Jane has over 15 year’s experience as Executive Assistant to the CEO at several corporations including Emergency Services and UnitingCare.  She consequently has a detailed knowledge of the Uniting Church.  Jane also has extensive function management experience, having run a function centre for over 10 years.

Jane was employed by the Principal as Executive Assistant in 2007 in the very early days of the College’s inception and assisted in the running of many information sessions around the area.  She met with all future families and worked closely with the Acacia College Board to help develop Acacia College from the outset.

During this time, Jane also assisted the Minister of the Mernda Uniting Church, most notably with bushfire support during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.  Jane has a deep knowledge of the journey Acacia College has taken and has been very excited about the families who have shared the journey with her. Jane’s cheery and welcoming manner has encouraged positive connections with all Acacia College families, making her eminently suited to her current position as Registrar.

Jane has a keen interest in photography, art, music and Auslan.   She is also a qualified first aider.  Jane has been a volunteer and committee member with various children’s charities over 20 years including Camp Quality, Challenge, Girl Guides and The Once A Year Club.

Jane is enjoying the role of Registrar and the opportunity to meet future students and families.  Having seen so many wonderful changes, Jane is looking to seeing the school grow and blossom as Acacia College moves beyond its foundation year.

Rebecca knew she was passionate about teaching and completed her Bachelor of Education with distinction at the University of Ballarat majoring in Physical Education. While completing university she worked as a swim teacher along with coordinating a holiday program with the YMCA for primary school aged students. 
 
Since completing university Rebecca accepted a position at Watsonia Heights Primary

School teaching Year 3 and in the last two years has taught at the Year 1 and 2 levels. Rebecca has shown great initiative in her first years of teaching and quickly took on several leadership roles and responsibilities including Junior School Coordinator, Numeracy Coordinator, and Junior School Council Coordinator.

When Rebecca is not working she enjoys swimming in both the pool and in open water events for her local swimming club, where she is Vice President.  She also takes great pleasure organising both swimming and social events.

Rebecca loves teaching and is excited to become part of the Acacia College community.  She is very keen to develop and nurture the students to become lifelong learners where they share the responsibility for their own learning and behaviour.  She feels that that this fundamental aspect of teaching will ensure that all children reach their full potential to become productive members of society with the knowledge, skills and passion to make their world a better place.

Helen completed a Bachelor of Design and Visual Communication at Monash University in 2008, and worked as a freelance graphic designer. She also worked in the hospitality industry.

During this time, she volunteered at an after school program run by Melbourne City Mission providing educational support for underprivileged children. It was here that Helen realised her passion for working with children. Helen then undertook further study and completed a Graduate Diploma in Education, Primary at RMIT.

Since graduating Helen has taught at various schools within the local area, including Independent, Catholic and Government schools teaching Years Prep - 7. This exposure has strengthened her skills in numeracy and literacy teaching; so important for the Early Years. Helen also has experience working with children who have special needs.  

Before securing her position at Acacia College, Helen took the opportunity to travel extensively prior to commencing with us in Term 4 this year.

Helen is now a foundation staff member at Acacia College taking the Year 4 class.  She is very excited about her role and looks forward with enthusiasm to mentoring all the children within her class and making enduring connections with the broader College community.

In her spare time, Helen enjoys furthering her knowledge of education and enjoys travelling and visiting art exhibitions.

Janet Kelso has wanted to teach since she was in Grade 2 and adored her teacher. After graduating from Monash University, she taught in several secondary colleges in country Victoria before leaving teaching to run her own gift business. The call of the classroom was too strong, however, and Janet returned to teaching at Camberwell Anglican Girls Grammar where she taught History, Asian Studies and English to VCE. Janet was appointed to the position of VCE Coordinator at Camberwell and oversaw some outstanding VCE results.

Janet has always loved travelling after being an Exchange Student to the Philippines for a year while still at school. As soon as she completed her schooling she took at job with the Bureau of Statistics to fund her overseas travel. She has travelled extensively through Asia and Europe and worked with a mission hospital in the New Guinea Highlands before returning to Melbourne to complete her tertiary studies in teaching.

A passion for drama saw Janet direct the musical ‘Godspell’ in her second year of teaching and she has been involved in amateur theatre groups both as actor and director. In her early years of teaching Janet was chosen to take part in a Federal Government initiative introducing computers to the Humanities curriculum. This led to a grant for a class set of laptops for her to research the impact of computers in the classroom on student learning and engagement. Janet was instrumental in developing several in-house publishing programs for students and is very excited by the innovative use of technology at Acacia to enhance student learning.

