About
Janice adapted the Tools 4 Reading products for Australian English in 2018 and has since been presenting workshops on their implementation as well as distributing the products in Australia with her husband Andrew.
Most recently, Janice recruited her daughter Katrina, to turn her own Syllable Division tools she uses in her teaching, into a classroom set, now available on the Shop page. Watch this space, as we are working on a guide for junior primary, primary and secondary schools to assist in teaching syllable division, to accompany our classroom syllable division set.
Janice has been a teacher for forty years. However, she became particularly passionate about specialising in literacy when her youngest daughter Katrina had difficulty learning to read. For the past thirty-two years, Janice has been a specialist literacy teacher. Janice has lectured at SPELD SA and at the SPELD SA International Conference.
Janice initially worked as a kindergarten teacher and director, then for the Department of Education and Children’s Services as a Special Educator where she was a member of a multi-disciplinary team and represented the department at state and regional levels.
As chairperson and Children’s Services Office regional representative for negotiated curriculum plan meetings and case reviews, Janice was responsible to ensure positive outcomes for students with additional needs. Furthermore, in her work for the Department of Education, Janice has worked as an assistant principal,
a junior primary teacher, primary teacher, high school teacher, and intervention teacher.
For thirteen years, Janice was a literacy specialist teacher at St John’s Grammar School and in 2008, she was nominated by the St John’s Grammar Parents’ and Friends Committee, and awarded the ASG National Excellence in Teaching State and Territory Award for South Australia for her work with students with Specific Learning Difficulties.
During UK expert, Neil MacKay’s 2015 South Australian tour, Janice co-presented his advanced workshop and in 2018 and 2019 Janice presented Neil’s Dyslexia Aware Schools, Total Teaching presentations.
Janice worked as an Educational Consultant and Pedagogical Coach for the Adelaide Primary Health Network, for three years, enhancing education programs in state and private schools, preschools and child care centres, by training principals, teachers, school service officers and child care staff. Janice’s consultancy and coaching role was to develop understanding of phonemic awareness, structured literacy instruction and raise awareness of the needs of students with literacy difficulties. In her consultancy role for APHN, Janice helped schools develop their school literacy curriculum, as well as their classroom and intervention programs (Tier 1, 2 and 3), and coached teaching staff to look at assessment and diagnostic strategies to inform their teaching practice. The schools that Janice worked with are further ahead of most other schools in South Australia in their Science of Reading journey.
Now working as a private consultant and specialist literacy teacher, Janice presents professional development workshops for schools, and conducts parent workshops. In her consultancy role, Janice mentors teachers as a pedagogical coach and assists teachers and families to learn more about the processing areas that underpin literacy difficulties and subsequently understand the best ways to assist through structured, multi-sensory, explicit teaching strategies.
Janice is deeply committed to ongoing learning and fostering collaborative relationships. Recently, Janice undertook face-to-face training at Christ Church College, Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, focusing on ‘Mentoring’ and ‘Dyslexia and Learning English’. Janice is thoroughly looking forward to sharing her new knowledge and skills with others.
Throughout her career Janice has developed her own program and resources which we cannot wait to bring to teachers, tutors and parents.
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