Systems in Education

Consultant Jill Grundy

Jill Grundy has thirty years of teaching experience including school leadership and classroom teaching (Kindergarten to Year 6). In the past eight years she has specialised in gifted education, teaching Opportunity Classes in the inner west and North Shore. She holds a Certificate of Gifted Education from the University of NSW and is currently combining studies at The F.S.I., in the Certificate of Family Systems and Family of Origin coaching, with a Master of Education in Gifted Education.  Having a particular interest in the social and emotional needs of gifted children, her research project is on the relationship between the family’s emotional system and underachievement and psychological adjustment in gifted children.

SERVICES AVAILABLE :

In collaboration with the FSI team of counsellors and psychologists, Jill provides services to individual families, parent groups, teachers and schools. 

• At the family level, Jill works collaboratively with parents of children experiencing social, emotional or learning difficulties, taking a systems approach to problem solving to grow children’s independence and capacity to learn. Educational assessment of the child’s needs, preferred learning styles, advice on learning options and individual learning plans is an integral feature of the service. However, the primary focus is on parenting the child.
• In schools, Jill coaches teachers in drawing from Family Systems Theory to manage anxiety, conflict or stress attached to workload in the classroom, staffroom and in parent meetings.  She also provides coaching and training for teachers on how to use their self management as a resource in assisting challenging students. Jill also provides information resources on gifted students’ social, emotional and academic needs, educational assessment of gifted students, planning class programs and Individual Learning Plans. 

Jill draws from Bowen’s family systems theory to understand the complex patterns of relationships which are a core basis of a child’s learning environment.  She combines this with compatible educational philosophy of inquiry learning of constructing knowledge learning with others where the teacher or consultant’s role is seen as a facilitator of learning and to guide clarity in thinking. (Influenced by the research of Carl Rogers, Alfie Kohn, Robert Slavin and Louise Porter as well as Restorative Justice and Thinking Schools programs).  

Jill brings rich and varied experiences in life, in teaching, of schools and learning as Educational Consultant at The Family Systems Institute.  Additional to her teaching experience, as a parent, she has travelled extensively throughout the world, making homes and raising a family in communities in three countries and is well aware of the challenges parents face in guiding their children through schools.