field umpire, coach and currently an AFL Match Day Official, has fashioned a ‘thick skin’ that has proved very useful for an accountant working in education.
Sir John Jones
Sir John is one of a small, select band of educational professionals who have not only had their achievements recognised in the New Year’s Honours List (2003), but have been able to help and inspire others with their knowledge and passion. One of the most entertaining, inspiring and sought-after speakers on the global educational stage, his achievements and reputation for straight-talking, leadership and creativity have led him to be invited on to a number of panels and think- tanks.
When Headteacher of three secondary schools over a period of 17 years, he was asked to join the Government’s Policy Action Team for Neighbourhood Renewal at the Social Exclusion Unit. He was also a member of the Headteachers’ National Focus Group on Truancy and Exclusion and the Excellence in Cities Project at the DfES. Sir John was part of the National Remodelling Team and the Leadership and Development Unit sponsored by the National College for School Leadership.
Working part-time at the Centre for Educational Leadership at Manchester University, he presented on a range of programmes as well as designing and delivering a Master’s Course at Liverpool University focused on the leadership of change. A Non-Executive Director on the board of Aintree Hospitals Trust, he was also a Governor of two schools on Merseyside.
Terms & Conditions
Please click here to view our general terms and conditions
Segments
Event Segment
Date / Time
7 Apr 2018 Starts: 08:30 Finishes: 16:30Delivery Format : In Person