Amanda Larkin (Rogers)

Amanda has a passion for supporting gifted learners and understands the complex needs of 2E learners from both personal and professional experiences. Being 2E herself and a parent to two 2E children, gives her a unique perspective on the needs of families with neurodivergent learners.

Amanda is a highly experienced educator who has taught primary and secondary students in Australia and England for over two decades. She is skilled at developing critical and creative thinking skills, as well as teaching executive functioning skills to support independent and self-directed learning. Amanda's personal mantra, "Maslow before Bloom," reflects her belief in meeting individual student needs as the first step in facilitating cognitive growth. She places great emphasis on teaching metacognition, the ability to think about one's thinking, using various curiosity focused strategies to reduce shame, fear of failure and perfectionism. 

In addition to her classroom teaching experience, Amanda has held various leadership positions including Head of Year, Literacy Mentor teacher and as the gifted education specialist working with GATE programs at two schools.  Her teaching expertise includes English, HASS, Philosophy and Ethics.  

Amanda is a Certified facilitator of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method and materials,  Trained Coach, Growth Coaching International, holds a Diploma of Counselling and a Cert 4 in Disability and has undergone additional training in Executive Functioning Skills for kids and teens .     

Amanda is the creator of PHILOSO-BRICK®.  PHILOSO-BRICK® workshops foster creativity, imagination, and social-emotional growth while developing critical thinking, abstract reasoning, and problem-solving skills. It is an innovative program that uses a multi-sensory approach to explore philosophical thinking. 

Amanda’s volunteer work includes her past role as the National Gifted Children’s Coordinator with Mensa (AUST) and general committee member with Gifted WA. 

Amanda is a member of the Association for Philosophy in Schools WA (APIS),  Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL),  Gifted WA, Australian Mensa and the Australian Tutoring Association (ATA).