Amy Gill

Background

About Amy Gill

Consciousness doesn’t come automatically; it comes through being alive, awake, curious, and often furious.” – Maxine GreeneI am a passionate educator, trauma-informed practice specialist, researcher, and education advocate who teaches wide awake.With over 25 years’ teaching experience across Performing Arts, Learning Support, and alternative education settings, my professional identity has been shaped by a deep commitment to teaching and learning as profoundly human work. While my disciplinary home is drama education, my practice is grounded in relational pedagogy, creativity, and a belief in the inherent worth and capability of every young person.I hold a Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Teaching (Honours), a Master of Special Education (with Distinction), and a Graduate Certificate in Theology. I am currently a PhD candidate researching pedagogies of hope, with a focus on trauma-informed, relational, and restorative educational practices for young people navigating complex life experiences.I am the author of the Youth Off The Streets Model of Education, which articulates a strengths-based, healing-centred approach to learning grounded in belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. This work reflects my ongoing commitment to alternative and flexible education, and to advocacy for marginalised and at-risk young people within and beyond mainstream systems.I am a Highly Accomplished Teacher (NESA), with my accreditation recognising the sustained impact of my practice not only on students, but on colleagues and school culture. Alongside my teaching and research, I serve on multiple professional education and teaching associations and contribute to sector-wide conversations about innovation, wellbeing, and equity in education. I am particularly interested in pedagogies that honour lived experience, foster hope, and position learning as a shared, ethical, and relational endeavour.For me, teaching is a vocation. It is an act of advocacy, care, and responsibility. I work to ensure that classrooms are places where young people are seen, challenged, supported, and invited into possibility, and where educators are encouraged to remain awake, curious, and courageous in their practice.