AISNT Board Director & Principal of Yipirinya School
Greg is presently Principal of Yipirinya school in Alice Springs.To Greg the role of Principal is foremost about ensuring that the school is fully engaged in teaching and learning. There are few Principals that I know who have had the diverse Global experience that Greg has had, and it is wonderful that he is part of our AISNT band of Principals. Furthermore Greg is prepared to really tackle major challenges and has the experience and personality to do this successfully.
Greg comes from Sydney from a family of three brothers and two sisters, with his eldest brother also being a school teacher. Greg attended Newcastle University and gained a science degree. He had a teaching scholarship and trained as a teacher, but gave up the scholarship to enable him to have career choice when he left University. He was highly interested in science and won a research job as an Industrial Chemist in the steel industry at Botany. Complimenting his love of science was a natural ability to write effectively. Obviously data is an important part of scientific research but to Greg the true value was to be data informed not data driven.
However teaching continued to have an appeal and in 1982 he became a science teacher with the NSW Department of Education where he remained for 9 years perfecting his teaching skills. During this time he further trained as an industrial arts teacher seeing the value in taking the theoretical and imbedding it into the practical. He then moved to Queensland taking up the Science and Technology Head of Department position at St Mary’s Catholic College, an all Girl’s school in Ipswich. Greg taught for 9 years in Queensland and was instrumental in encouraging girls to embark on careers in the predominantly male dominated fields of Science and Engineering.
After 17 years teaching Greg wanted to experience teaching elsewhere in the World. So in 1999 he joined an overseas aid program, training teachers in teaching practice in Vanuatu. Greg fully believes that in a true teaching relationship teachers learn as much from students as they do from you. After a fascinating experience in Vanuatu Greg and his family moved to Darwin, to St John’s, where he spent two years as Head of Science and IT.
From there further promotion beckoned and the family moved to Papua New Guinea, to take up the Principal position at Kimbe International School in West New Britain. The school invested a great deal of energy into teacher training and equipping staff with technology in the classroom. Greg spent 3 years at this school, helping grow and expand it from Early Childhood through Junior Secondary and onto Matriculation.
The desire to move to different places in the World came from the desire Greg and his family had to understand world culture first hand.The Middle East was frequently in the news, often with negative reports. So Greg took a position in Dubai to see for himself and his family. By this stage he had a full appreciation of how much education is valued by children and families overseas and its role in underpinning an authentic learning culture in an organisation. He was keen to lead schools in promoting sustainable learning cultures so successfully studied for a Masters in Educational Administration and in the process was admitted to the Golden Key Honour Society.
His next stop was at a well resourced IB school in Bangkok, Thailand, where he spent three years. After that he moved to St Joseph’s Institute International School in Singapore. Following this he won a coveted position as Principal of Woodford International School in Honiara in the Solomon Islands. He was Principal there for 5 years and took the school from Year 9 to year 12. He relished working with the Board who shared an exciting vision of growing the school .
Greg’s next stop was as Head of a School outside Zurich in Pfäffikon. The school was privately owned, a situation which is not readily found in Australia. The school was truly bilingual extending from Foundation through Primary and Secondary and onto matriculation. By this stage Greg had strongly formed the opinion that while Principals are influential in leading and shaping the development of schools they remain as transient custodians because schools should always be first and foremost about the students.
From Switzerland Greg served as the Secondary Principal in a start-up school in Vietnam owned by a local female entrepreneur who recognised that providing an international quality of education to the next generation was the best way to serve her country and protect its future. After three years COVID struck so it was prudent to return to Australia, where he worked for NTSDE as a Physics teacher before taking on the role of Principal of Tiwi College for 2 years. Before taking up his present position at Yipirinya in Alice Springs Greg spent six months working at SEDA College in Darwin, learning an alternate way to meet students’ educational needs.
What a career so far and what experiences to underpin his present ideas about education. Schools are for teaching and learning; teachers must believe in Education; it is important to enjoy teaching; the role of Middle Management and a team ethos is fundamental to the success of a school; in general, students in the countries overseas in which Greg worked, really valued education; there is not just one way of presenting education; schools are simply not just there for teachers’ convenience - they are there to serve and meet the learning needs of students and in so doing provide them with a firm foundation for a successful future in whatever direction they choose.
So Greg’s career has brought with it a deep understanding of education in the wider World as well as a refined understanding about the basis of good teaching and learning and how a good school should function. He has certainly explored the world of education with real courage.
Written by Chris Tudor
