Dr John Collier bids farewell to St Paul's

By: Ken Goodlet

Posted 23 June 2009

Dr John Collier, who has served as Principal of St Paul’s Grammar School Penrith since June 1997, is to resign from the end of 2009 to take up an appointment as Head of St Andrew’s Cathedral School Sydney from the beginning of 2010. St Paul’s has been blessed with a succession of outstanding principals like Dr Collier who have made their own distinctive and distinguished contribution to the school.

Dr Collier came to St Paul’s after having been foundation principal of Thomas Reddall High School in Sydney’s south-west, the youngest principal of any government secondary school in NSW at the time of his appointment there in 1991.

During Dr Collier’s time at St Paul’s, the school established the first school-based cadet rural fire brigade in NSW (in 1998), had its first dressage championships (in 1999), began a program of Vocational and Educational Training (VET) courses (in 2001), extended the International Baccalaureate (in conjunction with the Board of Studies programs) to cover the whole school (in 2002), built the Junior School Library and purchased additional property for the Junior School (in 2002), built The Arts Quarter (in 2006) and refurbished Visual Arts and TAS areas (in 2007 and 2008).

Dr Collier believes that ‘education is about, for and of students’ and has promoted a caring environment at St Paul’s where students are empowered by intellectual stimulation, thoughtful pastoral care and spiritual guidance. In order to empower students academically and strengthen their learning outcomes, Dr Collier introduced faculty monitoring systems, a staff appraisal system, a teaching and learning training and development program, academic tracking, multiple interviews of Year 12 students to monitor progress, curriculum mapping and coherence across the school, and actively involving parents in students’ learning. He saw the International Baccalaureate as a vehicle that could help the school meet its learning goals. The result has been a steady improvement in the academic culture of the school that has lead to outstanding examination results not only for the top but for the bulk of students. The school has now the best Year 12 results in Sydney’s west. Dr Collier has undergirded academic excellence by supporting a diverse, well resourced co-curricular program, and a strong emphasis on pastoral care.

Dr Collier has sought with wisdom and by empowerment of others to bring to bear an integrated Christian perspective to all aspects of school life. All school documents, especially the regular curriculum, have a Christian character; tutor time has devotions; student chapels have a well-planned curriculum; and a Christian colloquium to maintain and develop a school with sustainable Christian values has been established. His greatest achievement has been to successfully balance academic achievement and a comprehensively lived-out Christian faith in a Christian grammar school.

The high regard in which Dr Collier is held as an innovative educator amongst his peers is indicated by his chairmanship of the Academic Committee of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia.

I have found John Collier to be a person of deep spirituality, application, respect for others and informed concern for their welfare, humility and integrity, wisdom and intelligence, prodigious memory and attention to detail – all laced with a sense of humour. He is a special person, as St Andrew’s will no doubt find out, and St Paul’s owes him a great debt of gratitude.

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