Class Act

Tim Hawkes is the author of several books including Boy Oh Boy: How to Raise and Educate a Son and the Learning Leadership series. He has taught in England and Australia for over 35 years and been a headmaster for much of that time.

A highly regarded educational resource, author and social commentator, Tim Hawkes is in demand as a conference speaker around the world. He is married and has three adult children, including a son, and lives in Sydney.

Michael Grose is a parenting and educational presenter. He is the author of eight books for parents, a former parenting columnist for both News Ltd and Fairfax newspapers; he is an experienced media performer with regular appearances on TV programs such as The Today Show, The Circle and ABC 774’s Saturday program.

Maxine McKew is an author and Hon Enterprise Professor of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne.

Her most recent book, published by Melbourne University Press in 2014, is Class Act – a study of the key challenges in Australian schooling. This publication followed the success of her memoir, Tales From the Political Trenches, an account of her brief but tumultuous time in the Federal Parliament. 

Maxine’s background traverses both journalism and politics. For many years she was a familiar face to ABC TV viewers and was anchor of prestigious programmes such as The 7.30 Report and Lateline. Her work has been recognized by her peers with both Walkley and Logie Awards. When she left journalism and made the switch to politics, she wrote herself into the Australian history books by defeating Prime Minister John Howard in the Sydney seat of Bennelong. In government she was parliamentary secretary for early childhood and later, for regional development and local government.