HEAD OF SECONDARY SCHOOL

Ever since I began my teaching career I have been extremely passionate about helping the students I teach grow as people. This may seem like an obvious passion for a teacher, however, my focus has been on finding ways to strategically and proactively impact students lives beyond the classroom. In particular, I have focused on enabling students to feel empowered to confront their concerns head on, and understand that they have all the capabilities required to deal with these concerns. My goal is to assist students to improve their character, their sense of self, and their capacity to deal with change confidently.

Consequently, I have gained extensive experience in a House System designed to support and nurture the Wellbeing of students. While my main role as Head of Secondary School The House System provides an opportunity to guide students and families throughout their time at the College. This also means that we are able to build stronger partnerships with parents to work together to achieve excellent outcomes in all of our students. I am very excited to lead this change in my new role as Head of Secondary School.

We are at the beginning of an exciting process that will develop a strong Wellbeing Framework across the entirety of K-12. My vision for our Secondary School is one where the concept of wellbeing is not simply done but lived. This means that wellbeing underpins all that we do at the College, from behaviour management to student academic progress. All facets of student life at the College will be grounded in the Wellbeing Framework that we will be developing in the coming months and years. This is also not a process that has a definitive end, as the very notion of wellbeing continues to evolve and change.

Our focus for Term 1 is to build and grow House Culture. Each House has an experienced Leader of Wellbeing who brings a multitude of skills to their new roles. Students will be provided with a number of different opportunities to engage with other students in their House group as they continue to develop a strong house identity. Students have the opportunity to represent their house in carnivals this term, as well as house sport on weekday afternoons. Throughout the year we will also be looking for other ways that students can demonstrate their house pride.

I am looking forward to working with this experienced team to continue to grow the House culture here at the College while at the same time investing in a strong wellbeing framework underpinned by sound research-based wellbeing initiatives. Our new Director of Wellbeing, Sarah Lehman, also brings a wide range of experiences that will ensure that we develop the best Wellbeing framework in the context of the College.

Christopher Ingold | Head of Secondary School