Australia's 10 most influential education leaders 2019

10MOST
LEADERS
2019
Karen SpillerPersonifying Academic Expertise, Advocating Holistic Excellence
AUSTRALIA’S
INFLUENTIAL
EDUCATIONAL
NOWLEDGEREVIEWNOWLEDGEREVIEWEducation. Innovation. Success
TM
VOL 7
ISSUE-7
Karen Spiller OAM
Principal
2019

From the
EDITOR
The Alliance of Education
and Leadership
A strong leadership has always lea humanity towards
something greater which at first seemed unimaginable. In
education, a teacher assumes the position of teaching its
pupils, igniting their minds. Tutors empower their students
to thrive, and lead them towards something that would
make a difference in their lives.
Whenever a strong leadership goes hand-in-hand with
education it creates a positive impact in the scholastic
sphere. Their eminence relies on their outlook towards
education and how it could transform everything around
them. This further results in the foundation of better schools
and thereby nurturing the young minds who will shape the
future with infinite potential and possibilities.
ooking back at our history one couldn’t have
Lthought that from where we are now, it would have
been hard to arrive at this time. The obstacles we
have faced in formidable situations, the dangers that
humanity has faced, there were less signs that we would
have thrived and become the important species that we are
now.
Thanks to our curiosity, intelligence, and sedulous nature,
we’ve become something close to the most thriving
organisms on this planet. But following these values with
utmost sincerity can only be found in people who don’t
compromise on the things that matter. The people who are
an embodiment of the above values, who face the
challenges head-on are bestowed with the position of
leadership.
T R
Vishal Muktewar
Vishal Muktew

sales@insightssuccess.com
Circulation Manager Tanaji
Research Analyst Eric Smith
Phill
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal
Anish MillerSenior Editor
Executive Editor Stella Andrew
Art & Design Head Amol Kamble
Art & Design Assistant Mayur Koli
Visualiser David King
Business Development Executive
Managing Editor Abhishaj Sajeev
Paul BelinCo-designer
David BrownBusiness Development Manager
Sales Executives
Amy, Frank, John, Helen, Steve, Kevin
SME-SMO Executives
Uma, Gemson, Manoj
Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege
Technical Consultants Pratiksha, David, Robert
Technical Head Jacob Smile
Ananda, VishalContributing Editors
Art Picture Editor& Poonam Mahajan
Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza
Assistant Technical Head Amar Sawant
Assistant Marketing ManagerDigital Prashant Chevale
Insights Success Media Tech LLC
555 Metro Place North,
Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States
Phone - (614)-602-1754
JULY, 2019
Copyright © 2019 Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd., All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights success. Reprint rights
remain solely with Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. The Knowledge Review is powered by Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Off. No. 22 & 510, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk,
Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017
Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85
Email: info@insightssuccess.in
For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in

CXO
Karen
Spiller
Personifying Academic Expertise,
Advocating Holistic Excellence
Cover Stroy08
Envisioning Education
What does the future hold?
An Australian Principal’s thoughts
A Reformative Unison
Where Chalkboards and Digital
Screens Coexist
48
40
ARTICLE
The Perks of Early
Childhood Education
First Steps
Modern OutlookExpertise Lessons
26

Contents
An Educationist
Leading the Young
Minds
James Kozlowski
At the Forefront
of an Educational
Reformation
Kelly Gervasoni
At the Helm of a
Voyage towards
Progressive Education
Mark Robertson
An Enthusiastic
Educator Focused on
Academic and
Community Development
Narelle Nies
Empowering Schools
and Educators
Globally
Steve Francis
Voyaging for
Excellence,
Reforming Education
Timothy Barlow
18 22 30
36 44 52

ducation plays a vital role in everyone’s life. We are being taught since childhood to do our homework,
Eto participate in different extracurricular activities such as sports, acting, singing, dancing and so much
more. The ultimate purpose of these activities to mold us in the best way possible. Understanding
ourselves, about our likes and dislikes, strengths and weakness eventually lead us to become what we are
meant to be.
For some people, the education that has been imparted on them helps to foster essential skills and take on the
leadership roles. The leadership role has its importance beyond our imagination.
Every organization needs an individual to look up to as a torchbearer; someone who will lead the way even in
the toughest situations; who would like to take on the challenges and embrace the uncertainty. And the minds
who are responsible for creating such people are visionary educational leaders. Their dedication to the constant
improvement, discipline, and will, help them to prepare the best educational institutions that will be
responsible for nurturing and developing the students who will make a difference in the world.
In this edition, we at The Knowledge Review, emphasize on our intent of finding the few profound
educationists who take on the responsibility of catering to the necessity in upholding the value of education,
and the edition Australia’s 10 Most Influential Educational Leaders, 2019 epitomizes such significant
individuals for the better.
Featuring on our cover story is Karen Spiller, the Principal of John Paul College, Brisbane.
Karen has been teaching and leading in Queensland Schools for almost forty years following a traditional
career pathway of Secondary Teacher, Head of Department, Deputy Principal and Principal. Her journey as a
Principal is twenty years young. She has held national and state leadership roles as National Chair of the
Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia and National President of the Alliance of Girls
Schools, Australasia.
She is currently the State Chair of Independent Schools Queensland, a member of the national body
Independent Schools Council Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools’Association and Yalari which is an
organisation which supports the education of indigenous young people. Karen is also a member of the
International Education and Training Advisory Group to the Queensland Government and a member of
advisory bodies for the Business Faculty of QUT and the Health Faculty at Bond University.
The edition also features, James Kozlowski, the Principal of Endeavour Sports High School; Kelly
Gervasoni, the Year 9 Coordinator at St Andrews Lutheran College; Mark Robertson, the Principal and
CEO of Oakleigh Grammar; Narelle Nies, the Principal of Revesby Public School; Steve Francis, a
Certified Speaking Professional and the Managing Director of the Happy School Program; and Timothy
Barlow, the Director of Technology Innovation at St. Leonard’s College.
The magazine also features articles by emerging educational leaders, who have contributed immensely to the
discipline of education in Australia, and also articles written by our in-house editorial team.
Bon Apetite!
ducation plays a vital role in everyone’ducation plays a vital role in everyone’
Eto participate in different extracurricular activities such as sports, acting, singing, dancing and so much
ducation plays a vital role in everyone’
E
T R
The Guiadance that Emancipates from Ignorance

CoverStoryCoverStory
Aword of encouragement from a
teacher to a child can change a
life. A word of encouragement
from a spouse can save a marriage. A word
of encouragement from a leader can inspire
a person to reach their potential.”
– John C. Maxwell
If one is to study the persona of an
educational leader, the most evident factor
unveiled is their exhibition of aspects such
as determination, passion, expertise and
erudition.
Through this edition titled, Australia’s 10
Most Inﬂuential Educational Leaders to
watch, 2019, we at The Knowledge
Review, present to you a list of such
exceptional educational reformers, wherein
featuring on the cover is Karen Spiller
OAM, the Principal of John Paul
College, Brisbane.
Karen
SpillerPersonifying Academic Expertise,
Advocating Holistic Excellence
“
alr it as ’suA
INFLUENTIAL
EDUCATION
LEADERS
-2019
MOST
10

Karen has been teaching and leading in Queensland Schools for almost forty
years following a traditional career pathway of Secondary Teacher, Head of
Department, Deputy Principal and Principal. Her journey as a Principal is twenty
years young. She has held national and state leadership roles as National Chair of
the Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia and National
PresidentoftheAllianceofGirlsSchools,Australasia.
She is currently the State Chair of Independent Schools Queensland, a member
of the national body Independent Schools Council Australia, the Australian
Boarding Schools’ Association and Yalari which is an organisation which supports
the education of indigenous young people. Karen is also a member of the
International Education and Training Advisory Group to the Queensland
Government and a member of advisory bodies for the Business Faculty of QUT
andtheHealthFacultyatBondUniversity.
Through her career, Karen has held roles through the Anglican Schools
Commission and the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. She
was Principal at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in Brisbane for 18 years and led it
tobecomingoneofthemostsuccessfulschoolsinAustralia.

On the Trophy Shelf
All along her voyage, Karen has been
adorning her hat with a number of feathers.
For her, a medal of the Order of Australia
(OAM) in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Day
honours list was very special.
Other highlights of her successful career
include a Churchill Fellowship in 2011, which
allowed her to travel and undertake further research into strategies
for better equipping women for the role of Principalship in
Australian schools.
The International Rotary Award – the Paul Harris Fellowship is also
a valuable one for Karen as it was an award made by her local
branch to recognise leadership in the community as well as at a
national level.

