Keynotes

Lisa has been a winning high-performance coach for the past thirty years.

Formerly the Australian Diamonds Head Coach for 10 years, boasting an impressive 82% winning rate. Lisa sat on the Victorian Institute of Sport Board as the Performance and Coaching Expert for 3 years and was most recently living and working in London as Performance Director and Under 21 Head Coach of the London Pulse Netball Club in the Top Domestic League in the UK. Lisa is currently working as a High-Performance Coach Consultant in her own business.

Lisa was awarded the Order of Australia medal, AM, on Australia Day 2021 for her service and leadership to elite Netball in Australia. A secondary physical education and mathematics teacher by profession, her CV is varied and eclectic, with stints as a Lecturer of Undergraduate Physical Education students, a consultant in high performance and a coach of head coaches, to the very pinnacle of international high performance sport as the former Head Coach of the number one ranked Australian Diamonds Netball Team. During Lisa’s time at the helm, she coached 102 test matches, 2014 Commonwealth Games Gold medallists, 2015 World Champions, 8 times Constellation Cup Winners, and 5 times Quad Series Winners.

During the year 2014, the Lisa Alexander-coached Australian Diamonds won 100% of their 13 test matches and had a winning streak of 19 matches across the years of 2013 to 2015. Lisa was awarded the prestigious AIS Australian Coach of the Year in 2014. However, she attributes this success to the talent and hunger of her Australian Diamonds squad and their ability to work on team development and culture, beginning with the now famous trademark of 'Sisters in Arms'. Sustained success and looking after the future were always the vision and direction for Lisa when coaching the Australian Diamonds. According to Lisa, it is an honour and a privilege to coach your country! Lisa has always sought to educate her community along the journey, and she feels passionately about this responsibility. She has coached the entire spectrum of netball as a sport from Under 10's right through to school teams and regional teams to state teams and the Australian 21/U team and the Australian Diamonds.

It has been a long journey to the top of the sport of netball, with many bends and twists along the way. Lisa has taken up the challenges with great gusto and with a big sprinkling of common sense. She is guided by her unending quest for excellence and learning more about the world she inhabits. Lisa is an exceptional leader who can create a winning and success-driven environment through knowing the athletes in her care exceptionally well, person first, athlete second. She is driven by the philosophy that there is always room for improvement and that “we before me” is a timeless principle of all team sports.

Lisa’s personal trademark is 'Making a Difference' and 'Be Positive'.

Dr Carl Hendrick is an internationally recognised expert in the science of learning. He began his career as an English teacher in an inner-city London state school before becoming Head of Learning and Research at Wellington College. He has recently taken up the role of Senior Learning Scientist at Alpha School (Texas), where he works remotely to lead learning science across AI-driven instructional platforms.

He is also Associate Professor of Learning Science at Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam and serves on the UNESCO IBE Science of Learning Advisory Board.

His consultancy work includes advisory roles with government education departments, including the Victorian Department of Education (Australia) and the Northern Ireland Curriculum Taskforce, where he will chair a working group on pedagogical principles.

Carl is the author of several books, including the award-winning How Learning Happens (with Paul Kirschner), and holds a PhD in Education from King’s College London.

Dr Nathaniel Swain is a Teacher, Instructional Coach, and Writer. He produces a blog for teachers called Dr Swain’s Cognitorium and is co-host of the Chalk Dust Podcast with Rebecca Birch. Nathaniel works directly with schools and systems and through an online learning platform called Luminary.

Having worked at universities and government school systems in Victoria, Australia, Nathaniel has taught a range of learners in schools and tertiary settings. Dr Swain founded a community of teachers committed to the Science of Learning: THINK FORWARD EDUCATORS, now 30,000 members and growing. Dr Swain is a sought after speaker on educational circuits, and has a best-selling book entitled 'Harnessing the Science of Learning: Success stories to help kickstart your school improvement'.

Dr Simon Breakspear is a researcher, advisor, and speaker on educational leadership, policy, and change. As founder of Strategic Schools, he develops frameworks, tools and programs that make evidence-based ideas actionable and easy to understand. Over the last decade, his capability-building work has given him the opportunity to work with over 100,000 educators across more than ten countries.

Simon is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at UNSW and the author of Teaching Sprints: How Overloaded Educators Can Keep Getting Better. He has been an advisor to the NSW Department of Education and sits on the expert steering committee for the Australia Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. Simon holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. He began his work in education as a high school teacher.

Day 1 – Thursday May 28