Meet Our Team
Kintara Phillips
I have been a Secondary English teacher for over 20 years and I love working with teenagers. My passion for gifted education started with my own parenting journey and a recognition that the gifted children in my classroom deserved more than I was able to offer. This led to a Graduate Certificate which quickly became a Masters in Gifted Education from UNSW.
I have taken a step out of the daily classroom as I believe the best way I can improve gifted education for more students is through supporting teachers to understand and cater to their diverse learning needs.
As well as consulting with schools and teachers directly, I also work with pre-service teachers where I have the opportunity to impact the future generations of teachers. I provide educational mentoring to a small number of gifted home-school students and work with their families in a range of ways.
In 2021 I have returned to study, embarking on a Psychology degree. In time, I hope to qualify as a clinical psychologist and be able to offer Educational Assessments to our families.
Kintara’s academic areas of expertise are English and Literature include VCE.
Emily Keegan
I began my teaching career in 2011, and I have worked in a range of government, independent and Catholic schools over the last 10 years. In 2018 I gave birth to my daughter, and this shifted my view of education – we were always working towards an assessment, a score, a product. I felt as teachers we often had to say ‘no’ to things by default – why was this?
This led me to search for something more as a teacher – how could I be more accommodating and move to ‘yes’ being the default? I wanted to support my students to navigate the challenges of school so that they were free to not only be kids, but also explore the world – what better time to learn for the sake of learning, celebrate thinking and creativity, instead of just striving for the magic ATAR number.
I have completed a Graduate Certificate of Child, Youth and Family therapy and I am Mental Health First Aid qualified, so that I feel equipped to tackle difficult conversations and provide a more wholistic approach to working with young people.
My approach to working with your young person is to look at the goals that you share as a family. I work with students who find school challenging and need a guide and mentor to navigate secondary school. I want to be your young persons’ cheerleader – the person who is on their team when they might feel like the world is out to get them.
Emily’s academic areas of expertise are VCE Psychology, Humanities 7-10 and 7-10 English.
Tom Sharkie
Tom is a VIT registered teacher, Food Scientist, Bio-Chemist, and Languages expert. He is fluent in Latin, Ancient Greek, Japanese and Chinese, plus dabbling with other languages. He loves gardening, especially with plants he can cook or turn into poison (he has promised not to teach the children this).
Emma Donaldson
With over 20 years of experience in both public and private school systems, Emma enjoys working with primary and lower secondary students.
Her passions include empowering student voice, supporting wellbeing, promoting Indigenous curriculum, and fostering literacy. Emma firmly believes that by understanding the whole child—how they learn best and what their interests are—great learning will follow.
Emma’s two teenagers have diverse learning needs spanning neurodiversity and disability, and her Corgi, Queenie, is convinced she is descended from royalty.
Jack
Jack is currently studying for his Master's of Teaching Practice (Secondary). He recently completed his undergraduate in Global Business and has run a small manufacturing and electronics business for over 7 years now. Jack also started and completed 3 years of an Engineering degree in Advanced Manufacturing but deferred this to pursue a degree in education.
Jack has extensive experience in 3D Printing, 3D modelling, computer design, and advanced manufacturing processes. He also has an interest in teaching physics, science and maths. He also has a passion for business, entrepreneurship and global supply chains.
Jack's sessions usually revolve around STEM and involve electronics and circuits, 3D Printing, physics design and chemistry. He enjoys collaborating with students to develop personalised learning plans that leverage their existing interests and knowledge while expanding their understanding through practical and hands-on experiments.