Welcome to our new staff

We are delighted to welcome our new staff members to the team at Koonung.  Over the next couple of newsletters we hope to introduce our new staff members to the wider Koonung community.  

Shao Chen 

I am a Humanities teacher, specialising in teaching commerce subjects. I would like to share my passion for accounting and business with my students, and to support them to develop good money habits and financial literacy skills.  I am looking forward to meeting the students at Koonung Secondary College.  

Emily Ridgewell 

My name is Emily Ridgwell and I have been appointed as our school's Mental Health Practitioner as part of the Wellbeing Team. My role involves contributing to whole school mental health promotion and prevention activities for students and parents/carers as well as student counselling support. Outside of school, I enjoy playing basketball, volleyball and spending time with my very cheeky dog Maggie. I'm excited to be part of the Koonung Community and I look forward to getting to know all of you across the year.

 Kirsten Paton

Growing up in a rural village in the Philippines highlighted for me the power and value of education as I witnessed how it provided opportunities for families to break the cycle of poverty. 

Since moving to Australia at the age of 10, I have gained immensely from the Australian education system having graduated from a double degree in Science and Commerce, and a Master of Teaching. I am proud to now be contributing to this as a Science and Psychology teacher at Koonung Secondary College. I would like to instill to our students the same values of learning, respect and resilience aligned with Koonung's values. 

Outside of teaching, you'll find me going on adventures with my dog, Spot, and exploring new countries and cities. I am privileged and excited to build relationships with the Koonung community over the coming year

Janna Becker   

I’m Janna Becker. Married to Adam and Mum to 3 quirky and hilarious kids. I’m thrilled to be combining my English teaching role with that of Tutoring under the TLI program. My background is in teaching English, Humanities and in Counselling.

I grew up in London, love travelling, reading and Harry Potter. Over the last 10 years, I’ve been on a ‘break’ as a Stay at Home Mum, and can’t wait to get back into teaching after so long. I actually did my teaching rounds at Koonung many years ago, so it feels like coming home to be back here. I’m looking forward to getting to know this cohort of awesome students, teachers and families.

Shan Chong

Hi, my name is Shan, and I am in the role of Accounts Receivable/Administration.  It is my first experience working in a school, so if I look a bit clueless, please forgive me.  I am a mother to two teen girls, and we also had a Cavoodle puppy join our family at the end last year.   In my downtime, I enjoy spending it with my family, eating nice food and watching Kdramas.