Karen has also received awards nationally
by the Federal Government agency EOWA
for Leading CEO for the Advancement of
Women and for Excellence in Music
Education and from the Modern Languages
Teachers Association for Excellence in
School Leadership. Karen feels honoured by
all of these accolades and awards, as all she
wants to do is help others as she has been
assisted and mentored, and give back to the
profession.
She is also a Fellow of the Australian
College of Educators, the Australian Council
of Educational Leaders, the Australian
Institute of Company Directors, Australian
Institute of Managers, the CEO Institute and
the Australian Marketing Association.
Enlightening the World
Pertaining to her profound experience,
Karen ceaselessly contributes to uplifting
the value of education. For her, one of the
most significant contributions has been
encouraging the leadership of others.
“Seven staff who worked with me directly –
are now Principals of other Independent
Schools around Australia – and I have
mentored at least another ten into senior
leadership roles,” says Karen.
Additionally, through the Aspiring Women’s
leadership conference which she launched in
2006 with her colleague Ros Curtis, she has
positively motivated and influenced the
career of hundreds of female leaders. This
conference has been offered in both
Brisbane and Perth annually since its
inception in 2006.
“Research says that quality educational
leaders make an evident difference to the
academic outcomes of students and their
experience of school life as well as to the
success of a school. When we have an
ageing workforce and evidence of declining
interest in school leadership roles, it is vital
that we have strong and motivated teachers
in the leadership pipeline,” Karen expresses.
Karen emphasizes on the necessity of each
student being in classrooms with highly
qualified, passionate and successful teachers
who can genuinely support each student to
achieve their best and make them feel good
about themselves. This has been achieved
through setting high expectations of Karen
herself, the leadership team and all the staff
of the school. Each change and teaching
strategy has been grounded in educational
research.
In addition, Karen also enjoys presenting
research papers at international and national
conferences on a variety of topics including
educational improvement and change.
The Bridge towards Success
John Paul College was established in 1982
as Queensland’s first Christian Ecumenical
College. It is an independent, co-educational
K-12 College with an Early Learning
Centre, a small Boarding house and an
English Language College. JPC’s purpose is;
To Educate, To Inspire, To Make a
Difference.
As a relatively young school, the calibre of
its alumni is a great testimony to the success
of the school. This list of alumni includes
Dami Im, Mitchell Larkin, David Baxby,
Luke Trouchet, William Liu, Clare
Ferguson, Lachlan Power and Paul Olds.
Known in the 80s and 90s for its Marching
Band on the international stage at the
opening of the Sydney Olympics, the
Calvary Stampede and Expo ‘88, as well as
being one of the first schools in Australia to
introduce 1-1 laptops, JPC is especially
proud that ACARA identified it as one of the
few schools in Australia that demonstrated
significant improvements in their writing
and numeracy progression based on the
2018 NAPLAN results.
Describing the work culture at John Paul
College, Karen says, “We are all here for
one reason - our students.” She expresses
that it is the reason she and other educational

leaders get out of bed every morning; not just to pay the
mortgage. “To Educate, To Inspire, To Make a Difference –
this is why they come to school every day. To ensure that
every child we are privileged to teach, receives the very best
we can give.”
“Do I need to say more about a passionate and positive
school culture? The schools I have worked in and now lead,
all have had a genuine commitment to broad educational
opportunities. This means a focus on leadership
development, community service and extensive extra and
co- curricular activities that often include exchange
opportunities, and local and international travel for
students,” She adds.
Beyond Challenges lies Wisdom
When asked about the challenges that she came across in
her career, Karen says, “Change is always difficult. There
have been times both in my previous schools and at JPC
when some people have been resistant to change. I guess
this is human nature. Quite often people think they or the
school is perfect the way that it is. My view is that if you
are not moving forward, you are stagnant or moving
backwards.”
One of the books that changed Karen’s life is ‘Good to
Great’ by Jim Collins. “I read this in 2005 and have been a
different leader ever since. It gave me the language and
thinking capabilities to be more confident in what I felt
needed to be done. I am more passionate and more focussed
since embracing Collin’s work,” Karen express.
When it comes to staying motivated and instilling the same
upon her students, Karen believes that it is easy to keep
motivated when one thinks of the awesome responsibility

she and other leaders have, to influence positively the lives
of their students, in whichever school they are privileged to
lead.
For Karen, it is not only about giving students the best
education possible to allow post school options, but to also
giving them choices in their future career and within the
world of work. More importantly, it is about them feeling
confident and capable, feeling that they can make a
difference in this world and local community.
“As a Principal, you have so much ability to change
people’s lives for the better, and that includes our staff.
Inspiring students to make a difference is such an important
responsibility. Our young people have a privileged
education that millions in the world do not have access to.
In some cases, they are the most educated in their family.
They too, have an awesome responsibility to reach forward
and make a difference to others and our community,” says
Karen.
Karen expresses her pride in being the Principal of John
Paul College, and together with the passionate, professional
staff and dedicated school board, she wants to ensure that
JPC provides an outstanding education to all young people,
who in turn, go into the world continuing to make a
difference. T R

GLOBAL SUBSCRIPTION
SUBSCRIBE TO SUCCESS
READ IT FIRST
Address :
Country :City : State : Zip :
Date :Name :
Telephone :
Email :
Check should be drawn in favor of : INSIGHTS SUCCESS MEDIA TECH LLC
CORPORATE OFFICE
The Knowledge Review
555 Metro Place North, Suite 100,
Dublin, OH 43017,United States
Contact No.: (614)-602-1754; (614)-472-4768
Email: info@theknowledgereview.com
For Subscription: Visit www.theknowledgereview.com

Education plays the most crucial role in a person’s
life, of which the high school plays the most
important part in moulding the character and
personality of a student. High schools are thus those
small footsteps that help students take the giant leap to
conquer the world. High schools these days are geared to
give the student the best education by offering various
programs and facilities.
Students in high school are generally of the age where
sports and games play an important role. It is imperative
for schools to balance studies and sports. For students
and their parents, it is then important to choose a high
school that perfectly fits their needs and requirements. A
student could be good at sports or studies or both. What
is expected of the school is to develop the student’s
abilities in those areas where they are hindered and
produce a person with all round abilities and skills.
James Kozlowski, Principal of Endeavour Sports High
School is a dedicated educationist with requisite skills
and experience. He has a Bachelor of Economics, and
holds a Diploma in Education besides a Masters in
Educational Leadership and Management from the
world’s prestigious University of Sydney. Completing
his education, he started off by teaching at Sarah Redfern
High School. With his exceptional skills, a few years
down the road, he was to become the Deputy Principal at
Belmore Boys High School. His next assignment saw
him take over from the outgoing Principal at Endeavour
Sports High School.
James believes in enhancing the abilities of others and
seeing them grow as an individual. To this end, he has
and shall always be happy to guide the young generation
on the path of success.
About Endeavour Sports High School
Endeavour Sports High School is that one place which
provides the best of everything be it education or sports.
Once you join the institution, there is no looking back,
other than in happiness! The aim of the school has
always been to provide a teaching and learning
environment that enhances the abilities of its students be
it in studies or sports and sets benchmarks on what to
expect from its students, which its students have always
bettered year after year. Students are the school’s biggest
ambassadors with the faculty and the administration
leaving no stones unturned to help develop them into
responsible citizens who also are successful in their
chosen endeavours.
An Educationist Leading the Young Minds
James Kozlowski
James Kozlowski
Principal
18 | JULY 2019

