Kane Bradford

Head

Professional Practice Innovation And Partnership

Discover

What inspired you to become a teacher?

Growing up, I was incredibly passionate about sport. I played football (AFL) and basketball at a fairly high level as a junior, but I soon realised that my true passion was in coaching. I have coached basketball at a very high level, working with teams in state and national competitions and coaching across the UQ Men’s program for a number of years. For me, sport is not just about winning or losing; it builds character. Coaching allowed me to help individuals and teams reach their full potential. It felt like a natural transition for me to move from coaching basketball to teaching. Teaching is all about helping people find their best, in all aspects of life.

What is your role within the school?

My role is basically about all things

Teaching and Learning. Officially, it’s ‘Head - Professional Practice, Innovation and Partnerships’. This gives me scope to work across our internal approaches for classroom practice and staff growth and development, but also to build and extend our external partnerships to the benefit of staff, students and the community. I’m really fortunate in that I get to work closely with our Directors of Faculty, Stage Coordinators and other Middle Leaders to help drive a whole school academic approach.

In addition to this role, I maintain a teaching load. This is really important to me. I have always taught English, but in 2023 I’ve moved into teaching commerce and business studies. I’m missing the iterative and expressive processes involved in English (and Shakespeare a little) but am loving the connectedness of the business curriculum area and the real world applications for our students.

What are your qualifications?

I have a Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Majors in History and English), Bachelor of Education (BEd), a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and am a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). I’m currently completing my PhD (very slowly), with a focus on the impacts of education policy on the work and lives of teachers and their practice. I may finish this sometime this decade.

What is your teaching philophosy?

To put it as succinctly as possible, I’ll borrow a tagline of my former school; “success for every student”. For me, teaching is about helping every individual find their best; to build character, to instil flexility and adaptability, to foster resilience and to surface and grow expertise. This means helping students to find what that will look like for each of them as individuals; no two paths are ever the same.

In your positon what do you find most rewarding?

There really is so much. Nothing compares to student feedback. Students are good at telling you if you’re doing a good job or not (often with non-verbal signals). I think what I missed most when not in schools was that consistency of feedback and the very tangible sense that you were helping and hopefully making a difference. When you work with students, you are acutely aware of the importance of the job and the impact you can have. I really do enjoy learning, innovating and trying new things. In this sense, teaching is the perfect job as no two days are ever the same and every student brings a unique perspective.