Sydney, Thursday, 18 May 2023: Is our secondary education at risk of becoming second rate? Have we focused too much on new trends in education while neglecting the basics? Can we reverse our trajectory in international rankings by returning to fundamentals and laying better foundations?
To help uncover some of the challenges and opportunities in Australia’s secondary education sector and navigate the way forward, the Ramsay Centre is delighted to present our fifth Ramsay Lecture event for 2023: a live, in-person panel discussion comprising some of Australia’s leading educational experts and educators.
In what is sure to be a spirited and thought-provoking discussion, our panel will delve into the pressing issues, trends, and innovations that, for better or worse, are shaping Australian secondary education today. They will then propose practical solutions for moving forward.
The panel will comprise Elena Douglas, CEO Knowledge Society, Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith, Head of Learning and Teaching at PLC Sydney, and Elizabeth Stone, Principal of Queenwood School. The discussion will be guided by Ramsay Centre CEO Professor Simon Haines.
Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in this vital discussion on the future of Australian secondary education. Join us at The Gallery Room, The State Library of New South Wales, Macquarie Street, Sydney on Tuesday 30 May 2023 from 5:30pm – 7:30pm. To attend register your interest at: ramsayevents@ramsaycentre.org
Speaker biographies:
Elena Douglas, CEO Knowledge Society
Elena Douglas is the founder and CEO of Knowledge Society, a social purpose business that designs and delivers school improvement and research to impact programs for Australian schools, universities, and research institutes. Elena has led the establishment of Advance Global Australians in New York, as well as the Centre for Social Impact at the University of Western Australia (UWA), the In the Zone Conference series, and the Faith and Globalisation Initiative, a partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Elena’s perspective is shaped by her career as an economist, entrepreneur, and historian. She teaches Philanthropy at the UWA Business School and researches 18th and 19th century conceptions of virtue, economics and ethics.
Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith, Head of Learning and Teaching, PLC Sydney
Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith has taught English in secondary English schools for over twenty years. She has taught in government and independent schools and has taught in co-ed, boys’, and girls’ schools, enjoying all of these spaces to teach and learn. Sarah has published work on literary theory and its relationship to pedagogy, the new rhetoric as a new theoretical space to occupy, Shakespeare in the classroom, Gwen Harwood’s poetry and theological considerations for the teacher. Her abiding interest is in the importance of the classroom as both a civic and holy space, where truth is both made and discovered.
Elizabeth Stone, Principal Queenwood School
Ms Stone is Principal of Queenwood School. She sits on several boards, including the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation and the Association of Independent Schools NSW. She took up a Rhodes Scholarship in 1998 and completed her master’s at University College, Oxford. She later moved into teaching and taught Mathematics first in Sydney and then in the UK. She returned to Australia in 2014 to take up the role of Principal at Queenwood and will return to the UK in September 2023 as Head of Winchester College, the first woman to hold this position in its 640-year history.
Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098/ sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org