As a sports high school, Endeavour
aims to be the best junior talent
development program in Australia.
It calls for huge encouragement,
outstanding coaching and
mentoring, and exceptional
facilities, unique sporting
partnerships and the deliver the best
in sports science. At the core of the
school’s culture are academic
excellence, personal best,
commitment and respect. Every
student is shaped by the staff &
faculty members who take personal
responsibility for the former’s
behaviour and development while
providing a supportive
environment. It has helped create a culture that values
every student of the school and has helped create some
of the most gifted academic and sporting individuals out
of them.
Core Values, Mission and Vision.
Calling themselves the Endeavour Family, they have
developed a strong sense of community across the school
which values the success and achievement of all its
students and demonstrates the same through public
recognition of such acts and events. The aim in doing so
is to instill the right qualities in the students besides
creating in them an interest in learning while inculcating
compassion for others and a desire to always do their
best.
Due to its “high expectations policy”, the school has
successfully established academic achievement as its top
priority and “extension classes” have been established
under the guidance and coordination of an expert. In
addition, the school employs a PhD who mentors the
school’s high school students and helps them do their
best in academics by various means including holding
one-to-one meetings with individual students throughout
the latter’s time in the school.
The above besides, Endeavour Sports High School has a
high-quality study skills program for all years, a fully
funded science, technology, engineering and maths
(STEM) program, and partnerships with the University
of Sydney and the University of
Technology.
Overcoming challenges
In the year 2014, the school went
through a low phase, and James as
its Principal, had to face tough
times. Enrolment rates had gone
critically low which a survey of
the staff, parents, students and the
local community revealed was
partly due to low morale,
widespread student apathy and
poor community perception. To
overcome the situation, James
engaged a research organization to
conduct a survey of the various stakeholders in the
community to derive data to analyse the community’s
needs and ways to address them. Person to person
interactions and meetings with the staff and the
students were conducted besides the thorough
examination of available external and internal data
which lead to the formulation of a comprehensive
plan.
Achievements
James has led an enthusiastic and dedicated staff who
have delivered an amazing turnaround for the school.
Personal Achievements:
➢ Recipient of the Harvard Club of Australia
leadership scholarship, Harvard University, 2018
Elected as the President of the Sutherland
Secondary Principals Council in the year 2018.
NSW Department of Education’s Ultimo
Operational Directorate Award for ‘Significant
Achievement as a Principal’ in the year 2016.
Elected as the Vice President of the NSW Sports
High School Association in the year 2015.
Professional Awards:
➢ Government Secondary School of the Year at the
19JULY 2019 |

Australian Education Awards
in the year 2018
NSW Department of
Education’s Ultimo
Operational Directorate
Award for ‘Significant
Achievement’ in the year
2017.
Public Schools NSW
Vocational Education and
Training School of the Year
Award in the year 2017
Selected by the Public
Education Foundation for the
filming of a video promoting
excellence in public education
in the year 2017.
Friendly Work Culture
At Endeavour, every activity
is geared towards helping
students pursue excellence.
The bedrock of the school is
to value people irrespective of
backgrounds and provide
opportunities that help them reach their potential. In
doing so, it aims to engage and motivate staff and
students to achieve their best.
“We try to ensure that not only do our students succeed
academically, but they become good citizens who want to
make positive contributions to our society,” said James.
Contributions Towards the Society and the Education
System
The school uses a multipronged approach to know how
best to create the right teaching and learning
environment. Information derived from the Higher
School Certificate results, NAPLAN and VALID results
have been extensively scoured and extrapolated with the
outcome of various interviews and surveys of students,
staff and parents’ responses. Information thus gathered
has been analysed in the light of the best and most
comprehensive of researches worldwide on best
practices in the field to develop and implement strategies
relevant to the context.
How to stay motivated
James says, “I am motivated every day by my students
and staff.” He loves his job and thinks it’s a privilege to
be the Principal of such a prestigious Institution that is
known for its educational environment which helps
develop leaders and achievers of the future. He hopes to
inspire others by performing his role in a way that
supports others to be the best they can.
Roadmap to Future
Currently, James is happy with the success he has
achieved through his work. He believes the best reward
lies in observing the success of others and their
happiness on achieving their goal(s). He never plans a
path for the future, he rather embraces opportunities
coming his way and makes the most of them. James as a
person is one who firmly believes in establishing
structures that guarantee long term success.
His aim is to implement the core values of the school and
progress upon them over the years.
“Everything we have implemented at Endeavour over the
past few years has contributed to a culture that is
built for longevity,” says James.T R
21JULY 2019 |

The course of mankind’s evolution and the norms
and methodologies of education have evidently
been treading on the same roads, hand in hand,
leveraging the opportunities provided by technology. This
correlational evolution has birthed a certain sect of people,
who uphold the prominence of contemporary education and
the resultant profundity of its acknowledgment, and who
can be safely assumed to be designated as educational
leaders. To simply exhibit an example, while not
stereotyping, of how and what an educational leader should
be, we wish to place the spotlight on Kelly Gervasoni, the
Year 9 Coordinator at St Andrews Lutheran College.
Kelly’s teaching career began in 2012 when she was
granted ‘special provision’ with the Victorian Institute of
th
Teaching to start teaching in her 4 year of university study
for Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences/Bachelor of
Education. During her first few years, she developed mentor
relationships with the Head of Mathematics and School
Principal and admired their strong leadership
characteristics. These relationships enabled her growth as
an educational leader through their support and
encouragement of reflective practices. Kelly remembers her
Principal saying, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
She made the conscious effort to say yes to all opportunities
within reason and made multi-level action goals with these
mentors. Kelly strongly believes that self-awareness is a
crucial element of an effective leader (Goleman, 2013) and
thus, regularly reviewed her strengths and weaknesses and
incorporated these into her action goals.
Kelly began working at St Andrews Lutheran College as a
Middle/Senior School teacher and made the conscious
effort to develop authentic relationships with her
colleagues, which were based on trust and authenticity.
During this process, she developed a new Mentor – the
Deputy Principal, Mrs. Virginia Warner, and admired her
passion, dedication and having relationships at the core of
her practice. Kelly longed to have those excellent relational
skills and patience with colleagues and thus knew Mrs.
Warner was the next mentor who could enhance her
leadership skills.
In 2019, Kelly was offered further opportunities at St
Andrews, including the role of Year 9 Coordinator. She was
excited to lead and empower another team in the area of
Student Wellbeing, where she could use her knowledge and
skills learnt from her postgraduate studies. Her career
aspirations as an educational leader are to become an
effective leader in the area of student wellbeing, where she
hopes to initiate productive collaboration amongst staff and
students to facilitate quality practices that are reflective and
model life-long learning amongst staff and students.
At the Forefront of
an Educational Reformation
Kelly Gervasoni
Year 9 Coordinator
22 | JULY 2019

At the Helm of Innovation
On a local level, Kelly collaboratively
undertook an Action Research project
with the School Psychologist, Mrs.
Robyn Rudd on their interest area –
enhancing engagement of middle-
school female students. They utilized
current resources and existing
research to modify pre-existing
programs and mesh them to address
their desired outcomes for students at
St Andrews. While there were
limitations in the research project
including a small sample size and a
short timeframe, the duo has added
insight into previous research on the impact of facilitator
training for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
programs, specifically the role of the teacher compared to a
trained psychologist.
Pertaining to the St Andrews motto in 2019, ‘Learners
leading learning,’ Kelly has been leading the learning way
while also encouraging students and staff to be the leaders
in their education. In other words, students understand the
teacher’s role of being a learning facilitator, rather than the
expert. As within the 21st century, students have access to a
multitude of educational resources and Kelly encourages
them to embrace learning from differing platforms.
Furthermore, she emphasizes that positive self-efficacy
beliefs, motivation and effort are the key indicators for
future success.
Delivering Distinction
Kelly states that St Andrews Lutheran College’s mission
statement: ‘Celebrating the Gospel, Nurturing the
Individual, Empowering Lifelong Learners’ stands as a firm
statement about what St Andrews is, and has been at the
heart of the College since its inception. The school strives
to provide a high quality education in a Christian context.
“We value a holistic approach, and encourage students to
develop values that enrich the intellect, nurture the spirit,
develop social responsibility and create healthy lifestyles,”
Kelly expresses.
St Andrews is widely regarded as a caring school and places
a high priority on pastoral care. The school has adopted
Positive Psychology as their wellbeing focus with the aim
of proactively building wellbeing and
resilience of students. The staff works
hard at developing nurturing
relationships with students because
encouraging and affirming relationships
lie at the heart of effective learning. A
strong sense of community and
belonging can be found at St Andrews.
The staff enjoy strong parental support
and involvement, and seeks to work in
partnership with their local community.
The school is at the forefront of
innovation regarding technology and
classroom design in Australia. All staff
and students use Microsoft OneNote
for their teaching and learning, as well as the professional
development of staff. Furthermore, it has updated its
classroom design in line with current research. As a result,
the teaching methods are moving away from ‘traditional’
teaching with no central front of room, rather an integrated
learning environment that is ‘learner centered.’ Wherever a
student sits in the classroom, they should feel at the center
of their learning experience and the classroom setup is
similar to future collaborative workplace environments. All
students and staff can access classroom resources and
lesson plans at school or externally, which are displayed via
interactive whiteboards and multiple television screens in
each classroom.
Competing with the one in the Mirror
Juggling the work-life balance has been an ongoing
challenge for Kelly since the beginning of her teaching
career. “I have high expectations for myself and I am
passionate about education, so sometimes this love for
teaching can intertwine with my personal life,” says Kelly.
Since she advocates healthy wellbeing with her students
and staff, she feels it is important that she role-models such
wellbeing. Thus, teacher wellbeing has been an area of
focus for her over the last few years, especially with the
increased workload and innovation of technology which
enables people to work from home.
Kelly has set rules in place to ensure she maintains a
healthy work-life balance and this includes turning off
emails from 6pm-6am, avoiding work on weekends if
possible and scheduling her fitness routine a week ahead.
While reflective practice has significantly enhanced her
23JULY 2019 |

