Gwenda Sanderson

Gwenda Sanderson is the Director of Arrendell Primary Education Centre.  Gwenda has 30 years of experience as a primary and secondary teacher.  She has also taught student teachers for seven years as a lecturer in Literacy and Children's Literature at the University of Newcastle.

Gwenda arrived from New Zealand in 1971 to train as a secondary teacher at Avondale College near Newcastle.  She later trained in primary teaching at Newcastle, University where she completed her Masters specialising in children with reading difficulties.  Gwenda undertook three years study towards a PhD looking at boys' resistance to reading, but that endeavour was put on hold when she left university work to devote herself full time to teaching and the administration of Arrendell.

Gwenda has worked with teachers locally and nationally presenting seminars, conference papers and keynote addresses.  She has been a guest speaker at conferences in the United States, Canada and New Zealand.  Her particular area of expertise is teaching reading and writing to upper primary students, with a special interest in the needs of boys, motivating reluctant readers, and in teaching the craft of narrative writing.

In 1977 Gwenda started Arrendell with Lynley Brennan, a secondary English teacher.  They saw the need to provide extra support for students who needed more academic support than was available within their school context.  This was not a criticism of the schools that the children came from, but the reality of mass education, class sizes of 30 or more, and limited access to specialised teachers with the training or experience in working with bright, underachieving children.  They saw the importance of boosting children's self esteem and their expectation of success by individual mentoring, and set about to provide a caring professional facility to make a difference in the lives of local children and young people.

Today 400 - 500 Newcastle students attend classes at Arrendell Primary and Arrendell Secondary every week and their lives are changed with the encouragement and dedication of 25 full and part time teachers.