Laura Greaves

Laura received her Bachelor of Education in 2006 and began teaching at a Special Developmental School in the northern suburbs. She went on to complete a Master’s of Education (Special education, Inclusion and Early Intervention) before becoming a Travelling Teacher for the Mansfield Autism Statewide Services. This role required Laura to travel to a school in regional Victoria, observe and work with a particular child and their school before going home with the student and experiencing the family life with the goal of developing and implementing necessary strategies as the family required.

Being part of tens of families’ daily experience of living with and attempting to develop a child who was on the autism spectrum proved invaluable and lead Laura to become Victoria’s first Visiting Teacher of Autism. This involved consulting teachers at mainstream schools in the Northern Metropolitan Region and working with them to build their capacity to successfully integrate and include students with an ASD. Through this work Laura was also able to develop her skills in managing challenging behaviours and made the link between the benefits that come from using certain strategies with students who are on the autism spectrum and those who are neuro-typical.

Through this work Laura was awarded the Victorian Teachers Excellence Award  — Additional Needs in 2011 and was one of 25 individuals invited to a private luncheon with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip later that year.

In 2012, Laura began to work at Northern School for Autism as the Student Wellbeing and Transition Coordinator.