Đội Ngũ Giảng Dạy - Thảo Điền

KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS

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Patricia Robson - Junior Kindergarten Teacher

Patricia (Trish) Robson joined AIS in August, 2014 on Kindergarten. She has over 18 years teaching experience in Kinder to Year 3 in Australia. This is her second international post and brings much experience from the Australian Education system.

Trish has already been living in Vietnam with her husband – Peter, who works in Animal Nutrition. Trish and Peter have 3 adult children, leading their own lives in Australia and The United Kingdom plus 2 grandchildren. This year she joins the Leadership team as Kindergarten Co-ordinator. Trish looks forward to watching the young students as they grow in confidence with all that they learn at AIS.

Julie Estacion - Senior Kindergarten Teacher

Bachelor of Special Education, West Visayas State University, Philippines

Julie has been in Vietnam for 24 years, working at several International Kindergartens throughout this time. Julie joined AIS in 2007 to work in the Early Childhood Department, bringing with her 14 years’ experience as a classroom teacher. Prior to joining AIS, Julie was a member of the ‘DYNOTOTS’ pre-school which was situated in the Lotus Campus site in 1995.

Outside of school, Julie enjoys spending time with her friends and family, such as her son who is in his final year of schooling at AIS. She also enjoys cooking, watching movies, playing volleyball and travelling. Julie believes that learning should be fun and interesting. Believing that young learners thrive in a safe and nurturing environment.

Julie believes that providing young learners with a learning space where they feel secure and also encourages exploration, sparks curiosity and motivates resourcefulness and creativity has always been one of her primary goals.

Julie envisions that by providing students with this environment encourages them to become enthusiastic in their learning, leading them to become inquirers and communicators as well as enhancing their social prowess by becoming caring and empathetic towards their peers.

PRIMARY TEACHERS

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Claire Hanson - Primary Teacher Year 1

Bachelor of Teaching (Primary), University of Western Sydney, Australia

Claire has 14 years of early childhood and primary teaching experience in Australia, China and Vietnam. She is passionate about developing the whole child and is especially keen to see each child grow as a socially aware and responsible citizen. Claire lives in Vietnam with her husband (who is also teaching at AIS) and three children who all love travelling.

Emily Easterby - Primary Teacher Year 1

H.BA Psychology Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
B.Ed Primary Junior Divisions, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada
MA Elementary Education, The College of New Jersey, NJ, USA

Emily has been living and working in Ho Chi Minh City for the past 8 years at The American School as the Kindergarten teacher. During her time at TAS she chaired the Heartbeat Vietnam committee for 6 years, helping to raise $40,000USD to provide over 30 heart surgeries to those children in need. Back in Canada she spent 10 summers working with children with special needs at Camp Kodiak teaching them to sail, waterski and create stained glass.

Oonagh Groves - Primary Teacher Year 2

Bachelor of Education (Primary) Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland

Oonagh is an Irish teacher and has 9 years teaching experience in Primary Education. Before joining AIS, Oonagh taught in Ireland for one year after qualifying and then moved to the UAE where she taught in 2 different international schools over a four year period. Oonagh is currently in her fifth year here at AIS and had taught a variety of year groups across two campuses, senior kindergarten, year 3 and currently year 2. Watching young children grow In confidence is something very special to Oonagh.

In her free time, Oonagh likes to stay active by exercising daily and is very passionate about travel and learning about different cultures.

David Phelps - Primary Teacher Year 2

Bachelor of Journalism (with Distinction) and a Graduate Diploma in Education (Primary), University of Wollongong, Australia.

David thoroughly enjoys living and working in Vietnam. He has experience working with a diverse range of students from Kindergarten through to Year 6. David’s most recent experiences include teaching a Year 5/6 Gifted and Talented class, and Year 6 at AIS. With a background in journalism, he is passionate about Literacy, helping children develop a love for writing through an inquiry-based approach. David looks forward to developing a sustainable garden for students as part of an environmental initiative at the Cherry Blossom campus.

