Welcome new staff - part 2

Elizabeth Brown

Since graduating as a Secondary School Teacher in England in 2008, Elizabeth has worked with students from prep to Year 12 and has taught a number of different subjects. She has a huge passion for students gaining vital work related skills and is a hands on teacher who genuinely wants the best for every individual. 

Elizabeth can’t wait to teach Food Studies at Northcote High School because one of the things she enjoys most in life is food, probably a little too much! Elizabeth has traveled to some amazing places and tasted an array of delicious cuisines, with Italian, Indian and Thai being 3 of her favourites. 

Elizabeth has been a VCAL Teacher and Year 10 Coordinator for the last two years in a small school so is really excited about being surrounded by lots of students and staff in a big school and getting to know everyone. It’s probably the thing she is a little apprehensive about too! 

Catching up with friends and going to reformer Pilates, swimming and sunny beach walks are activities that Elizabeth likes to do as frequently as possible. 

Rachel Carey

Rachel is a maths and psychology teacher from New Zealand - initially she taught maths and dance for a couple of years in a high school in Auckland. After taking a break to travel around Central and North America, she moved to Melbourne at the start of last year to complete her Masters in Education Policy at Melbourne Uni. Student relationships, inquiry learning, and being culturally responsive are important parts of her teaching. 

When Rachel isn’t teaching, she can be found listening to music, dancing, and enjoying music, art, and food with her friends. Rachel is really looking forward to joining the inquisitive, collaborative, and culturally rich community at Northcote. 

Stephen Hodder

For most of Steve’s teaching career he has taught within state schools, however, he has also taught English in a tiny village in northern Japan. It snowed for five months of the year and so he had no choice but to learn to ski. When it was not snowing, he liked to fish. Steve has only skied a few times since he left Japan but continues to fish, especially casting a fly for wily trout.

Steve has also taught literacy to automotive students at Kangan TAFE even though he knows next to nothing about cars or their engines. The majority of his career has been teaching History and English, the last four years at Lilydale High School and before that at Whittlesea Secondary College. 

Steve’s favourite aspect of teaching is working with others, whether to achieve specific learning goals or just contributing to the growth of peoples' skills for life beyond the schoolyard. His least favourite aspect of teaching is the bell, it always seem to interrupt something good. 

Steve is looking forward to teaching Humanities and English and getting to know everyone at Northcote High School throughout 2019. 

Joanne Foley

After resisting teaching as a career for many years, Joanne finally succumbed and wishes she’d done it sooner. She loves the challenges and the problem solving that each day brings, and loves working with young people to share her passion for her subjects, English and Psychology. 

Joanne taught at Pascoe Vale Girls College for the past five years. She was also the student leadership coordinator, which was a wonderful opportunity to empower and support students to develop their leadership capabilities and for them to find out what they could achieve.

On the weekend Joanne might be found sipping coffee in a local café, or doing chin ups in the park. For the past four years she has been taking aerial circus lessons to have fun, be creative and stay fit and strong. Her ongoing struggle to learn a two-legged monkey roll on trapeze, to get her splits flat or to put together a sequence for a performance helps her to see learning from a student perspective; the effort to understand instruction, the courage to take risks, the resilience required to keep going, and the sense of satisfaction when you accomplish your goals. She is still trying for a solid handstand.

Joanne is excited to be joining such an innovative school that has a wonderful warmth and sense of excitement. She is looking forward to getting to know the school community and to being able to ride to work. 

Mark Wilson

Mark was born and grew up in a small town in North Island NZ .He studied teaching and taught for one year before doing a 5 year OE following the ski seasons around. He met his wife in America - the two of them went to Perth WA for a windsurfing holiday and left 10 years later with a container and two daughters. He spent the next seventeen years in a coastal resort in NZ. Mark’s youngest daughter started university this year so to avoid the empty nest syndrome they decided to do another stint overseas. His wife was offered a job at RMIT online so they moved to Melbourne. Last year, Mark completed a one year contract at Simonds Catholic College in North Melbourne. 

Mark is a keen runner and used to compete in marathons but now restricts himself to 5 and 10 km runs, also enjoying some of the long hikes Victoria’s parks offer. Mark is looking forward to joining Northcote High School as it seems very similar to the school he taught at in NZ.