Welcome to our new staff

In this climate of teacher shortages, we are very fortunate to have secured some highly professional and talented new staff.  Through the next few issues of Ask the Principal, they will introduce themselves to you.

Lyndon Pratt

Lyndon joins us fairly early in his teaching career, following 6 months teaching History and Humanities at Ivanhoe Grammar School.    Lyndon has found the St Helena staff very helpful so far, and says he became a teacher because he loves to talk.  He will have something in common with many of his students!  Unsurprisingly, Lyndon is a huge history buff and loves travelling to Scotland whenever he can.

Jon Cosgrove

Jon is a highly experienced teacher, having most recently taught at Dandenong High School teaching Science and Mathematics, and before that various schools in the east and north-eastern suburbs since 2004.   Jon thinks St Helena is a lovely school with a very friendly and welcoming community of teachers and students. The students are polite and respectful which is a credit to the school's culture and development.

His desire to do something which has great importance in the lives of young people, and to convey a passion for learning as a lifelong endeavor is what gets him out of bed in the mornings.   Jon used to be a civil engineer when he worked on many different types of projects,  the highlight being where he helped design Australia's New Parliament House in Canberra.  He has also worked since 1993 as an external (lay) member of the CSIRO biosafety committee  to assess experiments on Gene Technology under the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) legislation.

Harrison Mourelatos 

Harrison started his teaching career teaching Visual Arts at Melba College last year.  He finds St Helena very organised, and our processes streamlined through the use of IT.  He acknowledges that a big school can be a bit overwhelming at first, but he says the students have been welcoming and fair.  Harrison entered teaching to do a job where he can help people.  He considered working as a psychologist, an aid worker, a disability worker or  nurse, but settled on teaching as he could use his art/architecture background. Harrison loves camping and hiking and being outdoors in his spare time.  He worked in hospitality in his life before teaching, loves building things from scratch and doing DIY.   Harrison is part Greek and part Mauritian.   

Joshua Marchbank 

Josh comes to St Helena SC from a seven year stint at Epping Secondary College teaching PE, Health & Psychology.  He joins us as Leading Teacher for School Wide Positive Behaviours and Respectful Relationships.   His first impression of St Helena is of a big and busy school with a real sense of community about it and a very engaged and collaborative staff group.  Josh lives with his wife, one year old son and two year old cat.  

Joel Dale 

St Helena is Joel's first school and he already sees it as a friendly and inclusive environment.   Joel became a teacher to help young people develop and achieve in their education.  Something interesting about him is both of his names can be first and last names!  Joel teaches Maths and PE.  

Nagla Mekail

Nagla has taught Mathematics for 13 years.    She is enjoying St Helena's supportive staff, lovely kids and comments that there is a lot of technology!  Nagla became a teacher because of her passion for Mathematics.   She says it is like a game or a puzzle that she can solve and enjoy!  Nagla also has a degree in computer science.  

Steven Roberts

Steven previously taught Science at Mount Alexander College for 4 years.    He has found St Helena a welcoming, well organised and orderly school with friendly and dedicated staff and friendly and polite students who are keen to learn.   He has always enjoyed and been passionate about both learning and teaching.  After working as an engineer, he decided to change careers to pursue his passion where he now has the opportunity to work with and  help educate and develop young people.   When he's not at school, Steven enjoys being outdoors and going running, hiking and fishing. 

Sam McDonald

Sam has been teaching Maths and VCAL Numeracy at Seymour College for the past three years.   His first impression of St Helena is that we make it very easy for new teachers to feel welcomed into their new workplace.   He says the staff have been very helpful with all the questions he's had, and he says the school seems like a great place to work with a fantastic work environment.  Sam became a teacher because he wants to provide students with the "I get it now" moment.   Being a teacher in a classroom provides students with a role model they will see most days for the next year so he believes if he can be a good role model for his students and give them lots of learning opportunities, then he's done his job.    Sam was born in the UK and has a massive obsession with Liverpool FC.   If anyone wants a passionate conversation about the English Premier League, he's your man!

James Moorfield 

James comes to us from Viewbank College where he has been teaching Maths since 2018.  James has found the teaching staff and students at St Helena very supportive so far, and he admires the students' desire and drive to learn.   James entered teaching because he wanted a challenging job where he could help others grow.  James used to be a member of the ADF, where he used to jump out of aeroplanes for a living!