Cathy Levick - Primary Teacher Year 3

B.Ed (HONS) Degree, Derbyshire College of Higher Education

With twenty five years of Primary School teaching experience Cathy has worked both in the UK teaching the UK National Curriculum and Internationally teaching the IB PYP curriculum. She has taught in diverse countries such as Egypt, Russia, Singapore, Italy and Indonesia over the last eighteen years.

On her travels Cathy has enjoyed finding out about the history of the places she has lived in as well as having an interest in architecture and photography.

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Peter O’Rance - Primary Teacher Year 4

Elisa Carroll - Primary Teacher Year 4

Ben Mansell - Primary Teacher Year 5

BSC (Honours) English literature. PGCE in KS1 and KS2 Newman University College, England.

This is Ben’s sixth year teaching at AIS. Before that he taught in upper primary school in England. Whilst working in Vietnam Ben has worked in various year groups with experience in years 2, 3, 5 and 6. Ben is the school’s literacy coordinator and has a love of literacy, helping foster confidence in his student’s abilities through developing reading, writing and speaking and listening strategies. Ben thoroughly enjoys teaching the PYP curriculum and supporting children to explore the concepts and disciplines that help them to become open minded, knowledgeable and caring members of our society.

Jordan Goulding - Primary Teacher Year 6

Master of Education, University of Melbourne
B2 Level Diploma of Spanish

Jordan is a primary school teacher from Australia who has many years of experience working with amazing students in Thailand, England, Spain and his homeland. He has a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne and studied hard to receive a B2 Level Diploma of Spanish during his time there. Jordan takes pride in getting to know every student in his class as an individual, including their hobbies and how they learn.

PRIMARY SCHOOL SPECIALISTS

Rachel White - Physical Education Teacher

Bachelor of Human Movement, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia Graduate Diploma in Primary Education, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

Rachael has over 10 years teaching experience in both primary and secondary schools. She has taught in the UK, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Rachael is passionate about engaging children in physical activity. She enjoys fitness, swimming and netball. Rachael is looking forward to returning to HCMC with her family and exploring more of the country and enjoying fresh delicious Vietnamese food.

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Francesco Zulueta - PE Teacher

Francesco Zulueta or usually called 'Coach Cesco' has come all the way from the Philippines to the United States of America, and now Vietnam. Since moving to Vietnam in 2017, he had had the opportunity to work with youth athletes from various international schools in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as members of the local and national basketball team in Vietnam. Along with his love of playing and coaching basketball, he enjoys playing different sports such as Swimming, Indoor Cycling, American Football, or Ultimate Frisbee.

Emer Taheny - Music Teacher

Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.), Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland. (2012-2016) Achieved a 2:1 Degree.
Grade 8 Certificate in Piano with the Royal Irish Academy of Music (2011)

Emer Taheny comes from Co. Mayo on the west coast of Ireland! She will be teaching Primary Music and Dance at the Cherry Blossom Campus at AIS Thao Dien! Emer is looking forward to teaching Music & Dance to the wonderful children in Kindergarten and primary along with getting to know all of their parents. She is also looking forward to travelling around some more parts of Vietnam this year (if I can), and of course, sampling even more of it’s delicious food!

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Phuong Le -Vietnamese Language and Culture Teacher

Bachelor of Art (Russian/ English), HCM Pedagogy University
Bachelor of Education Primary, HCM Pedagogy University
Graduate Certificate TESOL, Thailand
Certificate Teaching Vietnamese for foreigner

Phuong Le was a teacher at an Elementary school in HCM City for 4 years. She also has 12 years of teaching experience in Early Childhood. She joined AIS in 2007 as a Teaching Assistant. She teaches the Vietnamese National Curriculum to Vietnamese students from Year 1 to Year 6.

She enjoys cooking with her two daughters.