leadership skills, it was challenging for Kelly to allow
herself to be analyzed by others in her initial years of
teaching. “Once I got ‘comfortable being uncomfortable,’
as my Principal says, I began to seek and embrace the
feedback I received and used it to further develop my
leadership skills. Reflective practice has been a key element
to my success as a leader,” Kelly expresses.
The Light of Inspiration
When asked about how she manages to both, stay inspired
and also inspire others around her, Kelly says, “It all boils
down to passion. I absolutely love teaching! It is my dream
career and I enjoy having a positive impact on my students
daily. Teaching is such a rewarding career and it gives me
butterflies every time a student has the “AH-HUH, I get it!”
moment.’ That, for Kelly, is the light bulb moment for a
student who understands a new skill or knowledge. Kelly
describes herself as one of those overly excited math
teachers. Sometimes her students laugh about how excited
she gets, explaining new concepts, especially when she
teaches mathematical proofs like the Pythagoras theorem.
To inspire her students, she uses her passion for teaching
and her high expectations. Through setting high
expectations, she is providing courage to her students by
saying “yes, I believe in you! I’ve set the bar high because
I know you can master these skills.”
Beholding New Horizons
At 28 years of age with seven years teaching experience,
Kelly believes she still has much more to learn and offer to
the world of education. Within the next 5 years, she aims to
further enhance her leadership skills within her passion area
– Student Wellbeing. Eventually, she would like to be in a
role of greater influence on student wellbeing, such as Head
of School or Head of Wellbeing, where she could have a
greater impact and influence on the students of the college.
All the while, Kelly firmly emphasizes on the fact that it
takes a team to educate a child.
“St Andrews Lutheran College is one of the leading
Positive Education Schools in Queensland, embedding
restorative practices within its culture,” Kelly asserts. “We
are leaders in innovation and technology, with new
classroom designs in line with current research and all
students and staff use Microsoft OneNote for all teaching
purposes,” she adds. The school’s aim is to further research
and enhance its practices to ensure it remains at the
forefront of positive education, innovation and technology.T R
25JULY 2019 |

Childhood
Education
The Perks of Early
26 | JULY 2019

The education sector is growing
continuously with the help of
technology, advance syllabus models,
and the on-going momentum of eﬀective
alternations. This continuous growth is
meticulously working towards making
education a more feasible and friendly act.
With each passing year, the word of
education is transforming and is setting
benchmarks, which are helping the citizens
for the longer run.
As every year, there are thousands and
millions of parents who are enrolling their
children in schools, but this has seen a
considerable change as parents are now
enrolling into early childhood
education/preschool. There are one too many
reasons why these parents are doing so, but
so keep it on a general note, it is just a head
start for their educational journey. Many
times, the kids are frightened when they are
going to start school, they tend to be anxious
and sometimes fussy, hence early childhood
education is an excellent idea to start with a
routine of letting the kids feel more at ease.
By doing so, the kids develop a habit for
spending some time in one place, make
friends, learn good deeds, and gain some
conﬁdence for schooling.
Contemplating its Need
The question arises, why is there a need for
young kids to go to preschool. Sometimes,
parents doubt the need for this, as they think
that kids only learn numbers, letters, and easy
concepts, which can be thought nearly at
First Steps
27JULY 2019 |

home also. However, this is not completely true, even though kids only learn the
basics at preschool, a recent survey says during preschool, which is between the
age of 2 to 4, there is a high level of grasping power and learning. The kids at this age are
extremely active and have an enormous amount of energy, which needs to be chased in the
right manner. Channelizing this energy to productivity gains is what the teacher at the
preschool aims for, understanding their places of likes and dislikes they are able to help the kids
learn better.
As every student is one of its kinds, the skills, and talents every student has been nurtured through the
early development curricula. Through preschool, the students are exposed to a plethora of opportunities
and are prepared to tackle the hurdles effectively, which will be presented to them in kindergarten. With
their strong basics and foundation, they are ready to put their best foot forward and rise up to their
maximum potential.
Profits of Early Childhood Education
Graduation is a dream in itself; every student envisions of graduating in their respective career field and
further achieve their professional excellence. Graduation is not the only advantage of enrolling children in
preschool.
The National Education Association (NEA) lists various studies that show the major reasons of early
childhood education results in higher levels of employment and greater incomes in adulthood, no
repetition during the grades, and exceptional scores in tests, a lower rate of teenage spasms, and many
more. With such breakthrough results, it is clearly evident that early childhood education is an investment
for a lifetime.
With immense opportunities, exposures, placements, these students are able to mark their identity in the
coming times and become responsible citizens of their country. The parents looking to enroll their students
in preschool should definitely do so without any doubt as this is an essential and remarkable step in life.
Also, with the help of government authorities, society should take initiatives and give emphasis on
programs for preschool. The students who are not fortunate enough with such resources should also be
helped and given preschool education.
The Momentous Strides of the Educators
Helping the students on the go are the early childhood educators/ preschool teachers who play a crucial
role in the upliftment of the student’s development. They tend to inspire, motivate, and train the students
to push their limits and perform to their abilities. The teachers bring forth student joyful activities and
embrace them with utmost guidance to learn more and more with each passing day.
They teach the kids to explore, learn from what the world has to offer them and discover their dreams and
paths. At this tender age, the students should be molded responsibly and with the perfect blend of teaching
and values. As the child’s brain development happens in these initial three to four years, it is important to
understand their mindsets so they will reach the developmental milestones in their futures. T R
28 | JULY 2019

The landscape of education, across the globe, is
constantly in a state of evolution. Leveraging
technology, understanding the shifting learning
needs of diﬀerent age groups and delivering the best quality
holistic education are the aspects that have become a USP
for a number of schools. One of the many factors playing a
crucial role in spearheading the transformation of schools
and the educational sector, for the better, are prominent
educational leaders like Mark Robertson, the Principal
and CEO of Oakleigh Grammar, Melbourne.
“I have been blessed and honoured in my career in
Education to have been involved in the leadership of
Schools in a wide variety of educational styles and
settings,” Mark expresses. He states that this exposure has
allowed him to develop a ﬂexible mind-set, with regard to
approaches to educational policy and practice, and to allow
him to mould within a team context environments which
best cater for students within the cultural context of that
particular community.
Mark says that he is immensely enjoying his role as CEO
and Principal of Oakleigh Grammar and has concrete
relationships with the Board of Management and
undoubtedly with the entire community. A characteristic of
Mark's leadership has been the ease with which he is able to
interact with the various personalities which make up a
school community. He draws energy and deep satisfaction
through connecting with others and understanding their life
stories. Mark’s role as CEO is essentially important to his
role as Educational Leader. He believes that strong business
decisions based on accurate data and reliable forecasting is
essential as a leader of a multi-million dollar turnover
business.
Mark regularly involves with wider educational bodies and
often participates and attends international conferences
during school holiday periods to ensure contemporary
pedagogical practices are at the fore-front of pedagogical
discussion within his current School. Mark strongly
believes that quality teaching and learning essentially
means appropriate investment in developing quality
teaching, and learning practices and investment from the
annual budget in this area is very important. Mark’s
membership of the AHISA Vic Executive, CSE Board and
associations with ACEL and the IB continue to allow him to
contribute to and to learn from others on a macro level of
educational policy and reform.
Overcoming Adversities
Mark states that leading an Independent School in 2019 is
much more complex than it has ever been. He says that
At the Helm of a Voyage
towards Progressive Education
Mark Robertson
Principal and CEO
30 | JULY 2019

