Valerie Campbell-Hogg is the founder and CEO of Silkwood School, a school in the hinterland of the Gold Coast in Australia that approaches learning differently. With a background in business and personal development, and when her two young children were of school age, finding an inspiring educational experience seemed difficult, and so Valerie set up her own school. From humble beginnings in 1999 with 2 students in a rented house, Silkwood School now has over 600 students from Prep to Year 12 and they've built their own educational model. 

Valerie Campbell-Hogg - Building an education model from scratch

The Educhange Podcast is for the doers in schools, people who are coming up with ideas to make things better for kids

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Beth is currently the Technologies and Innovation Specialist at Coomera Anglican College, and previously worked with ACARA, and was responsible for the implementation of Australian Curriculum in Digital technologies for the North Queensland cluster of schools.  We spoke with Beth earlier in the year about about how we teach technologies well, what is happening at Coomera Anglican College, and about her experiences of working with ACARA.

Beth Claydon - Teaching technologies well

Last week, the Victorian Government announced a school banking ban over accusations the banks were using inappropriate tactics in the programs. With calls for other states to follow, this week on The Educhange Podcast we're talking about financial literacy. We're joined by Fiona Guthrie, the Chief Executive of Financial Counselling Australia, and we discuss how we, as educators, can be be preparing our students for the real world. 

Financial Literacy with Fiona Guthrie

Tony Vallance is a Learning Specialist at Lilydale High School. Tony is passionate about bridging the gap between theory and practice, and developing learning opportunities rooted in the real world with practical applications. In this episode, we talk to Tony about STEAMWorks - a tech learning space he created at the school. We also hear about Tony's mantra in education. 

Engaging students in STEAM with Tony Vallance

Our guest today is Phil Cummins. Phil an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Tasmania, an integral part of the School for Tomorrow and the managing director of the Circle Education group.  The collective conversation this week is: 'Do we spend enough time educating for our students' character?' Charles chats with Phil about character education pedagogy and how we embed character education into all the learning and teaching that’s going on at our school.

Dr Philip SA Cummins on Character Education

Our guest today is Yasodai Selvakumaran. Yaso is a Humanities Teacher and Relieving Head Teacher in Professional Practice at Rooty Hill High School in Sydney’s west. In 2019 Yaso was named as one of the world’s top 10 teachers in the Global Teacher Prize, an award that recognises exceptional teachers who have made outstanding contributions to the teaching profession. In this episode, we talk about why we teach, and what is it that drives our teaching philosophy. You're also going to hear from a few EC community members who shared with us why they teach and what drives them.   Join our collective conversations on our socials to join the conversation. 

Valerie Campbell-Hogg - Building an education model from scratch

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