Having followed the development of AISS closely since its commencement as well as being fortunate to know a number of families and staff who have been, or continue to be, closely associated with the school,  Sue joined AISS in January 2008.

Sue began her teaching career in a small country school of 130 students in Temora, located in the Riverina region of New South Wales. The call of the city, however, eventually proved irresistible and, in 1984, she returned to Sydney to take up an appointment at Redlands School in Cremorne.

When Sue first joined Redlands, it was re-establishing itself after a period of significant turmoil and possible closure that saw numbers at the school drop to approximately 150 students. Sue was appointed as the Year One teacher in the newly established Preparatory School (K-2). From this point on, the school grew rapidly and, in late 1989, purchased an additional campus across the road from its original campus.

Sue was appointed Deputy Head of the Preparatory School in 1991 and then Head of Preparatory School in 1994. By 1998, Redlands had opened two pre-schools for three and four year olds and in 1999, Sue became Head of Early Childhood with overall responsibility for both pre-schools and the Preparatory School. This was Sue's most recent position prior to joining AISS.

During Sue's time at Redlands, the School grew from approximately 350 students to 1600 students from Pre-School to Year Twelve (offering both HSC and IB). This growth afforded her unlimited opportunities to hone her skills both as a teacher and as an educational leader. In her final years at Redlands, Sue was a member of the school’s Teaching and Learning Committee which sought to establish a whole school pedagogy and a shared language amongst staff across the school. In doing so, she explored the elements of best practice curriculum design and pedagogical principles, including frameworks such as the PYP, Teaching for Understanding (Harvard’s Project Zero), Understanding By Design (the work of Wiggins and McTighe), Dimensions of Learning (Robert Marzano) and Habits of Mind (Art Costa).

Aside from Sue's direct school commitments, she has also been Secretary of the Infants’ Co-ordinators group of JSHAA (NSW), a member of the selection panel for Churchill Fellowships in NSW,  a guest lecturer at the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University and a voluntary consultant to a Rotary-sponsored Literacy Project in Thailand. She has also taken part in accrediting other schools as part of a CIS (Council of International Schools) accreditation team.

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