we are proud of our tutoring and support team
Our Team
We are proud of our tutoring and support team: capable, intelligent, experienced, rounded, interesting individuals – and very good teachers.
Jane Stirling
Director of Literacy for Life since its inception in 2008, Jane holds a Bachelor of Education degree and a Master of Education (Honours) degree specialising in literacy education. She has taught in early childhood, primary, senior high school, tertiary and adult settings in Australia and overseas.
Jane was the coordinator of a university research and teaching program working with families whose children struggled to make age -appropriate literacy gains. This is where the teaching approach used with both children and adults at Literacy for Life was developed. It was Jane's learning about this pedagogy which gave her access to an educational and career path that she could explore with passion.
At Literacy for Life, when we say, 'We teach literacy and numeracy', Jane is proud that we say it with confidence and as a statement of achievement. We teach children and adults literacy and numeracy skills, understandings, and strategies that enable independence, and continue to build on those strategies and understandings to improve and progress. Outside of Literacy for Life, Jane undertakes wildlife monitoring in national parks, and in her spare time likes to garden, hike, camp, ride, sail, and read
Gaynor Evans
Gaynor joined the Literacy for Life team as our very first administration manager. She has a long career background in client care, books and book-keeping, and literacy and literature, in retail, schools, libraries, curriculum centres, and as a qualified editor.
Gaynor is the welcoming face at Literacy for Life, Macquarie. We value her warmth and friendliness, and she aims to make your experience with us warm and friendly! She is a details person, whether it be in her choice of outfit for the day or the intricacies of her administrative role.
Once she has met you or your child, Gaynor will have a lifelong memory of your favourite football team, and has the lyrics of a popular song from the last 40 years relevant for any occasion.
Ruth Hill
As well as being manager of our Literacy for Life Kambah office, Ruth enjoys tutoring so much that she has students at both Kambah and Macquarie. Over her years of working with Literacy for Life, she has seen the benefits of the scaffolding approach to literacy learning and absolutely loves using this supportive framework with her students.
Ruth has a background in social work and many years of experience working in Learning Support with students in ACT schools. She believes that all people have a right to learn and feel empowered by the opportunities brought by knowledge and understandings.
Ruth is passionate about learning, exploration, music, food, free expression, fun, and of course literacy. She enjoys all of these with her family and her dog - yes, the dog is included in family reading time!
Pam Lane
Pam Lane is a retired teacher who has been using the Scaffolding Literacy pedagogy for over 20 years. She has dedicated her career to education, working as an Infants Teacher, English/History Teacher, Teacher/Librarian, and Literacy Consultant. She started her own company in the Newcastle and Hunter region, training local teachers in Scaffolding Literacy until 2011. In 2012, she moved to Canberra, and completed a Master's degree in History in 2017.
Pam joined Literacy for Life after visiting the office to donate teaching resources. It didn’t take much to persuade her to return to Scaffolding Literacy. She is delighted to find that it still works its magic, helping students in their acquisition of valuable literacy skills.
Pam enjoys physical activities, plays the keyboard, is learning to play the ukulele, and – of course – loves reading!
Kate Lawrence
At the University of Canberra, Kate Lawrence was a paid admin officer, but an unpaid closet writer. She would linger by the door of the literacy research and teaching centre at which Jane worked, enchanted by the books and games, and the children going in and out. After escaping the drudgery of administration, Kate worked as a Learning Support Assistant, but found that playground duty, noise, running, and rush was no way to live either. In 2016, she found her calling at Literacy for Life, helping people improve their literacy skills in a friendly, relaxed environment.
Kate married a lab technician who turned out to be an outdoors man. They are now both involved in Scouting and their son is a Cub Leader. When Kate is not being a princess about spiders in long-drops, she enjoys walking, canoeing, reading mystery and fantasy novels, playing Dungeons & Dragons, writing letters, doing word puzzles, trying new art media and dancing.
