From the Principal embrace positive change. He also suggested that schools themselves can leverage the opportunity for proactive change. With his provocations and many others like it becoming very common, it is an interesting time for us to be going into our Strategic Planning year. It is also an interesting time to be thinking strategically in the context of COVID’s financial ravages, too. It is an interesting time to consider how we can thrive in a less certain world. Principal Adrian Farrer (seated centre) is pictured with (standing) Junior School ViceCaptain, Jonathan Moutsios; School Vice-Captain, Cinque Howells; Deputy Principal and Head of the Senior School, Susan Hill; Head of the Junior School, Grant Nalder; School Vice-Captain, Tom Wenn; Junior School Vice-Captain, Noah Gurvitch and (seated) School Vice-Captain, Max Yakubowski; School Captain, Will Toner; Junior School Captain, Sidney Johns; and School Vice-Captain, Ethan Orr
Everyone who has had the Melbourne experience of COVID has shared in the challenge of being heavily governed. For most of us that is a new experience and it is undoubtedly a direct challenge to the freedom loving populace. Of course, contextually, the privations endured by most people were mild when compared with the many whose livelihoods – or lives – were taken as a direct consequence of the pandemic, yet the loss of ‘normal’ and assumed freedoms bit hard. The sense of everyone being ‘in this together’ was probably overstated as for every family, and every person, the experience has been nuanced. To have reverted to Distance Learning for a short while within weeks of school starting and much against the promise of a positive year ahead, became our latest challenge. It heralded a ‘new, new normal’ and one which sees the traditional calendar and its rhythm again lacking certainty. How pleasing it was, therefore, that students, staff and parents adjusted
so swiftly to the reality and with a tangible sense of calm. I cannot comment on everyone’s experience, of course, and there are degrees of impact across our community, but the manner of movement was impressive to witness. The lessons learned from COVID’s impositions may well serve to be useful for us as we spend part of this year imagining our future as a school community. There has been much written and analysed regarding the opportunities that exist for organisations to change their model of operation and grasp the advances that 2020 offered. We were fortunate to have Professor Jim Watterson from The University of Melbourne address all staff during the preparations days prior to school resuming in January. He spoke to his recent paper, ‘A Catalyst for Change’, and suggested that there is sufficient momentum and will to challenge the current (heavy governance of) legislative and regulatory frameworks that exist around schooling to
In the coming months we will look to capture the voice of our community as we build our strategy for the years ahead. We will do so by various methods and we already have last year’s LEAD surveys as a solid base from which to launch. Focus groups across students, staff, parents and alumni, and data regarding the trends and challenges of the broader community will help shape our thinking. We need to ensure that Trinity evolves in a measured, purposeful way to meet the needs of our 21st century learners in the ways we help them learn, play, interact and seek to do good in the world. We need to be able to offer facilities that provide authentic learning experiences for a modern learner. We need to be able to run our school in a financially responsible manner. I think we can talk about the process of strategic planning as one where we are ‘in this together’. We will determine our direction by collaboration so that our outcomes are particularly ‘Trinity’ in their nature. Ours will be an evolution, not a revolution, and one that can reflect the values and ideals of our school in our modern context. Adrian Farrer Principal
April 2021 | 3
