Faculty and Staff
Crofton House teachers are caring and experienced professionals who embrace new ideas in teaching and learning. They are highly qualified educators and subject specialists who are experienced in the ways that girls learn and deliver a personalized education that focuses on the development of the whole girl.
Here, students are motivated to strive for their best selves, guided by staff who know them and believe in them. All our faculty and staff share a passion for making a positive, lasting impact in each girl’s life and to helping her succeed.
Our teaching faculty's commitment to staying current with best practices in pedagogy is supported by progressive professional development opportunities and initiatives such as our Research Chairs program provided by the School.
“We are encouraged to always be creative and innovative. We find new ways to improve our teaching and the student experience.”
Arezou Hashemi | Teacher, Languages, Senior School
Research Chairs
Research Chairs of Teaching and Learning
Crofton House School teachers can apply to become a Research Chair of Teaching and Learning. As part of this program, led by our Researcher in Residence, participants can contribute to the teaching profession in a meaningful way through funded and progressive research over a three-year term. Meet our current Research Chairs!
Ly Hoang (2024-2027)
Personal Counsellor, Senior School
Ly is researching the impacts of peer-led mental health supports on student well-being through the CHS counselling initiative of Peer Support. Ly will work closely with selected and trained Peer Supporters, who are Grade 11 and 12 students, to reduce mental health stigma and promote wellness on campus. Ly will measure components of student leadership and agency that encourage and promote pro-social behaviours such as seeking help from peers and adults, increasing empathy and compassion amongst peers, and increasing one’s ability to self-regulate when faced with everyday stressors.
Alyson Prabhu (2024-2027)
Teacher, Social Studies, Senior School
Alyson’s research seeks to explore how student and teacher experiences can be leveraged as evidence in academic contexts. Drawing from the field of social justice education, the research aims to address the limitations of traditional academic evidence, such as books or journals, by prioritizing lived experiences. The research intends to empower students to contextualize their own experiences within larger societal structures, contributing to a deeper understanding of complex issues. Ultimately, the central aim is to develop a framework to help teachers navigate how to meaningfully incorporate student experiences in a way that can both confirm and challenge dominant academic narratives and promote meaningful, respectful conversations in the classroom.
Andrea Page (2023-2026)
Teacher, Learning Resources, Junior School
Andrea’s research is based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that accommodate individual learning differences. Andrea has observed that CHS student learning needs continue to evolve with an increased number of students who are supported with learning resource plans. While the learning resources department works with targeted student populations, Andrea is interested in how to more actively integrate accommodations to enhance learning in the general classroom population.
Chris McKenzie (2023-2026)
Coordinator of Educational Technology, Risk Manager, Senior School
Chris is researching how to assess students’ retention, transfer, and application of their learning about topics which go beyond any one subject area and are often taught outside of the traditional classroom on special days or designated times. These topics contain a growing number of valuable competencies that include but are not limited to social and emotional learning, executive functioning, technology, leadership, the environment and sustainability, local and global issues, DEI, and service learning.
Maureen Duteau (2022-2025)
Teacher, English, Senior School
Maureen is investigating best practices for integrating research skills and information literacy in a multidisciplinary way across grades and disciplines.
An area of focus in her research is information literacy in a digital world: how students access, vet, evaluate and analyze information and how they can develop the critical thinking skills to become discerning consumers of information who are aware of bias and who seek a multitude of perspectives to inform their own views.
Simon Ng and Michael Roberts (2022-2025)
Teachers, Mathematics, Senior School
Simon and Michael are jointly working on developing a Maths course that puts an even greater emphasis on curricular competencies than is the case now.
By gathering data on students’ attitudes to math and how these attitudes and beliefs connect to Social and Emotional Learning and the department and school philosophy of learning, they hope to develop a course that can effectively show students the value of the struggle in math and what they can learn from: “getting stuck”, thinking about themselves and math, the multitude of strategies that can be applied at any time to a problem, and thinking like a mathematician.
Chantal Eady (2021 - 2025)
Coordinator, Student Well-being & SEL, Junior School
Chantal’s research examines why relational aggression increases among Middle School students and what interventions might be helpful. Relational aggression encompasses insidious social and nonphysical aggression by one person intended to harm the social status/reputation of another person or to increase their popularity. It is often characterized by unkind or manipulative behaviours, which are harder to detect than physical aggression, and the use of relationships to hurt peers, as evidenced by behaviour between friends, such as silent treatment without explanation, gossip, or put-downs (“just joking”). Within her research, Chantal also aims to identify which relational aggressive behaviours are most prevalent and impactful to students.
Jo Kimmel (2021 - 2025)
Coordinator, Student Well-being & SEL, Senior School
Jo is exploring how to best support teachers in delivering the explicit teaching of social and emotional learning (SEL) and how SEL can be integrated into all aspects of life at Crofton House, including academic classes. The goal is to have a system-wide approach to SEL, which will support the well-being of both staff and students.
Past Research Chairs
Cat Spinney (2020-2023)
Assistant Department Head, Science, Senior School
Area of research: Student assessment
Christopher Griffith (2019-2022)
Assistant Department Head, Social Studies, Senior School
Area of research: Student assessment
Dimitri Korol (2019-2022)
Assistant Department Head, Languages, Senior School
Area of research: Fostering literacy
Quinn Cumming (2018-2021)
Department Head, Physical & Health Education, Senior School
Area of research: "Grit" and physical pursuits
Phil Stringer (2018–2021)
Department Head, Mathematics, Senior School
Area of research: Teaching math in a "deunitized" manner
Sophia Hunter (2017–2020)
Teacher Librarian, Junior School
Area of research: The impact of the medium on reading experience
Gail Robinson (2017–2020)
Department Head, English, Senior School
Area of research: Student-centred teaching based on the Harkness method
Researcher in Residence
Dr Travis Fuchs
Researcher in Residence
Travis is the inaugural Researcher in Residence at CHS, where he supports the development of the School’s research capability and helps embed an evidence-informed approach to teaching and learning across the School. Working closely with the Research Coordinator, Travis supports the Research Chairs of Teaching and Learning program, which he led from 2019-2024, and the Professional Learning Community strand of our internal professional development scheme. Travis also supports the School’s overall priorities as identified through the Strategic Plan. His current focus is the Active Stewardship strategy.
“I have an underlying assumption that teachers’ engagement in and with research not only provides the best professional development but best develops the profession. Always with our students in mind, Crofton House strives to be a leader in both.”
In addition to his work at CHS, Travis holds affiliations at Brock University as an SSHRC Canada Postdoctoral Fellow and at the University of Oxford's Department of Education as an Honorary Norham Fellow. Travis was fortunate to most recently teach Grade 6 Science at CHS.