Mary Lynn Mather
Mary Lynn Mather loves words and she has been playing with them for as long as she can remember. She’s an experienced journalist who has written stories for magazines, newspapers and websites. In addition to holding degrees in Journalism and Literature, Mary Lynn has a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide. She even crafted an experimental novel for her research.
Mary Lynn has lectured at universities and other tertiary bodies, both in Canberra and South Africa. She runs writing courses when she isn’t taking guided tours through the National Gallery of Australia or having fun at Literacy for Life.
Travis Ey
Travis Ey hit the ground running with Literacy for Life, teaching numeracy in his first week to students from primary school to high school to college.
Travis tutored privately for 8 years before joining the public service full-time, however he struggled with the corporate lifestyle. He enjoys teaching someone something new and exciting, and helping people to solve problems, so resumed tutoring to feel more fulfilled. He joined Literacy for Life because he likes our style and methodology, and he appreciates being able to contribute to his local community through Literacy for Life as a locally born and bred organisation.
Travis has a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in physics, and minors in chemistry, maths, and cosmology. During his studies, he conducted a research project on best practices in teaching physics and maths at a high-school level, which was used in the MeriSTEM project. Travis also currently works as an economist in the public service and is enrolled in a Graduate Certificate course in Economics. In his public service career, Travis wrote a research paper on the Contingency Reserve (a very niche accounting mechanism for the federal budget) and coordinated the Green's section of an Election Commitments Report, which looks at announced election commitments of the major parties and determines their cost if implemented.
Outside of work, Travis loves being outdoors hiking, being in remote National Parks, running, and spending time with his best-beloved: his dog Boson. Travis is fluent in French and has lived in Switzerland and France.
Georgia Claridge
Georgia Claridge joined Literacy for Life in 2022, driven by her love of reading, writing, language, and literature. She loves supporting people to achieve their best by boosting their confidence to approach new problems. She believes in equal access to high-quality literacy education for all.
Georgia has a double degree in science and visual arts from ANU. Her specialties in science are biology, chemistry, and statistics, and in visual arts are formal academic writing and project planning. She enjoys working with people in a team and is passionate about learning and teaching in a supportive work environment alongside like-minded tutors at Literacy for Life. Her long-term career goal is to become a practising doctor in clinical genetics.
Outside of work, Georgia has a passion for visual arts and spends her spare time painting and creating miniatures. She is deeply interested in medical biology and genetics and can talk for hours on these subjects. She also loves baking and gardening, growing her own vegetables to cook delicious meals. Her favourite fiction genre is fairy tales, particularly the works of Hans Christian Andersen, and her favourite non-fiction genre is art history.
Ciaran Lane
Since Kindergarten, Ciaran has been one of ‘those’ people who are delightful, intelligent, patient, helpful, caring, supportive, and involved in community. He has always been a teacher, even before he knew he was.
Ciaran has been a tutor at Literacy for Life since 2015. Initially, he joined the team because we asked him to! He was good at maths, liked talking about maths, liked sharing the joy of maths, and liked working with people (often on maths problems). He soon realised his love for tutoring and how much he loves working at Literacy for Life.
Ciaran holds an ANU double degree in Actuarial Studies and Science, and also works in the public service. Ciaran's passion lies in helping people learn and build their confidence. He takes immense pleasure in answering the question, "When will I use this in the real world?" when his students inevitably ask it.
In his free time, Ciaran enjoys running, listening to music, being outdoors, and experimenting with hair colour!
Lynne McVeigh
Lynne is a Kiwi - proudly born and raised in New Zealand. But then she branched out!
Lynne learnt Latin, French and German, was a secretary in Dunedin, a waitress in North Wales, a waitress in Scotland, and spent five years working and travelling extensively in the UK. She moved to Canberra to join her husband and discovered the joys of dog ownership and the Australian bush.
Lynne’s travels in Asia and Europe prepared her for her first year of teaching which was in an Introductory English Centre for migrant children. She has taught in mainstream classes and in Special Education settings.
