From the Director of Pedagogy

Goodbye and best wishes for continuing the learning partnership with St Mary’s College and your children.

It has been my pleasure to serve the St Mary’s College Community in various capacities these past six years. If you have not heard,  my next adventure in learning will be in a considerably warmer climate; I will be taking up the Head of School (Senior School) role at Xavier Catholic College in Hervey Bay, Queensland.

The area I am most proud to have been involved in at St Mary’s College has been my current role. It has been exciting to work as the inaugural Director of Pedagogy, bringing a deeper dimension and deliberate focus to the whole College on learning. Research has been telling us for a while that two of the biggest impacts on students' outcomes, is the students themselves and the teaching efficacy of their teachers. Apart from a continual focus on supporting teachers’ development, these past few years we have focused on driving learning programs that promote concepts of being a learner, having a growth mindset, and essentially the power of knowing how to be an effective learner at all ages and stages of development.

Our vision for learning at the College has been established and will continue to underpin the work in this space. ‘Growing our love of learning’ summarises our collective desire as a learning community to continue to support every learner and also recognise our own part to play as learners in the journey of education with our young people.

As my time in this role comes to its conclusion, I wish everyone in the St Mary's College learning community a continual desire for growth in learning. It is better to know we are building strong resilient learners who love learning, know how to learn, collaborate and communicate well than to focus at any one point on any one particular set of grades.

I look forward to continuing to see St Mary's College flourish in this space and welcome Simon Eade into the role of Director of Pedagogy. St Mary’s College is a wonderful example of a K-12 school with a clear learning focus, and  I am very proud to have contributed, even a little bit, to enhancing the learning culture across the whole College.

Tameika Grist

Director of Pedagogy