Evidence Informed Teaching

Dr. Shyam Barr is a distinguished school partner, coach, and speaker dedicated to assisting educators in developing students’ metacognition and self-regulated learning skills. Currently, he serves as a Professional Associate at the University of Canberra, co-hosts the “Educate to Self-Regulate” podcast, and was a speaker at TEDx Canberra in 2022. With over 17 years of experience in the education sector, Dr. Barr has contributed significantly as a teacher, educational leader, and researcher. His research focuses on educators’ approaches and practices in fostering self-regulated learning, earning him numerous awards and grants for his outstanding contributions to teaching, research, and professional service in education.

Dr Deborah Price is the President of ACSA – Australian Curriculum Studies Association. As a not-for-profit educational association, ACSA has been sharing, debating and creating educational curriculum scholarship, policy and practice in Australia and beyond for over 40 years. ACSA Website | ACSA LinkedIn.

Dr Price is also Research Degree Coordinator and Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education and Wellbeing at the University of South Australia Education Futures and is the Portfolio Lead: Partnerships on the executive of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI).

Dr Price’s research, teaching and scholarship span inclusive education and wellbeing which advocate capability and codesign approaches, valuing the diversity and voice of young people. Her current research contributes to the broad themes of social justice and equity, with a particular focus on: disability studies and special education; inclusive education; learner, educator and community wellbeing; youth studies; relationships and identity; bullying and cyberbullying; alternative education; culturally and religiously responsive pedagogies; inclusive curriculum; initial teacher education; and educational influence. 

Dr Price led the Youthworx South Australia initiative in collaboration with local councils and not for profit organizations focused on Re-engaging youth in learning and employment through the creative art of film-making. Deb Price has also been a Chief Investigator for Commissioned Research including Teacher Wellbeing for the Australian Independent Schools Association, New South Wales. Further bio here

Anna Owen is the current Principal of Sunshine Coast Grammar School. She graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science, completed a Masters of Science (Distinction), an intensive management course at Stanford University in the USA, the AICD Company Director’s course and is currently completing her MBA.

Anna has experience working on Boards and Executive committees, serving on the Association of the Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) board, the Buderim Foundation board, Chair of the Buderim Youth Committee and previously as Deputy Chair on the Australian Independent Schools ACT board, the Gabriel Foundation Board, and the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL) Executive Committee. She is a member of the Sunshine Coast Biosphere Community Advisory Group (CAG) within the Sunshine Coast region – a UNESCO designated Biosphere.

Prior Senior Executive roles Anna has held include Principal/CEO of Canberra Girls Grammar and Deputy Principal at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. Anna has been recognised for her teaching, leadership and innovative approach. She was awarded Sunshine Coast Professional Business Woman of the Year in 2023 (and named as a Finalist for Sustainable Business Woman of the Year). Anna was voted as one of the Sunshine Coast and Noosa’s most influential people in 2023, and was also selected as one of the top 20 educational leaders in 2021 and 2023, as listed inThe Australian Educator’s Hot List. Anna’s skills, passions and demonstrated experience and expertise have led her to her most recent achievement; an invitation to attend and present at the UNESCO Global Inclusive Schools Forum at the UNESCO

Lynda is Deputy Principal, Educational Leadership – Academic at Melbourne Girls Grammar School.  Lynda has over 20 years of experience in all-girls’ education, and was formerly Deputy Principal at Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School, including Ipswich Junior Grammar School. She was previously Dean of Studies at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School, one of Queensland’s highest achieving girls’ schools. During Queensland’s trial of ATAR processes, Lynda was a Project Officer in the assessment branch of Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (English and History), Master of Education, and a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration. 

Lynda’s educational philosophy is focused on engaging students with learning opportunities that extend the boundaries of how they imagine their futures, as well as deepening their understanding of themselves, others, and the situations they encounter. As a leader, Lynda is committed to developing people and organisational culture, she has contributed to professional publications including the Australian Educational Researcher and has presented research in the field of Institutional Logics and Curriculum at conferences for the Australian Association for Research in Education, and the Australian Teacher Educator’s Association. She is an accredited assessor of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers. She previously served on the events committee for the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, Queensland branch. Lynda is co-author of a series of Essential English textbooks published by Cambridge University Press. Lynda has a husband and three teenage children.

Caitlin Grant is the Junior School Enrichment Coordinator at Oran Park Anglican College (P-12). She began her teaching career at Oran Park Anglican as a beginning teacher, and has over her time there worked as full-time and part-time capacities. In her current role, she is working on a number of projects, including coaching teachers in how to bring research-based enrichment strategies to their classrooms to cater for the needs of Highly Capable and Gifted learners, design in-house and interschool enrichment workshops and experiences, and also lead staff in inquiry-based practices to support their pedagogical strategies in their diverse classrooms. She also works at Australian Catholic University as an assessment marker for various B. Ed Primary units, and also as a sessional academic teaching preservice teachers History & Geography for the Primary Years, with a focus on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Dr Merinda Bermingham is recognised for her expertise in empowering education and critical thinking. She has served in departmental leadership in Middle and Senior Schools at Haileybury, and currently serves as Head of Teaching and Learning in the Senior School. Merinda holds degrees in philosophy, comparative literature, dance, and education from Monash University, including a PhD in Philosophy of Education specialising in the nature of critical thinking and implications for its development in Australian educational settings. She is published by Monash University, in Idiom and Creative Education.

In her current role, Merinda leads academic programs across a diverse range of academic departments over five campuses, and in collaboration with operations in the Northern Territory, China and throughout Asia. Under her stewardship and across her leadership experience, she has cultivated ambitious, inspired, deeply collegial teams and overseen some of the School’s highest historical levels of attainment. She has been instrumental in leading significant change and evolutions across Haileybury’s Senior School operations.

Merinda is driven by an unwavering conviction in the potential of education to empower students to author their lives and worlds. Her mission remains to contribute in the most significant way available toward a democratic, agentic and justice-building education for the empowerment of students and a better world. In her spare time, she writes poetry and insists on pretending she can ride horses.

As Director of Learning and Growth (P-12) at Redlands, Ben Castelli focuses on fostering connection, self-awareness, and collective efficacy within the school community. He has played a key role in initiatives that combine both quantitative and qualitative data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of student performance and wellbeing with the aim to improve professional learning and practice.

Dr Merinda Bermingham is recognised for her expertise in empowering education and critical thinking. She has served in departmental leadership in Middle and Senior Schools at Haileybury, and currently serves as Head of Teaching and Learning in the Senior School. Merinda holds degrees in philosophy, comparative literature, dance, and education from Monash University, including a PhD in Philosophy of Education specialising in the nature of critical thinking and implications for its development in Australian educational settings. She is published by Monash University, in Idiom and Creative Education.

In her current role, Merinda leads academic programs across a diverse range of academic departments over five campuses, and in collaboration with operations in the Northern Territory, China and throughout Asia. Under her stewardship and across her leadership experience, she has cultivated ambitious, inspired, deeply collegial teams and overseen some of the School’s highest historical levels of attainment. She has been instrumental in leading significant change and evolutions across Haileybury’s Senior School operations.

Merinda is driven by an unwavering conviction in the potential of education to empower students to author their lives and worlds. Her mission remains to contribute in the most significant way available toward a democratic, agentic and justice-building education for the empowerment of students and a better world. In her spare time, she writes poetry and insists on pretending she can ride horses.