Teacher, Educational Consultant and co-developer of The Rite Journey
Andrew is first and foremost husband to Becky and father to his four children and 3 step-children. (Yep, he has had his fair share of personal experience with raising children.) He trained as a Physical Education / Outdoor Education teacher and taught in schools for 25 years. His passion for health, fitness and providing students with positive and successful experiences in PE led to the publishing of Sport Covered, his exploration of teaching 23 sports using a games based approach to strengthen student’s development of game sense and their motivation to learn.
Following this Andrew turned his passion to providing relevant learning experiences for students, especially in the social, emotional and spiritual realms and this has led him to being one of the world’s most influential contemporary Rites of Passage creators and one of Australia’s most recognised boys’ educators. Each year about 10000 young people in over 100 schools are initiated into adulthood through his school based year-long Rite of Passage program ‘The Rite Journey’. This brings the total number of students having completed The Rite Journey to 50,000 from its beginning. He has worked with thousands of teachers in hundreds of schools to facilitate a process which honours the transition of our children into a responsible, respectful and resilient adulthood. His contemporary methodologies for working with students in middle years’ classrooms are being used by schools throughout Australia and New Zealand, South Korea, Mauritius, Curacao and Europe.
2013 saw him co-creating a new educational initiative, ‘Habits of Heart’ (www.habitsofheart.com), which are a set of 16 principles which when explicitly taught allow for the growth of social and emotional intelligence.
In March 2014 Andrew took his eldest son through a Rite of Passage experience in Central Australia drawing on his Rite Journey experience and more recently in 2017 he took his youngest son on his Rite of Passage Journey. He is now offering workshops to dads/uncles/grandfathers and mentors on creating a Rite of Passage for their boy. This process of creating a Rite of Passage is the subject of the new online course he is working on, it will outline a process of how we can transform our boys into fine young men.
Andrew has been keen to create resources that help teachers and parents in building relationships with their students and children. The Rite Journey Feeling Cards are the first of his suite of card sets. In 2015 Andrew worked on creating a resource to promote conversation and connection specifically amongst men and boys and in 2017 he teamed up with Jane Bennett to create his third Card resource, a set of conversation cards for women and girls, Woman Wise.
In 2018 Andrew created some resources which help parents ‘graduate responsibility’ with their children and assist in developing resourceful, responsible young men and women. This scaffolded process is called The Rite Journey Parenting Plan.
“Andrew is an exceptionally talented and dedicated teacher who provides a wonderful model of commitment to lifelong learning. His work with High School students demonstrates warmth and clarity, respect and understanding. Students appreciate his willingness to listen, his open and honest responses and his unswerving commitment to their development and wellbeing. Andrew’s lessons are dynamic and engaging, lively and challenging. Students are seen, heard and appreciated, and typically respond by working in a focussed and respectful way. Andrew is also generous in his support of parents and colleagues. As a professional mentor he offers practical advice and opportunities for others to observe and participate in his lessons. His deep understanding of the challenges faced by adolescents – boys in particular – is recognised and valued.
Andrew’s insights into the needs of adolescent boys led to the development of The Rite Journey, a year-long ‘coming of age’ program that now offers programs for both boys and girls. Andrew worked with colleagues to create manuals for teachers and workbooks for students. He has worked with the staff of schools and community organisations around the country to help them implement the program. Students who have participated and their parents have spoken in glowing terms of how the program has supported their children to step into the next phase of their lives with confidence and with respect for those who will continue to support them. Teachers also notice and appreciate the benefits of the program in providing a structure for the explorations of social and personal issues through the turbulent early high school years. In relation to Adolescent Mental Health, the program definitely provides a pro-active strategy.
Andrew is a wonderful communicator. He has been invited to speak about his work at national and international conferences. He shares insights from research and personal experience with warmth and good humour. He understands the struggles of young people, of parents and of teachers, and can speak to any group in a way that engages them. He is constantly searching for new ways to support students. He is committed to ensuring that each one develops the inner strength to overcome the obstacles that life will inevitably present. “
Felicity Hickman – A current mentor and past-principal of Andrew’s.
Teacher, Educational Consultant, Rite Journey Trainer and COO of The Rite Journey
We are honoured to have had Steve and Jane accept the invitation to be Rite Journey Elders. In this role their vast wisdom and experience serves to inform, support and uphold The Rite Journey program and facilitators.
AUTHOR, EDUCATOR AND CO-DEVELOPER OF THE RITE JOURNEY GIRLS’ PROGRAM
With a background in social work and clinical hypnotherapy Jane has worked with Natural Fertility Management for the last three decades, through which she became passionate about the need to transform inherited views of embarrassment and shame around menstruation (and the many knock on effects) into those that are conducive to menstrual, and general, wellbeing. See www.fertility.com.au for more about Natural Fertility Management.
In 2000 Jane created Celebration Day for Girls, a program for 10-12 year-old girls with their mothers, and later Fathers Celebrating Daughters for dads. In 2012 she began to train facilitators to run these programs in their own communities. Celebration Day for Girls is now available in over 20 countries. See www.celebrationdayforgirls.com.
Jane is the author of A Blessing Not a Curse and Girltopia: A world of real conversations for real girls, and the co-author of About Bloody Time, The Pill: are you sure it’s for you?, The Complete Guide to Optimum Conception, The Natural Fertility Management Contraception Kit and Woman Wise conversation cards (the latter with Andrew Lines).
In 2017 Jane founded the Chalice Foundation, a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to menstrual wellbeing, education and positive menstrual culture. See www.chalicefoundation.org for more and to sign up for blog updates.
In 2008 Jane was delighted to join Andrew, Graham and Amrita Hobbs to adapt and rewrite The Rite Journey (then just available for boys) as a meaningful and intentional rite of passage program and manual for girls. Jane frequently joins Andrew training teachers in schools implementing The Rite Journey, and has enjoyed meeting so many amazing teachers at fabulous schools, committed to the very best for their students. While she has worked primarily with girls and women Jane is takes a keen interest in boy’s journey to adulthood, as well as men’s experience as fathers.
Jane is a mother and grandmother, and lives with her husband Kim in the granite wilds of Central Victoria.
Parent educator, psychologist, author
Steve Biddulph is one of the world’s best known parent educators. A psychologist for over 35 years, he is now retired but continues to write and teach. Steve’s books including Raising Boys, The New Manhood and Raising Girls are in four million homes, and have changed the way we raise children to be more equal, but also more individual and unique. He brought fatherhood out of the shadows and has offered real solutions to making better, safer men.
Teacher, Rite Journey Teacher-Guide and co-developer of The Rite Journey
The Rite Journey recognises and pays our respects to the First Nations peoples across this country, whose lands were never ceded and remain important to the living First Nations peoples today. In particular we would like to acknowledge Peramangk First Nations Peoples and their ancestral lands on which our office is located.
We respect and acknowledge Elders past, present and emerging along with the living cultures, spirit, and country of all First Peoples.