Teach For Australia’s 2021 Impact For Equity webinar series will launch on September 22, 2021 with a special presentation from Berry Street’s Dr Tom Brunzell and a panel discussion on how teachers can support students with trauma-aware practices in the classroom.
Impact For Equity is an annual online speakers series organised by Teach For Australia (TFA) and open to everyone with an interest in working for educational equity.
Dr Brunzell is Director of Education at Berry Street and is an experienced teacher, school leader, researcher and education advisor. His presentation will focus on what schools need to do right now to support all students who have experienced collective trauma and chronic stress caused by the pandemic.
“Trauma-informed strategies benefit all students and every teacher, in every classroom, in every school. We have hope because we know what we can do right now: establish strengths based classrooms that support all students to thrive,” Dr Brunzell said.
Following Dr Brunzell’s presentation, guests Tom Cain, Meredith Barclay and Keita Matsumoto will join host Liam Wood (TFA Alumnus C2011) for a panel Q&A, taking questions from the audience.
Tom Cain is the Assistant Principal at Monterey Secondary College in Melbourne. He began his teaching career in regional Victoria in 2014 in TFA’s Leadership Development Program, and completed TFA’s Teach To Lead program in 2016.
Meredith Barclay is a Lead Teacher at the Berry Street School in Ballarat, in regional Victoria. She is a 2020 Alumna of Teach For Australia’s Teach to Lead program.
Keita Matsumoto is the Partnership Manager at Our Place (Morwell) with the Colman Education Foundation. He is an Alumni of the Leadership Development Program (2016) and Teach To Lead (2018), and a board member of TFA and Kindred Spirits Foundation.
TFA Community and Partnership Director Briannon McLoughlin said the Impact For Equity series was an initiative to share ideas and stories about what is currently creating positive impacts for educational equity in Australian classrooms.
“Two of our values at TFA are ‘Get There Together’ and ‘Celebrate Along the Way’. The Impact for Equity series was developed in response to requests from our TFA community to hear more from people we collaborate with, who are leading the way in this work, and to reflect and celebrate with them about what’s working and what we are all learning.
“We welcome everyone in the education community – teachers, school leaders, sector stakeholders, parents and community members – to join this session and we hope you’ll walk away inspired with big ideas as well as practical tips and takeaways that can positively impact the young people you know and work with.”
Creating Trauma-informed Strengths Based Classrooms starts at 7pm AEST on Wednesday, September 22. The event is free. Register to receive the Zoom Webinar link.