Janet comes to Acacia College from Plenty Valley Christian College where she has held the positions of Head of Humanities and most recently, VCE Coordinator. Janet is looking forward to contributing to the unfolding College journey with Acacia staff and students as we head towards our first Year 12 class of 2015.

Leonie has come to us with an extensive history in education over the last fourteen years where her priority has been to develop education as a strong component of her community. Her focus has been to establish purposeful connections between schools and local communities in recognition that strong partnerships improve outcomes for students.

Leonie has held many senior leadership roles throughout her career, particularly in the area of student welfare and parent connections.  Her keen interest in this area encouraged her to undertake a Masters in Educational Leadership where her focus was to develop a deeper understanding of parent connectedness to secondary schools as a means of improving student engagement and outcomes.

Leonie is a creative ideas person who comes to Acacia College with lots of energy, experience and enthusiasm to develop our Food Technology Centre as an example of excellence within the region. Her understanding of pedagogy and importance to real life applications will allow all children to be competent food practitioners.

Leonie also has a deep understanding of school organisation and will be a great asset in the Daily Organising role of staff within the College.

As a local resident and mother of two adolescents, Leonie is excited about the opportunity of assisting to strengthen Acacia College as the key educational institution in the Mernda region.

Maria is a native speaker of Indonesian and was born and raised in West Java, Indonesia.  Learning languages is her passion and she speaks fluently English, German, Indonesian and West Javanese.  She undertook an undergraduate degree majoring in German and initially worked at a German company in Indonesia. In 1996 she migrated to Australia to continue her study and from 1998 to 2003 she worked as a language assistant at Vermont Secondary College and Billanook College in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.  At this time she also worked with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority as an Indonesian Assessor. During this period, she became passionate about teaching Indonesian language and its culture.

Besides teaching the language, Maria was also busy running Indonesian cultural workshops at schools in Victoria and New South Wales. The workshops included dancing, traditional games, cooking, and making shadow puppets. Her international interests also saw her running similar workshops in other countries such as Germany and the Philippines. She is well known for her cultural activities in Melbourne and in 2000 she has the distinction of appearing on an Australia Post stamp in the Arts Festival series related to Indonesia.

Maria lived in the Philippines from 2003 until 2008 and completed a degree of Master of Arts in Education at the Philippines Assumption College Graduate School, Manila. During this time she worked voluntarily with several aid organisations and street children and was recognised for this contribution with the "Leadership in Service Award" from Assumption College Graduate School, Manila.

Returning to Melbourne in 2008, Maria was a language assistant at Scotch College and Yarra Valley Grammar, she taught Indonesian at Carranballac P-9 College in Point Cook from 2009 until 2010 and is currently teaching Indonesian at the Victorian School of Languages.  She is looking forward very much to sharing her multi-cultural experiences and teaching Indonesian language and culture to students of Acacia College.

Initially graduating with a Diploma of Information Technology, Darren worked in the ICT field for a number of years before discovering his passion for working with children as a Leader and Program Director of YMCA adventure camps.  His eight years of volunteering on YMCA programs provided him with a solid base to begin his teaching career.  Darren was also Program Director of the Victorian Youth Parliament and in 2004 was elected to the position of Youth Governor of Victoria.  As a result of his passion for working in the community, he has been bestowed with the honour of being named “Young Citizen of the Year” in 2005 and 2006 for the City of Whittlesea’s Australia Day Awards.

Darren graduated from RMIT University in 2006 with a degree in Primary School Teaching and in 2007 he accepted his first teaching position at Plenty Parklands Primary School in Mill Park, teaching Year 2 and Year 3.

During his time at Plenty Parklands Primary School, Darren took the time to form strong bonds with his students and their families to assist the learning program, he coordinated camps and excursions and developed extension programs for the children in his care.  Promoted to the position of Unit Manager, he was responsible for administration and assisting in the leadership of a successful Year 2 teaching team.

Outside of school, Darren is the Spokesman for the South Morang and Mernda Rail Alliance, a community group which recently secured $650 million from the State Government to extend the Epping railway line to South Morang and is continuing to lobby for a further extension to Mernda.

Having grown up in Mernda township and now living in Doreen, Darren is very excited to once again be part of the community and is looking forward to assisting his students learn to their full potential.