Lynne joined Literacy for Life as a tutor, where she loves spending time with children and being surprised by their insights and their innovative suggestions. She enjoys her teaching and enjoys the students tickling her sense of humour.
In her free time, Lynne enjoys birdwatching, walking, contemporary dance, reading, catching up with friends, gardening, and sewing.
Cassandra Hall
Motivated by her deep love of languages, Cassandra earned an Honours degree in English Language from Melbourne University, having studied English and English Literature, including Old English and Middle English, both of which she still delights in.
Cassandra has worked in long day-care settings, as a full-time nanny, and as an integration aide for students in Years 5 and 6. Throughout her career, she has been interested in Steiner education, in children who need extra support, and in children having different ways of learning. With these enduring interests, Cassandra joined Literacy for Life in 2017.
Cassandra’s interests include historical dancing and costuming, exploring different cultures, and studying her own family history through genealogy.
Marion Thomson
Tutoring with Literacy for Life since 2018 has given Marion a greater depth of understanding of the range of students’ needs. She very much appreciates the positive student outcomes provided by the Scaffolding Literacy pedagogy, and loves seeing students experience a ‘light bulb moment’.
Marion holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Development Studies from ANU, and has completed part of a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language. She has worked in software training in London and Hong Kong, taught swimming to babies, children and adults (teaching adults water safety is a passion) in Australia, while raising her family was intensely involved in playgroup, playschool, preschool, and primary school P & C executive committees, fundraising, and community events, and taught English to refugees.
Marion is very family orientated, and the whole family loves to explore the world. She loves the water and the beach, winter skiing, and is preparing to cycle the Danube River. She enjoys walks, coffees and chats with friends, and she is always reading.
Jarrah Palethorpe
Jarrah has loved studying and explaining science and maths for his whole life. He started tutoring with Literacy for Life in early 2021, and he has loved the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people, both students and other tutors! He really loves being able to introduce fun and light-heartedness to all levels of maths, as well as working together with students to help them understand and apply more difficult topics.
Jarrah is studying psychology and science communication at the ANU. He enjoys the great range of topics to challenge himself and grow, including looking at the dynamics of how social groups work, how to best advise scientifically-minded political action, and explaining molecules to primary school students.
In his spare time, Jarrah is heavily involved in theatrical and musical performances, ranging from productions of Shakespeare to jazz bands to, on one occasion, playing the triangle in an international concert hall.
Darcy Gooday
Darcy joined Literacy for Life at the beginning of 2022 and is a natural tutor with a love of numbers. He has always enjoyed teaching people, and loves seeing them learn something new and feel more confident about their abilities. Darcy finds it incredibly rewarding to see a student’s progress and growth, and to know that he has played a part in their success.
In an eclectic early career, as well as his Literacy for Life tutoring Darcy works as a data analyst for a healthcare organisation and is studying maths and computer science at university. He gravitates to fields where he can combine his interests of computer science and maths – one day, perhaps a data scientist, a mathematical modeller, a machine learning engineer, or a math/science teacher. However, we plan to keep him at Literacy for Life.
Darcy enjoys participating in (and watching) mountain biking, hiking, cricket, basketball and Aussie rules. He reads a mix of fiction and nonfiction and is an avid supporter of the St Kilda football club.
Samantha Urbaniak
Sami has worked with children for more than seven years and loves getting to know each individual and what makes their brain tick! As a person with ADHD, Sami possesses a personal level of empathy and understanding for neurodivergent individuals. There is nothing more exciting than watching someone build their confidence and conquer new skills. Sami joined Literacy for Life in 2022 and has loved every second of it.
Sami is studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, and a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the ANU. She has a passion for creative writing, but also a soft spot for math, logic and reasoning.
Outside of education, Sami spends all her spare time participating in and coaching calisthenics. She has danced for 17 years and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. Her favourite movie of all time is Cars and she owns an alarming amount of Minecraft merchandise.