Your career has taken you from Northern Ireland to Oxford, South Africa and now Sydney. How have those diverse experiences shaped the way you lead St Andrew’s and support young people to flourish?
Diverse contexts and experiences have developed in me adaptive leadership i.e. different styles for different contexts. For example, leading a new City Academy in an area of social deprivation in the UK required a fast-paced, top-down directive style of leadership in the early years of its life. Once established, it required a much more distributive style of leadership to train new leaders and enable established leaders to move on to other start-ups.
Leading in a long-established inner city independent school in Sydney requires an understanding that change most successfully comes bottom-up in Australia and moves through the dough like yeast. The fast-paced directive top-down style of leadership would not be appreciated in that context and would greatly disrespect the 140 years of its history and experience. Yet, when dealing with exigencies in either context, that style changes again.
However, whilst my institutional leadership adapts and changes my personal leadership style has remained steady and was ultimately shaped by my upbringing.
What has remained constant throughout my career is a belief that education is about far more than academic achievement alone. It is about helping young people understand their worth, develop their gifts and lead with hope in a changing world.
I was born and raised in Northern Ireland during the period known as ‘The Troubles’ which was when the country was at the height of its violent political civil war. My father lost many members of his family in the 1950s to the conflict, which made him very careful to raise us in a way that didn’t perpetuate the issues. Therefore, without realising it, peacemaking skills were bred into me from a young age through role modelling; balanced open-mindedness, diplomatic de-escalation of conflict and seeking a win-win for both sides as well as an appreciation of the power of words and the important nature of who we mean when we say ‘we’.
My mother lost her father through a sudden illness when she was thirteen. She was the eldest of four children who lived on a large farm in rural Northern Ireland. She immediately stepped into a quasi-parental role, assisting her mother to run the farm and caring for her younger siblings. Therefore, from my matriarchal line I learned to value resilience, responsibility, productivity and prayer.
Taken together those attributes from my upbringing and the diverse experiences from my career naturally shape how I support young people. I seek to develop in them both the adaptability to meet the demands of a changing world as well as the principled steadfastness to remain centred in the face of change. You speak passionately about young people underestimating their own potential.
How does St Andrew’s create an environment where students feel capable, confident and willing to stretch themselves?
St Andrew’s Cathedral School’s vision is to educate generations to know their infinite worth and develop their gifts for a purpose, leading with hope as co-creators of a responsible future.
It is a vision that firmly stands on a Christian anthropology with the belief that all humans are created in the image of God and are therefore, infinitely precious, gifted for a purpose, morally responsible and collaboratively stewarding.The way in which the students understand that is through the language of mattering: you matter, your life matters, your choices matter and what we do together matters. At St Andrew’s we start with mattering.
Significance is a basic human need and the body of research in this field will tell you that mattering is a predictor of self-worth, confidence, healthy relationships, motivation and grit. Therefore, mattering matters and the cost of anti-mattering too high.
However, we don’t stop with enabling students to understand their value. If a student matters, then so does their life and their choices and their impact and therefore, we have high standards for making sure that they reach that potential. We believe that each student is gifted for a purpose and our whole educational programme is carefully curated to enable young people to understand their gifts and for them to vigorously develop those into talents that they can use to serve the world.
This operates together with a focus on character education that start with a challenge to students’ choices which form habits and then the habits that form character. We believe that good character is ultimately formed through challenge and therefore, young people at St Andrew’s Cathedral School do hard things so that they are ready to face life with the resilience and perseverance required.
Parents often want to know how a school supports different kinds of learners. What does personalised learning look like at St Andrew’s, and how do you ensure every student is known and supported?
St Andrew’s is a highly relational school. Relationships are strong between students, staff and families. We love to connect! Dr Julie McGonigle
St Andrew’s is a highly relational school. Relationships are strong between students, staff and families. We love to connect!
You sense that everywhere you go at St Andrew’s – people are friendly and hospitable and keen to stop for a chat. Teachers who join us from other schools notice that straight away and they always comment on how lovely and friendly and relational the students are. They are well-known.
As regards personalisation we have a highly skilled team of educators who work with students who have all kinds of specialised learning needs and a team who worked with students who are high potential, gifted or twice exceptional.
We have a strong focus on progress (growth from whatever your starting point) and not simply attainment (standard reached) throughout the school. That means that every child’s learning is valued and tracked and every child is stretched and challenged.
If a family is considering St Andrew’s, what qualities or hopes in their child suggest the school would be a great fit for them?
St Andrew’s would be an excellent fit for anyone who really wants to join us and who will make the most of the vast array of opportunities provided. We don’t have a stereotypical Andrean. St Andrew’s is a not a school that wants you to fit into a mould, we simply want to enable you to be the best version of yourself. It is such a diverse school that a wide and diverse range of students would feel at home in our school.
We have everyone from those who want to operate at elite levels of music and sport to those who just want to participate. We have those who want to try new things and those who want to specialise in one thing. We have students who are outgoing and those who are less so. We have students who love learning and who spend their free time doing national and international academic competitions. We also have those who find learning more difficult and who find their f low in outdoor education expeditions or other opportunities external to the classroom.
Located in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, St Andrew’s Cathedral School is an innovative, co-educational day school, providing students from […]