Viviane Robinson is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland and Academic Director of its Centre for Educational Leadership, which has delivered the national induction programme for new school leaders for the last 10 years.

Viviane also leads the Leadership Research Group at the Faculty, which carries out research that covers a broad range of issues in school leadership, educational policy and leadership skills, particularly interpersonal leadership skills that are crucial to effective leadership.

Viviane specialises in school improvement, leadership and the relationship between research and the improvement of practice. She is the author of five books and numerous chapters and journal articles. Her latest book entitled “Student-Centred Leadership” an evidence-based account of how school leaders can make a bigger difference to student outcomes and the knowledge and skills they need to do so.

Viviane has consulted on leadership development and research to government agencies and organisations in England, Singapore, Chile, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Over the last four years she has been running professional development courses in Open-to-LearningTM and conferences on student-centred leadership in Denmark and Norway.

Viviane has received awards from national and international professional organisations including the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and the New Zealand Secondary Principals Association. She is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association for sustained excellence in educational research.

Over the last year, Viviane has been made an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit for her services to education and won the University of Auckland’s Vice Chancellor’s Medal for Excellence in Research Commercialization. She has also been appointed by the New Zealand Minister of Education as an expert adviser to the OECD conference on the education profession and assigned as one of nine national judges of the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards.

Professor Stephen Dinham OAM PhD is Associate Dean Strategic Partnerships and Professor of Instructional Leadership in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.

Stephen Dinham taught in government secondary schools in NSW before being appointed in 1989 to the University of Western Sydney where he held a number of positions including Head of the Department of Curriculum Studies, Associate Dean (Postgraduate) and Associate Professor. In 2002 he took up a position as Professor of Teacher Education, Pedagogy and Professional Development at the University of New England. In 2005 he took up the position of Professor of Educational Leadership and Pedagogy at the University of Wollongong. In 2007 he took up the position of Research Director of the Teaching, Learning and Leadership research program at the Australian Council for Educational Research. He took up his present position at the University of Melbourne at the beginning of 2011.

He has conducted a wide range of research projects (more than 75 funded in excess of $10,000,000) in the areas of educational leadership and change, effective pedagogy/quality teaching, student achievement, postgraduate supervision, professional teaching standards, teachers' professional development, middle-level leaders in schools, and teacher satisfaction, motivation and health. He has an extensive publication record (more than 340 publications) of books, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and articles in professional journals. He is a frequent presenter at international, national and state conferences (over 520 presentations) and has conducted consultancies with a wide range of educational bodies nationally and internationally.

He is a past president of the Australian College of Educators (2014-15) and past president of NSW Branch of ACE (2000-02). In November 2011 he was appointed to the Council of the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Dinham is a recipient of the following awards:

• Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (1999)
• Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Administration (2000)
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (2002)
• Sir Harold Wyndham Medal (ACE NSW 2005)
• National Carrick Australian Award for University Teaching - Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2006) “For pivotal leadership in the teaching profession, linking teaching educators, professional bodies and practitioners through his research, award structures (QTA) and policy guidance on key committees.”
• Sir James Darling Medal (ACE Victoria 2010)
• Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “For service to educational research, and to professional associations” (2011)
• Ann D Clark Medallion, Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta (2011).
• Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship, Robert Bosch Foundation, Germany (2014).

Dr Simon Breakspear is known internationally for helping educational leaders navigate complex change, harness research evidence and drive continuous improvement for better learning.

Simon is the Founder and Executive Director of Agile Schools, which equips educator teams with the research, routines and tools they need to drive improvement and innovation. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales, and Research Fellow of the Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at The Education University of Hong Kong.

Simon holds Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Teaching, a Masters of International and Comparative Education from the University of Oxford and a PhD in education from the University of Cambridge. Simon began his work in education as a high school teacher in Sydney.

Simon will be speaking about 'Agile Implementation for Learning'.

Agile Implementation for Learning
Improving learning and teaching in the complex-relational environments of schools is rarely a simple, linear process. Agile implementation is a dynamic approach to leading change that enables leadership teams to create impact despite the increased complexity and ambiguity that they face in their roles. By building confidence in the Agile framework and tools, executive leadership teams will develop the capacity to engage in iterative cycles of improvement, as they work to change the learning and life outcomes of their students.

Eddie Woo is arguably the most famous teacher in Australia: a maths teacher by day and an internet sensation by night. He started posting videos online in 2012 for a student who was sick with cancer and missing a lot of school.

Other students in the class then wanted to watch Mr Woo's videos on his free YouTube channel and website, so he started sharing them across the country and beyond.

Wootube now boasts more than 38,000 subscribers and has attracted almost 4 million views worldwide — and counting.

"I did some rough back-of-the-envelope calculations, as a maths teacher would, and if you add it up, that's about 11 million minutes of people sitting there watching me run around in front of my whiteboard explaining concepts to my classes, which is just mind-boggling!" Mr Woo said.

Businessman, benefactor and author of the much-quoted Gonski report into education reforms, David Gonski, is a big fan.

He was a judge for this year's Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards and said Mr Woo's application was a standout.

"There is no doubt that Eddie is conquering any fears of mathematics, making it something that we can all aspire to, and allowing it to be the brain matter, the fodder for the future," Mr Gonski said.

He said his own life was changed by a couple of inspirational teachers, and he believed Mr Woo would also change the lives of students both in the Cherrybrook classroom and online.

"I would say that my maths career was in two parts — prior to meeting a wonderful teacher, and when I got a teacher who helped me not be tentative anymore. Then, the world became my oyster," he said.

Cherrybrook Technology High School principal Gary Johnson said Mr Woo was helping address a chronic shortage of maths teachers in Australia, and making maths popular again.

As recently as April 2018, Eddie was a top ten finalist in the Global Teacher Prize. Still in front of students each week, Eddie has been seconded to School Operations and Performance as the Leader, Mathematics Growth.