EduChanger Podcast: The real stories behind educational transformation.

Rebecca was named Most Influential Educator by The Educator Magazine in both 2024 and 2025, and appeared in The Telegraph's NSW Education Power List. She co-hosts the award-winning Chalk Dust podcast with Dr Nathaniel Swain and publishes a weekly newsletter that reaches over 6,000 educators across more than 100 countries.Rebecca is currently completing her PhD in explicit instruction while overseeing the growth of 22 schools as the Head of Secondary for the Learning Outcomes Directorate at Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese, where she brings fifteen years of classroom experience to bear on one of education's most pressing questions: how do we improve learning outcomes for students by equipping and empowering teachers?As both an educator who has been a part of Northholm’s dramatic transformation (feel free to listen to the episode with Chris Bradbury about this) and a Director of Research and Practice at Queenwood, not to mention experience with OCHRE, UNSW, A Learner’s Toolkit, Research Ed and many other initiatives that place her at the heart between the classroom, the wider educational system and contemporary research.

This episode features Professor Eddie Woo; one of Australia's most influential and transformative educators. Eddie's global impact began with a simple act of care. In 2012, when a student in his mathematics class became seriously ill and could no longer attend school, Eddie started recording his lessons and uploading them online. Those videos grew into WooTube, a YouTube channel with more than two million subscribers and hundreds of millions of views, reaching students, teachers, and lifelong learners across the world. More than its scale, WooTube's lasting achievement has been helping people discover confidence, curiosity, and even joy in mathematics. Today, Eddie's influence extends far beyond the classroom. Through his work with the NSW Department of Education, he helps shape mathematics teaching and learning across the state, supporting teachers, informing curriculum, and championing approaches that meet students where they are in their learning journey. He is also a Professor of Practice at the University of Sydney, contributing to research and initiatives that are redefining how mathematics is taught and experienced, and currently hosts the television series The Ultimate Classroom. What sets Eddie apart is not any single accomplishment, but the philosophy that connects them all: a belief that mathematics is a universal language that belongs to everyone. Through teaching, leadership, research, and media, Eddie continues to inspire educators, influence institutions, and challenge long-held assumptions about who can succeed in mathematics and why it matters. In this conversation, we explore Eddie's motivation, the nuanced approach needed when handling technology, classroom pedagogy and what it takes to help millions of learners believe they can succeed.

In this episode, we are fortunate to hear from Jane Stocks, current Deputy Principal of North Sydney Girls and, most significantly, the developer of the IQTVE writing model; a framework that has reshaped what's possible in HSC English classrooms.Jane's work first drew attention when North Sydney Boys overtook James Ruse for the top position in NSW. Now, the same approach is driving the meteoric rise of North Sydney Girls, where HSC English results have climbed from 40% to 72% of students achieving a Band 6 in English Advanced, alongside 86% achieving E4 in English Extension 1. These are not incremental gains, they are system-level shifts that have placed two state ranks on the board and lifted whole-school outcomes in the process.With over 25 years of dedicated service in the NSW Department of Education, Jane has built a career around fostering enriching learning environments and empowering educators to achieve collective excellence. Her strategic focus on high-quality teaching, the kind that inspires lifelong learning in both staff and student, is exactly what brings us to this conversation.We unpack the thinking behind IQTVE, how it was implemented across two school cultures, and what it takes to translate a classroom innovation into school-wide transformation. Jane truly is an education changer, and it's a privilege to share this conversation with her.

Today we have the awarded principal and leader in education, Mrs Iris Nastasi. Iris has been recognised through significant professional honours, including the ACEL NSW Leadership Award and the Teachers’ Guild of NSW Phyllis Evans Medal, awarded for her contribution to improving educational outcomes for young people.With more than three decades of experience in the Catholic education sector, she is currently the Principal of Rosebank College in NSW and previously served as Principal of Clancy Catholic College, where she helped guide the school through its early HSC years to become a recognised high-performing learning community (including an 823% rise in academic achievement).Beyond school leadership, Iris has contributed to educational policy and governance through roles including membership on the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Board and advisory positions across Catholic and independent school sectors.From all that I have gathered, everywhere that Iris has gone she has promoted a culture of collaboration, supporting staff and student voice and enabling what can only be termed as flourishing- academically and beyond. She is a collaborative culture EduChanger.

Jonny Boyle, the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Jeddle - an education tech company that provides Band 6 quality resources that are paired with tactics and strategies to approach the HSC examinations. The online platform also includes an AI marking feedback system for students - JedAi that I look forward to discussing further. Each year Jonny interviews the students who achieve state ranks in their HSC English courses, in order to understand the strategies and content behind their success and share it with others. I want to state that I have no vested interest in the company and no kickback from this conversation- I have just seen Jonny’s resources and strategies be genuinely transformative for students, such as the case for one school in Newcastle which saw a 472% increase in Band 6 English results after implementing Jeddle from Years 7-12 from 2021. With over 50,000 students and teachers served by the platform and 150 schools engaged with your resources including a school int he top 5 in NSW, 6m views on resources on YouTube, join with me as we dive into the reason for this success.