I am excited to be joining the staff here at Toowoomba Grammar School in the role of Head of Curriculum. I grew up in a small coastal town in NSW and attended the University of Sydney to complete my undergraduate degree. Please don’t hold my NSW origin against me (Go Blues!). Teaching, and education, has always been a passion of mine and ever since I was in high school, the plan was to be a teacher. I graduated from the University of Sydney with a double degree in Education and Arts, majoring in both English and History. Since then, I have also completed a Master of Education at the University of New South Wales. I started my career in a comprehensive state high school in Sydney and I have worked in a variety of contexts across my teaching career. In addition, I have fulfilled a variety of roles, focusing on both wellbeing and pastoral care, as well as classroom and curriculum leadership. As a result of these different roles, I have developed a holistic approach to education, believing that educators should develop the whole person. In 2020, I moved from Sydney to Toowoomba with my wife, Stephanie, and we fell in love with the region. We now live on five acres on the outskirts of town with our horses, cats and dogs.
I am incredibly excited to be at Queensland’s leading regional day and boarding school for boys from Prep to Year 12. For generations, TGS has been educating boys and this sense of history and tradition was something that drew me to the School. A boys’ only education allows for not only a focus on academic success, but also to facilitate the growth of boys into young men of strong character and integrity. This is a core focus of TGS that I am keen to contribute to. A holistic approach to education, focusing on academic rigour, as well as character development and wellbeing, is central to educating boys to allow them to flourish individually and contribute to society.
My role as the Head of Curriculum is to facilitate the smooth functioning of our education program in the Senior School. Central to this is ensuring that our curriculum maintains the highest standards of academic rigour, building upon our excellent academic results in previous years, while also ensuring that strong character and wellbeing development is embedded into all facets of our curriculum. In addition, my role is to be a point of contact for all boys and their families as they move through their QCE years, so I look forward to establishing quality connections and working with families to ensure success. One of the focuses here at TGS is explicit instruction. This approach to teaching and learning involves expert teachers modelling to students the learning being delivered and allowing boys the opportunity to consolidate their understanding through practice and high-quality feedback. I am excited to develop and embed this approach to learning in all our teaching programs and continue to build upon the excellent academic results for our boys.
TGS is committed to building deep connections and offering extensive opportunities for our students, and this is something that I am eager be involved with and contribute to. I hope to be able to ensure a rigorous curriculum that focuses on the whole person, while also building upon the incredible opportunities for our boys to access. As the school year begins, I look forward to meeting all our families and working together to ensure the success of all students.
Latest Blog
TGS Leading the Way for IT in Education
Toowoomba Grammar School is fortunate to have a strong partnership with Microsoft / School Locker. We are a Microsoft Lighthouse School, leading the way in technological advancement and deployment in Australian schools. This recognition would not be possible without two key factors: our “whole school” approach to IT, whereby the School supplies every student with the same devices, ensuring equality for all boys from Prep to Year 12.our dedicated IT team, who are based on-site to immediately…
Holiday Reading
Reading is one of those activities that, the more you do, the better you get, and with the holidays fast approaching, now is the perfect time to read that book you’ve always wanted to, finish a book you’ve started or try something new. It is important to keep reading over the holidays, so that we don’t step backward in our reading journey. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found, reading for pleasure is a habit that can prove essential to performing well…
Developing Generational Change in our Men – Stand Up and Speak Out
The devastating effects of domestic and family violence (DFV) are more prominent today as this previously ‘taboo’ issue is finally being publicly recognised and addressed. Toowoomba Grammar School is proud to be leading the way in creating generational change for this sensitive issue through a variety of School initiatives and by supporting community groups associated with DFV. Our programs are aimed at developing good men of the future who will “Stand Up and Speak Out.” TGS became a White…
The Barbour Connection
They will tell tales of meeting someone on the other side of the world whom they spotted wearing a TGS cap. It led to an instant connection. Of getting their dream job by simply proudly sporting a TGS Old Boy tie at the interview. It led to an instant connection. There is no denying that Toowoomba Grammar School students share a special bond. We celebrate it with our annual Old Boys’ Sons and Grandsons photo and our Old Boys’ Generations Gathering dinner. You see it in the playground at…
“I’ll Be There for You” at Toowoomba Grammar School
“I’ll be there for you” was the theme of National Boarding Week. This statement is particularly relevant at Toowoomba Grammar School as the boarders, the dayboys and the staff, help each other in the good times and the bad. We see our school as a ‘boarding school’, not a ‘school with boarders’. We are proud to be one of the oldest and most highly regarded boys’ boarding schools in Australia, providing a home away from home for boys for almost 150 years. TGS came from very humble beginnings. The…
Helping families navigate rules, rewards and consequences for boys
Recently I was in a webinar that aimed to tackle the issues surrounding technology and its effects on students. Some members of the forum started openly criticising boys for their poor behaviour. Whilst their criticisms were not directed specifically at our boys, I was offended at their general statements. We can be too quick to criticise boys and we forget that their frontal lobes are still developing. We also forget that their brains are “wired” differently from girls and that they don’t see…
Accepting Our Past, Creating Our Future
Toowoomba Grammar School has added the new role of Indigenous Education Coordinator to the School’s offering, to further promote a culture of diversity, inclusivity, and reconciliation. Mr Scott Gale has been appointed to this ground-breaking position that aims to spread awareness and understanding of the significance of Australia’s culture and history. “That’s something that has been lacking in Australia’s education system for so long,” said Scott. “It’s an extremely significant part of our…
The Gift of Music
You can feel the pride and passion exude from Janelle Fletcher as she reflects on her thirty-year career as a Music Tutor at Toowoomba Grammar School. “It’s a long time to stay in any job,” she admitted. “But working with the boys, seeing how important it is to have music in their lives and to develop not only as musicians but as people, that’s what’s kept me here.” Janelle believes staff in an all-boys’ school have a real understanding of boys. “It’s been very positive for me to see the…
