Hello, I’m Jackie, I grew up in England and always wanted to teach. My mother tells stories of how I would ‘play’ school at home with my siblings and I was always the teacher.
Growing up I had a fascination with machines, especially cars. My love of fast cars led to sponsorship from a Fiat distributor in the South East of England and the opportunity to compete as a rally car driver.
I was able to work with engines; rebuilding them, then driving and competing with the best in England. I often spoke on radio, appeared on TV and had the pleasure of meeting Princess Anne, a fellow motor sport enthusiast. This part of my life was naturally a huge hit with my students, especially having a Scalextic Model Racing Track in my classroom!
Travelling has also been a big part of my life, my husband David and I have been fortunate to see many wonderful countries. We lived in the Solomon Islands for a number of years where I taught at an International School and led a very active life of scuba diving, water skiing, choreographing for musical performances and my rally driving skills were put to good use as a volunteer driver for the Red Cross.
I continued my passion for teaching after moving to Australia by completing more study and becoming a primary school Deputy Principal. Shortly after our first daughter was born I started my own business providing a program for mothers and babies to learn how to ‘play’ together and learn together.
Learning never stops and seeing a challenge or a problem to solve allows my ‘tinkering’, ‘fixing’ and ‘making’ to kick in. Being a Teacher Librarian for the last 15 years has been extremely rewarding, taking that love of constructivist pedagogy into a Makerspace and learning Robotics and Coding.
I continue to learn through tinkering, making and ‘playing’…..life is FUN!