strong and healthy relationships and
support are critical to ensuring not
only stability in the role but, indeed
relates to all aspects of this privileged
role. “In reality, I love the role of
Head due to the variety and
complexity inherent in it,” Mark
expresses. He comprehends the
various responsibilities he has to cater
to, such as understanding that
compliance is extremely onerous but
essential, financial diligence in a
multi-million dollar business is
critical, working with key
stakeholders with differing agendas
presents its challenges. Hence, he’s
able to draw a conclusion that
managing the affairs of a large and
Independent School is a mammoth task but also an
extremely rewarding one.
Mark has had the experience of managing both
multi-campus and single campus schools and has known
first-hand that challenges are always present in a variety of
forms – the key to managing those challenges rests with
calm, objective and value laden processes to arrive at the
best outcomes for all parties consistent with what is in the
best interest of his school’s reputation.
A Comprehensive Learning Culture
Mark is of the opinion that modelling by staff of the
Christian values of the School is essential to student success
within that value system. He believes creativity is often
stifled in students at an early age due to poor culture and
structures evident in many schools. The solution to this in
Mark’s opinion is inquiry based learning, balanced with
explicit teaching which allows students to strengthen
fundamental skills and to access high-order thinking, thus
propelling them to reach their potential in their learning
journey. “The love of learning emanates from curiosity,”
Mark emphasizes.
He states that the learning culture of a School is directly
influenced by the inherent values system therein. Mark
believes that a Christian doctrine leads to harmony, respect
and importantly to social responsibility within a multi-
cultural context and in a sense the moral fabric of a School
Community is underpinned by faith, courage and trust in
everyone’s intrinsic beliefs. Personifying Christian life has
been and continues to be important in Mark’s leadership,
allowing him to exemplify the inherent
values into everyday School life.
Aiding the Community’s Progress
Mark believes that consistent
leadership presence is very important in
providing confidence and familiarity to
the community. He cherishes the
regular opportunities to interact with
his community in both a meaningful
and significant fashion. Certainly, most
days he endeavours to be circulating
around the school, greeting parents and
students and genuinely interacting with
them as they enter and exit the school.
Opportunities to be actively engaged
and involved in school life are
something he strongly values.
Mark considers that it is very important to preserve key
traditions of a well-established and reputable school as
students look forward to these embedded cultural norms as
they progress through their school. He ensures these
traditions are protected in line with respectful and sensitive
character and behaviour. “We learn for life and in life we
learn – every member of my School Community is
encouraged to adopt a mind-set of being a leader and a
learner – for that is the culture I have developed and
continue to develop at my current School,” Mark expresses.
Imparting Inspiration
According to Mark, the importance of establishing open
and authentic relationships in the workplace cannot be
understated. In a values driven Christian organisation,
genuine connections between key stakeholders through the
embodiment of the School’s mission is integral to its
success as an institution that is seeking to bring out the best
in each student as they discover their own passions and
interests. Accessibility and approachability of a school
leadership team and indeed all staff is of enormous
importance to the quality of relationships developed.
Mark believes that educational leaders should be intentional
and genuine in their approach to collaboration while
enabling growth and development through outlining clear
expectations and boundaries whilst enabling growth for
engagement, creativity and personal flair. In turn, trust is
developed and the resulting engagement sets a path for the
care and wellbeing of all. Mark also states, “Fundamentally,
in 2019 we must always put the welfare of our students at
31JULY 2019 |

the fore of any decisions undertaken and be open,
transparent and strongly committed to all elements of Child
Safety.” To this end, Mark’s Leadership at Oakleigh
Grammar is strong yet compassionate, leaving no one in
doubt that the school’s commitment to every student in
providing a safe learning environment is of paramount
importance.
Leadership Philosophy
Mark emphasizes upon the fact that educational leadership
must be authentic. He believes that objective assessments
via the identification, collection and analysis of data, is
essential to ensure students’ learning journey is providing
the stimulus for maximum development. Mark is a big fan
of Carol Dweck’s mind-set framework, as it relates to the
application of everyday life. At his current School Mark and
his team initiate new projects as trials and have had great
success in particular with neuroscience based programs; to
that end the team has nourished many young people to
achieve at their highest possible level.
According to Mark, a holistic development of each student
is one that is the very essence of an enduring and
worthwhile education. The growth of international and
national movements such as ‘R u okay?’ and ‘Me too’
suggest that there is scope to more explicitly cultivate the
importance of further open and respectful relationships
involving males in the community. Increased awareness
about students’ emotional and mental health has grown
significantly and community figures such as sporting
identities in part have contributed to increasing this
community awareness through their admissions that they
too are struggling to navigate an emotional terrain that has
any pitfalls along the way.
Mark holds a personal passion to assist students in
understanding their place and what it really means to be a
responsible community citizen. One area of achievement
that he is very proud of at his current school is the
implementation of a highly recognised, yet unique
(to Australia) character development program which has
obtained the highest level of quality assurance.
Mark expresses that at Oakleigh Grammar the VCE median
study score has increased by 5 to 6 increments in the time
he has been Principal and takes pride in this achievement
too. However, he states that the welfare of each and every
child at Oakleigh Grammar must always be at the forefront;
every student requires nurturing and needs to feel valued
within their school community and to this end both
academia and welfare must be developed ‘hand in hand’.
“A key factor in realising success in any area of School
Improvement is the dynamic of the executive leadership
team,” says Mark. “Action plans developed within a strong
consultative culture modelled by the leadership team
empowers staff to innovate and achieve outcomes that must
be shared within the Oakleigh Grammar community,” he
adds.T R
33JULY 2019 |

Adedicated educational leader spearheads
educational innovation with a moral purpose. They
have strong faith in themselves and possess a
forever-learning attitude. Such leaders ceaselessly guide
and support their colleagues and students towards growth
and betterment and they are driven by the motive of
refurbishing the benchmarks of education.
One such erudite leader with a passion to learn and educate
others is Narelle Nies, the Principal of Revesby Public
School, NSW, Australia. Being a proud frontrunner, she
enthusiastically involves in activities of the school
community and the broader learning community as a part of
a systematic scholarship.
She upholds the values of the NSW Department of
Education in every decision, action, and plan. Narelle’s
prime objective is to prepare young students for rewarding
lives as ethical citizens of the community and as global
citizens of the future. She leads by example and is always
prepared to take steps for the betterment of the students.
Narelle takes the initiative to know every student and their
family and works to ensure that they are cared and valued
for in the school. Forming meaningful relationships is at the
heart of her philosophy and as such, she invests heavily in
them resulting in their school community being one of the
most engaged communities in the area. She is a firm
believer in team effort and puts in a lot of effort on building
a positive school culture where everyone belongs,
celebrates strengths, and strives for growth. She has
immense faith and high expectations of the staff, students,
and the community, and seeks opportunities for all
stakeholders to improve.
A Steadfast Leader
Narelle always focuses on the development of the students,
the community, and achieving academic excellence. She has
collaborated with many institutions to develop a strategic
plan for the community of schools, where she invites the
best ideas from within and beyond the department.
Implementing her leadership skills, Narelle uses
evidence-based programs such as Learning Sprints and
Educhange Leaders to have a significant impact on both
teaching practices and student learning outcomes. She not
only focuses on collaborating with the staff and community,
but also with colleagues in the wider profession.
Narelle’s primary attention remains on ensuring that the
staff and students are providing and receiving the absolute
highest standard of education. As a result of her dedicated
endeavors, the school received an “Excelling” rating in the
An Enthusiastic Educator Focused on
Academic and Community Development
Narelle Nies
Principal
36 | JULY 2019

School Excellence Framework
through the External Validation
Process. Narelle works to ensure that
all stakeholders are accountable for
the role they play in properly
educating the students. She constantly
strives to regularly improve the
school’s performance and prepare for
a bright future.
She is a dynamic and sensitive
leader, who aims at achieving
meaningful outcomes through her
dedicated endeavors. Her honesty,
expertise, and commitment speak
for her excellent leadership skills.
Narelle is often called upon by leaders of the local
community, media, and other educational groups, which
portrays her abilities as an excellent leader. She is a
passionate, transparent and professional leader whose
service to staff, students, community, and the NSW
Department of Education is exemplary. The school culture
at Revesby Public School can be directly attributed to
outstanding leadership and a common belief that its values
enable all opportunities for the community to connect in
meaningful ways.
An Accomplished Educator
Throughout her illustrious journey of imparting education
to the youth, Narelle has achieved much recognition. Some
of her accolades have been mentioned below:
• Narelle was nominated for Principal of the Year, 2019
and named as a finalist in the Australian Education
Awards.
• She was identified to present at the NSW Principals
Conference 2018, regarding the school initiatives to
over 600 principals to share programs, future focused
learning, innovation, and project based learning.
• As principal, Narelle was named Innovative School
Leader of the Year, 2017. During her first year as
principal, Revesby Public School, presented an
innovative project to the Inclusive Communities Youth
Summit, involving students presenting their own
initiative at NSW Parliament House to politicians and
religious and cultural leaders, as well as the media. As
part of this innovation, students worked with
community members, religious leaders in the
community and Aboriginal elders
to develop a plan to ensure cultural
inclusivity within Revesby Public
School. The project was recognized
by way of a Secretary’s
commendation.
• She has also received a Secretary’s
Award for the Growth Mindset as a
part of The Faces of Education.
This was produced as a video to
represent the Department of
Education related to the Growth
Mindset and shared widely through
social media.
Collaborating for Excellence
Under the astute leadership of Narelle, Revesby Public
School demonstrates strong links between the learning and
curriculum enhanced by partnerships between other
schools and inter agencies, where it works collaboratively
to focus on improving student outcomes. The school
prides itself on highly valued relationships between
students, staff, and the broader community seeing a greater
input from all areas in the school’s directions.
Narelle is proud of the productive relationships that the
school has developed with a range of external agencies
such as Beechwood Nursing Home, local high schools,
Filmpond, Film By the Banks, Learning Links, and
Together for Humanity. This provides the opportunity to
enrich the learning experiences and add great value in
education. She leads the school to take the learning
beyond the classroom where it has developed many close
partnerships with the local community.
A prominent collaboration is with that of Beechwood
Aged care facility. Students of the school have visited the
facility on a number of occasions to share music and
stories. This provides students the opportunity to interact
with the local residents. Additionally, the students get to
know firsthand the importance of human connection
across the generations. The residents share stories related
to their life experience and important parts of their local
history. Such interactions bring out various qualities such
as kindness, compassion, and empathy among the
students. The school lays emphasis on these qualities,
which will help the students to develop into responsible
global citizens. It considers all the residents as a part of
37JULY 2019 |

