The Jolly Discoveries Team

Celeste Musgrave and Santina DiMauro have been primary school teachers in NSW, Australia with over twenty years of classroom experience. They have specialised in the areas of early literacy and numeracy development of young children beginning school life.

Both completed a Masters degree with a thesis investigating children’s ability to learn higher order mathematical concepts. Celeste and Santina have inserviced teachers in mathematical discovery in the early years in various parts of Asia.The area of literacy development, in particular the reading and writing process using a synthetic phonics approach began their journey in teacher development. Celeste and Tina used a synthetic phonics program called Jolly Phonics by Sue Lloyd and Sara Wernham in their classrooms for 10 years and witnessed children succeeding in reading and writing.

The Jolly Discoveries was formed in 2005 by Celeste Musgrave and Santina DiMauro, two experienced literacy and numeracy teachers. Both Celeste and Santina have always had a passion for providing children in their early years with a wide range of learning styles that will endeavour to tap into their specific learning needs.

For six years Celeste and Santina have successfully run PD courses for teachers throughout Australia in synthetic phonics, grammar and other related areas of literacy.  It is with regret that Santina has decided to leave Jolly Discoveries and continue to pursue her passion elsewhere.

I am indebted to Santina for the wonderful contribution she has made over the years towards developing the high level of reputation Jolly Discoveries has gained in the field of education. The professionalism and dedication Santina has displayed will be sorely missed. For this reason I have chosen to leave Santina’s name as one of the founders of Jolly Discoveries. Thank you for the all fun times Santina.