the community and wish to connect with them. It believes
that teachers, parents, and the community can work together
to promote learning and enhance education.
About Revesby Public School
Revesby Public School aims to develop an exemplary
school culture that is conducive to learning. The school’s
philosophy is built upon ensuring every student is known,
cared for, and valued. It works collaboratively using the
expertise within the school to promote improvement for
all students through providing tailored professional
learning. It marches ahead to embed positive processes in
order to build collective efficacy. The school intends to
build successful, active, and lifelong learners where
wellbeing is a clear focus. It is an inclusive and supportive
community which values respectful and collaborative
partnerships. The school fosters resilience and persistence
through a growth mindset.
The Frontrunner’s Legacy
Narelle believes that every child has equal right to quality
education. Her legacy is to prepare the students beyond
their school years to become independent and responsible
individuals. She intends to inspire students who are
resilient, persistent, creative and critical thinkers, reflective,
and who value learning as a lifelong tool. She is of the
belief that leaders are responsible for making things better.
Hence, she continually focuses on making constant
improvements and how to make the institution better.
“The school’s roadmap would be one of inspiration,
motivation, affirmation while challenging the practice and
pedagogy in order to strive for improvement. It is all about
supporting educators within and beyond the school gates
to build their capacity so as to have positive impact as a
system” she says.
Narelle works to ensure that every student belongs and
sees themselves as a part of the broader community. She
inspires students to be active global citizens who
understand that they can contribute significantly to the
world around them. She proceeds with the motive to build
a community of practice where the focus is on how
students learn, how teachers teach, and how leaders lead.
Narelle’s greatest hope is to create a lasting impact in the
way they enable and empower students. She aims to
promote a future that is better than the past.T R
39JULY 2019 |

ENVISIONING
EDUCATION:
What does the future hold?
An Australian Principal’s thoughts
About the Author
40 | JULY 2019

Annette Rome
Principal
41JULY 2019 |
Expertise Lessons

There is much in the literature that attempts to frame
what it is that students in this century and beyond
need to be able to think, say, and do to function
effectively and compassionately in a global world. All
educators aim to prepare students (and adults) for a world
where the only constant is change.
Many observers will claim that little has changed regarding
formal education methodologies for over 200 years. Those
of us in education in Australia, however, know this not to be
the case. School structures and classrooms, curriculum,
pedagogies and assessments have all changed considerably.
So much so that I often hear parents comment “I wish I
could have learned like that”. We know so much more
about how people learn physiologically as well as
psychologically that the nature of an instructional class in
th
Australia is completely different to that of the 20 Century.
When teachers open their doors to others to share practice,
which I confess happens far too rarely, these developments
become obvious.
How do we know we have effective classrooms in a country
such as Australia? Research has shown that the highest
performing cohorts in the world are the children of first
generation migrants into Australia. To me this indicates that
the importance placed on the value of education, which
many migrants have for their children, when combined with
the Australian education framework produces outstanding
results. I believe this also represents a window to the future
regarding approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and
assessment that Australia can share with educators globally.
Likewise models of education have also changed to meet
the (perceived) needs and desires of families. Knowledge
can be accessed and assessed anytime anywhere and I have
no doubt that this trend will continue. There is much
discussion in educational circles of micro credentialing that
may or may not sit alongside traditional qualifications.
I suspect models of knowledge and skill development and
their assessment will become increasingly flexible in terms
of timing of delivery (global and interactive) and nature
(on-line, face to face, blended). The range and nature of
providers is likely to increase even more.
In Australia all providers of primary and senior secondary
education academic certificates must be not-for profit. The
provision of early childhood, vocational and other skill
based training, however, has opened up and I suspect we
will see increasing numbers of corporate/for-profit players
in the education space. Globalisation is already ensuring
new models of provision to meet the demand from
communities as well as opportunities for providers.
A key component of education all around the world will
need to be the development of intercultural understanding.
Frequent references to 21C skills refer to global citizenship
st
(see Council of International Schools, Partnership for 21
Century Learning, Australian Department of Foreign Affair
and Trade, The International Baccalaureate however, there
is little common agreement as to a definitive list of
attributes that constitute these 21C skills. It is, therefore,
important for schools, teachers and students to have a
common understanding of these priorities. Education
providers need to devise programs that recognise the
importance of global citizenship education, international
mindedness and intercultural and transcultural
understanding if we wish, as many of us do, to make the
world a better place.
Globalisation affords us both opportunity and challenge in
terms of creating curricula and programs that scaffold
educators and students to, in the words of Yong Zhao:
“Become more aware of the global nature of societal issues,
to care about people in distant places, to understand the
nature of economic integration, to appreciate the
interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples, to
respect and protect cultural diversity, to fight for social
justice for all and to protect the planet for all human
beings” Zhou 2010
One thing will never change, however, and that is the
teaching of skills and knowledge that relate to knowing
one’s self and relating to others. We believe the
cornerstones of wellbeing are having strong identity,
relationships and community. Schools will always need to
provide a basis to develop and nurture all 3 elements of
wellbeing as well as what it means to be the best person one
can be.
At St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar we strive for our
students to be their best selves, now and in the future, for
the betterment of all humanity and the planet through
demonstrating COURAGE: to do the right thing,
CURIOSITY: to know and learn, CHARACTER: to be one’s
best self and RESPECT: to live wisely and compassionately
with others and the planet. I am convinced that if we can do
that at St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar, we have done
our job.
cheme, implemented in 2015, with a particular focus on
young people with acquired brain injury. Her passion in
education is for the development of young people so that
they may become the best they can be – true citizens of the
world. T R
42 | JULY 2019

S
chools are experiencing a period of massive change.
They are endeavoring to prepare students for a
rapidly changing world. Schools are complex
organizations, with many competing priorities, agendas and
initiatives. Research shows there is a clear connection
between school effectiveness and school leadership.
Leaders make a huge impact on both the effective operation
of the school and the school’s culture. According to
teamwork guru Patrick Lencioni, the key to managing the
complexity of schools is to identify a reasonable number of
issues that will have the greatest possible impact on the
success of a school, and then spend the most amount of
time thinking about, talking about, and working on those
issues. This needs to be the core work of school leaders.
“If everything is important, then nothing is.”
A highly functioning leadership team operates like a slick
machine. They use their time extraordinarily well, hold
crisp meetings, are cognizant of the big picture and
sensitive to the detail that impact on staff engagement and
morale. It is essential that all school leaders are highly
effective (including aspiring leaders). One man on a
mission to reform the education sector for the better is
Steve Francis, a Certified Speaking Professional and the
Managing Director of the Happy School program. Steve
is an experienced leader who works to support schools to
build leadership capability.
Steve works with leading educators to help them reach their
potential and optimize their schools. He is an expert in
leading effective change processes in schools. In a career
spanning 20 years, Steve has been the Principal of a number
of schools in Australia from a one-teacher school in country
Queensland, through to a large metropolitan school in
Brisbane and an international school in Hong Kong. As a
Principal at Jindalee School in Brisbane he led a large
school with 800 primary and preschool students, including
50 special education students.
In Hong Kong, Steve was the Principal of Kowloon Junior
School for the English Schools Foundation. The school had
900 students on two campuses. During his tenure in leading
the school, it made the transition from teaching the UK
National Curriculum to implementing the International
Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP). He also
led the design process for building the new school to
accommodate all 900 students on the one campus.
For the past ten years, Steve has focused his work on
developing school leaders. He argues that schools often
promote great teachers to positions of leadership and expect
them to be great leaders. However, the skill set of being a
great teacher is different to the skills required to be a great
school leader. His passion in this area became evident when
Empowering Schools and
Educators Globally
Steve Francis
MD
44 | JULY 2019

he was an executive of the State
Principals’ Association.
In the past year, Steve has worked
with the leaders or staff of over 500
schools across Australia, New
Zealand and internationally. As well
as working in-house, he has presented
keynotes and workshops at numerous
education leader conferences
including both the Australian Primary
Principals’ Association and New
Zealand Principals’ Federation
conferences. In the past year, he
followed in the footsteps of Michael
Fullan, Andy Hargreaves and Sir Ken
Robinson by presenting to an
audience of over 2500 teachers in
Qatar.
Steve’s work as a professional speaker has been accredited
with the awarding of the highest worldwide designation,
Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). For the past three
years, Steve has also been recognized by Educator
magazine as one of the top 50 most influential educators in
Australia. Steve was also a member of the judging panel for
the awarding of the Australian Education Awards. Steve is
the author of four books including, ‘First Semester CAN
MAKE OR BREAK YOU!’ and ‘Time Management For
Teachers’.
Steve is passionate about staff and leader well-being and
reinstating the status of the teaching profession. He
completed his Master’s degree in School Leadership and
wrote his thesis on teacher stress. This led him to develop
the Happy School program. He argues that whilst working
in schools can be very rewarding, it can also be very
demanding. Many a time, the staff feels exhausted,
under-valued, frustrated and unappreciated. Teacher
well-being and engagement are key factors in school
effectiveness. Through his Happy School program Steve
provides three strategies to support school leaders to
improve staff morale and well-being in their schools.
Delivering Innovative Development
Happy School Membership:
Schools can become a member of the highly successful
Happy School program. Over 600 schools receive the
weekly one page articles on important topics for staff well-
being, engagement and satisfaction.
The articles are designed to be easily
shared with staff and provide regular,
on-going professional development in
bite-sized pieces. Membership of the
Happy School program includes the
weekly, ready-to-use one page articles
written by experts in their field. The
weekly articles can be printed as part of
staff news, displayed on noticeboards,
emailed to staff, included in electronic
staff notices, discussed at staff meetings
or for professional development.
WELL Productivity Program:
The year-long WELL Productivity
program provides either self-paced or
leader facilitated professional development covering four
areas of staff well-being and productivity – Positive,
Productive, Proactive and Peak Performance. The 20
engaging action-focused units each comprise a 5-minute
video tutorial with accompanying handouts and resources.
The 12-month program is designed to help staff improve
their productivity as well as their well-being.
Face-to-face professional development:
Steve Francis also provides awesome face-to-face
professional development at conferences, clusters of
schools and in-school professional learning. For the past
three years he has been recognized as one of the top 50
most influential educators in Australia. His keynotes and
workshops at national and state conferences for Principals
and teachers including APPA, NZPF, VAPP, QASSP, QSPA,
INTASE, TAFE Qld and EduTech have led to him being
invited to work with schools and leadership teams across
Australia, New Zealand and internationally. His sessions
are relevant, practical and engaging and are always well
received.
Whether schools choose face-to-face professional
development with Steve, the self-paced WELL Productivity
program or subscribe to receive Steve s weekly Happy’
School articles, the team at Happy School are dedicated to
improving the well-being of staff in schools.
Emphasizing on Reputation and Attitude
In unison with his favorite quote ‘Live the Reputation You
Want to Have,’ Steve says, “We all have a reputation in the
45JULY 2019 |

eyes of parents, students and our colleagues as well. If they
were asked to describe us in three words, what would we
like them to say?” Steve recommends working out what one
would like to be known for and then act that way. He says
he’d like to be known as a positive person, who gets things
done and never has a bad word to say about people behind
their backs and endeavors to make sure that he behaves
accordingly.
“Early in my career I learnt that the most important decision
you make every day is your attitude. You can either choose
to be positive and enthusiastic about the challenges you
face in schools or waste your energy in constantly
complaining. I know where I’d prefer to put my energy and
focus,” Steve adds. In his opinion, school leaders need to be
constantly monitoring the ‘happiness’ of staff, students and
parents. It’s like unlocking a combination lock. Fine tuning
each of the factors is essential for an optimal culture.
Piloting Comprehensive Progress
To assist school leaders to understand and monitor their
culture, Steve developed the interactiveSurvey My School
surveys that seek input from staff, parents and students. As
well as providing benchmarks, the instruments help to
identify specific issues that are having a negative impact on
the school culture. He argues that the fastest way to
improve the school culture is to identify the barriers that are
having a negative impact. School leaders need to address
whatever issues they can and acknowledge that they are
aware of the other issues and working towards resolving
them.
Steve believes that the existing culture in a school has a
huge impact on staff. It impacts on how they behave, how
they interact with co-workers, how happy and engaged they
are at school, how they interact with students, how much
discretionary effort is put in and how much gets done. The
influence of culture can be positive and fulfilling or
negative and deflating. Optimal results will only be
achieved in an ideal culture. Managing culture is the most
important work of the leadership team. Steve developed the
Survey My School instrument to assist schools to measure
and improve school culture. He believes that school leaders
need to be acutely aware of their school culture. He argues
that culture wins every time. If you have a bad culture, it
will win – and ruin your school. If you have a great culture,
it will also win and enable you to do great things.
Great staff makes a huge difference to both the outcomes
achieved by a school and the school’s culture. Attracting
and retaining great staff is paramount. Superstar Teachers –
dedicated, hardworking, and talented staff which have a
great work ethic and a terrific attitude are very much
in-demand! They are highly sought after and are able to
‘pick and choose’ where they would like to work. To attract
and retain such staff, it is more important than ever, that
school leaders position their school to be the ‘Employer of
Choice’.
Steve suggests that being an Employer of Choice means
becoming recognized as a school where potential and
existing employees want to work for, over and above
others. He argues that positioning a school as an ‘Employer
of Choice’ is important as the current education sector
approaches a shortage of talented teachers. Steve has also
developed a process for assessing and independently
certifying schools as the ‘Employers of Choice.’
Reaching out to Students
Steve has also worked with schools to increase student
voice and ensure teachers are receiving formative feedback
from their students using the instrument he developed
called, Survey My Class. Student surveys provide
invaluable feedback to teachers about what is working in
their classroom and what isn’t. Effective teachers utilize the
feedback to improve their teaching. Regular student
feedback should be an integral part of school improvement.
Formative feedback from students should be utilized to
provide a clear focus for teachers to reflect on their teaching
with the aim of increasing student engagement. T R
47JULY 2019 |

For over two decades, E-Learning has been hailed as
‘the’ solution that will drive educational reform and
displace the dominance of classroom learning, as we
know it. Despite the potential of E-Learning, to personalize
instruction, enable scalable solutions and develop new
learning skills that will be vital for the future workforce,
E-Learning has not yet redefined what we understand
school to be. E-Learning and classroom learning must work
in coalition and not competition.
In our content rich and connected world, it is vital for
young people to think critically and interrogate sources of
information. Knowing how to ask good questions to
discover knowledge and build an understanding, is essential
st
to learning success in the 21 century. Put simply, learning
how to learn. This can be achieved through E-Learning that
is designed to purposefully leverage digital technologies
that enable complex communication, successful
collaboration, enhance critical and creative thinking and a
personalized learning experience. The right technology
tools when combined with appropriate deployment and
training for teachers can offer new opportunities for student
learning and so make a valuable contribution to any
classroom.
E-Learning, flipped learning, online learning, blended
learning; each offers a different point of entry for teachers
to introduce technologies into their classroom environment.
Direct instruction, debate, brainstorming, setting learning
goals, while all these are seen as traditional approaches,
each can be enhanced with technology.
The following are examples of effective strategies that
combine E-Learning with traditional classroom learning:
A REFORMATIVE UNISON
WHERE CHALKBOARDS AND DIGITAL SCREENS COEXIST
Students at St
Margaret’s and
Berwick Grammar
School experience
Virtual Reality.
Bringing new
experiences into
our classroom
environments that
were not previously
possible without
technology
48 | JULY 2019

• Sophisticated response-ware that
enables immediate feedback for
both students and teachers to
track progress. Allowing for
diﬀerentiation and adjustment to
the classroom teaching program
based on the formative data that
is collected.
• Flipped learning practices that
support students to access
learning materials independently
then use social learning
opportunities in class time to
apply the knowledge, challenge
understandings and participate
in unique experiences and
responses.
• Building collaborative online
learning spaces that provide
access to peers and shared
online spaces to build
knowledge and work together.
Meg Fortington is the Director of
Curriculum and Innovation at St
Margaret’s and Berwick
Grammar School. She is
passionate about the value of
technology in every classroom
and its potential to make a
positive impact on teaching and
learning.
Meg regularly presents
professional learning
opportunities and workshops
focused on E-Learning tools and
strategies to support educators to
focus on the skills and outcomes
made possible with technology.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meg Fortington
Director
49JULY 2019 |
Modern Outlook

• Differentiated learning paths, that allow students to
access materials with greater choice and voice about
the pace and mode.
• Development of digital portfolios to capture goal
setting, evidence of learning, reflection and growth
over time.
• Using technology to redefine the type of task we design
and take advantage of simulations, real-world
problems and require students to create content in
response to the learning rather than simply consuming
material.
• Using technology to connect and share with
communities of learning across the world.
Despite these opportunities to enhance our classrooms with
technology, some continue to view it as little more than a
distraction for young people, already labeled as screen
addicted. Recent system wide interventions that call for
bans on mobile devices in schools demonstrate the fear that
can dominate the discussion. Such discourse limits the
exploration of the potential of these technologies to enable
valuable E-Learning opportunities. The success of
E-Learning strategies has also been impacted by a one-size
fits all approach to integrating technology. Examples
include single device programs, mandated learning
management systems or whole school adoption of a single
tool. Instead, teachers need a bespoke collection of ICT
tools that suit their classroom and their students just as
teachers do with other teaching strategies.
Technology can encourage educators to consider the role of
teacher and student differently. In classrooms we can create
new learning experiences where students become creators
not just consumers, teachers can become co-learners and
focus on providing personalized programs and regular
powerful feedback. This change demands that ICT systems
are streamlined and that schools prioritize professional
learning opportunities for teachers to share with each other
the technology and teaching approaches that are most
effective in their unique school context.
E-Learning when implemented purposefully can support a
classroom learning environment that enables thinking and
innovation, where students are engaged and encouraged to
take meaningful risks towards connected learning
outcomes, ensuring they develop the skills and capabilities
they need for economic, social and cultural success in the
st
21 century.
Students and
teachers at St
Margaret’s and
Berwick Grammar
school consider the
application of
technology in
STEM Learning.
T R
50 | JULY 2019

Passionate and efficient educators follow a
reformative and holistic approach towards
empowering their students. They comprehend
students’ volatile learning interests and formulate
comprehensive strategies, creative teaching methods,
activities promoting inclusiveness and many other ways
to match up to their students’ requirements. Such
innovative, prolific and adept educators possess the
potential to sculpt ambitious young learners into leaders
and professionals of tomorrow. One plausible example of
such educators is Timothy Barlow, the Director of
Technology Innovation at St. Leonard’s College.
Tim has had a profound career in Education to date. He
began his professional life as a Geneticist at a
cutting-edge research facility, and his inclination towards
exploring, utilizing and pioneering the use of innovative
solutions travelled with him magnificently into
education. While Tim started his career as a Middle
Years Science teacher and Senior Years Biology teacher,
it wasn’t long into his career before he was tasked with
diverse leadership roles.
As a Head of Learning, Middle Years Leader and
Experiential Learning Coordinator, Tim efficiently
organized all aspects of around 12 international trips
involving over 400 students and staff. He also
coordinated and directed a local and international based,
award winning educational experiential learning
program. As a Head of Year 9 he was a hugely successful
and respected pastoral leader. Additionally, he
spearheaded the early introduction of restorative
practices. He led a team of pastoral careers in the
revolution of adolescent discipline. Tim’s proficiency as
an educator is evidently proven when a certain year level
which historically received hundreds of detentions per
annum, received zero as soon as he took over.
In the past decade, Tim has had a significant impact on
the direction and implementation of a number of
transitional educational innovations. In his first year as
an eLearning coordinator, he personally designed and
implemented a school wide, radically successful virtual
learning environment while concurrently planning the
complete transition to a Bring Your Own Device
(BYOD) model of student technology provision. Tim
also conceived, built and delivered an entirely new
educational faculty named DigiSTEM as the global
demand for coding, robotics, STEM, design thinking,
making and engineering emerged. As the Director of
Technology Innovation, he also sits on the executive
leadership team at one of Melbourne, and Australia’s,
Voyaging for Excellence, Reforming Education
Timothy Barlow
Timothy Barlow
Director
One who holds the torch of knowledge, drives away
the mufing fog of ignorance, and guides the
multitude towards enlightenment.
52 | JULY 2019

premier independent schools. His dynamic and
innovative style inspires both his students and
educational peers alike.
Blending Technology with Learning
Tim’s educational leadership and innovation began in
earnest when he was a full-time classroom teacher and
he has been unwavering in continually improving the
traditional methods of classroom teaching practice ever
since. In 2007, he began implementing his pioneering
mindset to work in education with conviction. In the age
of the iPod, Tim was a true pioneer of the Flipped
Classroom pedagogy. When smart phones emerged, he
designed and developed four educational iPhone apps.
When tablet computing and eBook readers emerged, he
developed eight wildly interactive and engaging
electronic books. He has even gamiﬁed – introduced
elements of game-based motivation – an entire year of
the Australian Science curriculum. His podcasts have
been downloaded almost a million times, he has over
100,000 views on YouTube, and his blog has been visited
over two million times.
Tim’s innovative and creative use of ICT in the
curriculum is undisputed. His personal classroom
53JULY 2019 |

innovation has directly enabled a generation of students
to experience and engage in higher level learning.
However, as an educational thought leader, his vision has
also transformed many educational practices. His vision
has assisted schools around the globe, transition from the
traditional closed wall, class-based nature of online
learning, to course-based collaborative teaching and
learning platforms. He has pioneered and assisted many
schools transition to the modern BYOD model of student
technology provision. He has pushed his own, and
numerous other schools down the path of continuous
reporting to enhance learning outcomes and strengthen
relationships between schools and parents.
The Home Ground
Tim expresses his pride in working at St Leonard’s
College in Melbourne, Australia. He aligns
comprehensively with the vision of the school – to
provide all students with An Education for Life.
Similarly, Tim draws inspiration from the college’s
mission which states, ‘Through inspiring and caring
teachers, and in a physically, emotionally and spiritually
safe coeducational environment, St Leonard’s College
provides an exemplary innovative education for its
students, enriched by the traditions of its heritage.’ As a
result, all of the school’s strategic directions are in line
with powerful education experiences for the present
landscape, which equip students for their uncertain
futures. Tim’s drive to support staff in a myriad of
avenues has ensured that strategic initiatives have
succeeded, and staff has up-skilled in areas surrounding
pedagogy, use of technology and reporting practices.
Tim states that he works at a school that helps lead the
educational landscape in virtually all that it does. Its
amazingly committed staff constantly pushes the
boundaries of pedagogical practices to ensure the very
best learning environment for all students. The academic
results of his school are routinely amongst the very best
in the country and the students at his school are award
winning, from Swimming or Cheer Sports, through to
Theatre Productions, Musical Performances and
Adventure Racing.
According to Tim, when he was appointed to the role of
Director of Technology Innovation at St Leonard’s
College, the ICT landscape was a virtual wasteland. His
futuristic vision and strategic planning ensured that his
school quickly transitioned to a national leader in this
regard. As with all challenges, Tim takes them in his
stride, and it is virtually impossible to shake him and his
drive to seek improvement, it becomes evident that he
can easily overcome the challenges of the roles he has
undertaken.
Changing the World, One School at a Time
“Education is of utmost importance to the future well-
being of our society, and our entire planet, and this
provides a continual and ample source of both, the
motivation to do great work for students everywhere, and
also unrest and a strong desire to continue to push
education forwards and see it continually improve and
evolve to better empower all students everywhere,” Tim
expresses. This constant positive outlook cannot help but
spread onto Tim’s colleagues and peers, and the
inspiration his students gain from this approach of
teaching is profound. Tim’s students are engaged and
inspired to be their best and to pursue their own passions
to their very best ability.
At St Leonard’s College the entire faculty continues
working to be the best school in the world – a goal that
every single school should aspire to. For Tim personally,
the goal is always to help as much as he can and do the
best work he can, whatever work that is. Tim is
periodically asked if he will step into a Principal role at a
school in the future, and while Tim would never say
never he is happy simply being a powerful force for
change and good in this world. T R
54 | JULY 2019

Australia's 10 most influential education leaders 2019

Australia's 10 most influential education leaders 2019

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Australia's 10 most influential education leaders 2019

Similar to Australia's 10 most influential education leaders 2019 (20)

More from The Knowledge Review

More from The Knowledge Review (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Australia's 10 most influential education leaders 2019