School Assembly S3E1: Meet our Series 3 principal

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Hello and thanks for downloading this podcast from Teacher – I’m Jo Earp. Welcome to Series 3 of School Assembly.

So, School Assembly is the podcast series that explores what it takes to build a school from the ground up. If you haven’t been following, in Series 1 we were with Principal Ray Boyd and Associate Principal Rachael Lehr at Dayton Primary School in Perth, Western Australia. In Series 2, we followed Principal Jo Camozzato at the dual campus Bemin Secondary College in Melbourne, Victoria. And so, in Series 3 we’re switching locations again, and widening the student age range. Notre Dame College is a P-12 in Bells Creek, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Dan McShea is at the helm. Over the next year or so we’ll be checking in with Dan each month to talk about a whole range of topics, and reflect on the many achievements, challenges and key learnings along the way. In this first episode then, I find out a bit more about the college, Dan’s previous leadership roles and his involvement in community life. I hope you enjoy it!

Jo Earp: Hi Dan – good morning. We're really looking forward to following you for Series 3, then, and I was having a bit of a look, it sounds like you've actually made loads of progress already on loads of things. So, we'll be hearing more about that as we go along, but I thought it would be good to set the scene for listeners first. So, can you tell me a bit about the school, which I think is due to open, is it new year, January 2025?

Dan McShea: Thanks, Jo. Yeah, what a great opportunity to speak with you and thank you. That's right, our school Notre Dame College is set to commence in 2025. And I've been appointed since last year and I've been in this role for the entirety of 2024. So yeah, we're up and running with Prep to [year] 3 and year 7 in 2025.

JE: And as you say, though, it’s a P-12 isn’t it, but in that first year then you’re going to have a reduced intake, aren’t you? You’re not going to go all the way through in every single year.

DM: Yeah, that’s right. It's a prep to year 12 Brisbane Catholic Education college in the Marist tradition and we will ultimately have around 1,850 students. But next year we will only commence with 2 prep classes, one each of years 1, 2 and 3, and just under 100 year 7 students that will commence our secondary school as well. So, all up, that's roughly about 220 students that will enter our gate for the first time in 2025 and be making history.

JE: Yeah, exciting stuff and we’ll have an episode on enrolment – it might actually be the next episode; so, we'll have a chat about that in terms of, you know, how you've gone about that and what your targets are. But I just wondered briefly then what's the long-term aim on enrolment?

DM: Well, you know, in a decade or so our school [is] master planned for [a] 4-stream primary school and 6-stream secondary school. So that'll be about 1,850 students or so and yeah, around 280 staff by 2030.

JE: Big school, that one, isn't it?

DM: Yeah, I think it is quite a large school. I think it would be, I think that would make it the largest Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. I think there's a few, probably bigger places as well, the school that I just left previously had about 1,400 students.

JE: Yeah. And just in terms of location then for those people who don't know it, you're going to be in Bells Creek. Whereabouts is that? What kind of area is it?

DM: Yeah, so the term Bells Creek has been an evolution. It was originally called the City of Aura which is where it is. And Aura is a master-planned new community in the South of Caloundra and it's really in that corridor between the Corbould Park Race Track and along the highway called Caloundra South and then Aura, and now there's some names for individual suburbs and our school will be in what will be the centre of Aura, which will one day have a population of about 50,000 people and it's an incredibly fast growing community that really wasn't here only a few years ago.

JE: And we've talked briefly there, we've mentioned about staffing numbers in the future, but obviously that sort of staggered intake means it's a bit more manageable in that first year of course. Has anything happened so far in terms of that? What does the team look like right now? Are you it or have you got more people in?

DM: Yeah. Well, it's yeah, it's sort of evolved pretty quickly. The year commenced with just myself and one other role who was looking after marketing, enrolments and administration essentially, and by Easter we were joined by a college Business Manager and fortunately he had just been on this journey of a new school twice beforehand – so he's been in invaluable. He commenced in Easter, and then just in the last few weeks a Head of College role, Jasmine Brown, started at our school. So, in our system, that's like a Deputy Principal role. So, she's commenced as well.

We've also [appointed] 4 more roles which will begin in October, and that includes a Teacher Librarian, a Primary Learning Leader, an Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching P-12, and another finance role. So those 4 people will join us in October, and that will mean that our very little space here in a shopping centre will become pretty cosy by the end of the year with what will be 8 people.

We've also appointed several of our staff that will commence in 2025 just in the past few weeks. And so we do have some plans to have them released from their current schools for 3 days towards the end of October and we plan to do a bit of dreaming and formation and visioning work with them in those 3 days, well aware that, you know, we don't know what January will look like if we do get some buildings delivered late or we just want to be prepared for whatever contingencies that could happen.

JE: Mm hmm. Yeah, well, we've what we've heard from previous series participants is that flexibility, being able to adapt and change and not worry too much actually. Have a plan B, a C and a D.

DM: Absolutely and that's probably absolutely a key ingredient when we are recruiting that you know, flexibility, adaptability, versatility and you know as we've just discussed while these skills do become quite big quite quickly, it's definitely all hands-on deck in those first few years and everybody needs to be up for that.

JE: Absolutely, it's good fun, though, too, isn't it, it's definitely something to look forward to – and we'll talk about this as well, that difference in sort of being able to build something from scratch as opposed to, you know, being part of a team. So, you're leading that, you're sort of having that vision. You mentioned there, you were appointed 2023, I think, and you were Principal of Unity College previously, which actually isn't far from Bell's Creek – I had a look on the map, it's not far at all. What drew you to this foundation principal role then? Setting up from scratch.

DM: Yeah, look, it a really close neighbour and it's a part of the same system of schools that I'm working in now and Unity College was a great place, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

I guess in terms of this opportunity, it did tick a lot of boxes for me. It's a prep-12 college, which that's work that I really love, and this'll be my third prep-12 college that I've had the privilege of leading. It's in my home in Caloundra, which is where I live and love to live. And it's in the Marist tradition, which is a network of about 60 schools in Australia – and that's, I’ve worked in that space before as well. So, it did tick all of those boxes. I was also … actually my children were at Unity College, and I think there's was a bit of a brief from my daughter just to get out of her way and so that was certainly also one consideration there, Jo.

But also, ultimately, the excitement of being able to start from scratch and bring in your own people and you know always in whatever industry you're in, you're inheriting ways of working, and inheriting staff and the chance to pick everyone and to build the vision that you have is once in a lifetime. So that's that unique opportunity that I'm truly grateful for and also well aware that, you know, it was, and it is going to be a big job and a big challenge.

I actually worked in a new school twice before, not as a principal though, so I had that perspective and excitement of being a part of the small staff community and that was a great privilege. And if I look back on my career, some of my best memories and friends and colleagues was from some of those times. So yeah, to have that opportunity now is a bit of a pinch yourself sort of a moment.

You’re listening to a podcast from Teacher magazine, supported by Monash University's Faculty of Education. Listen to their podcast ‘Let’s Talk Teaching’, hosted by former teacher, Associate Professor Rebecca Cooper, as she invites teachers and alumni with a range of educational backgrounds and experiences to share their insights and discuss practical topics to help you develop and grow as a teacher. Season 2 is available now.

JE: Oh, it's good to hear that you got the tick of approval from your daughter. That's quite funny. She's like ‘yes!’. Yeah, it is a bit odd, isn't it when you've got a parent at the school, I guess, but yeah particularly with a principal as well. So, that's really funny. I've also had a little bit of a look at sort of your background and history in your leadership roles but, also, I've seen that you're really keen on that community aspect. And what you were saying, you know, staying in that area, that that's your area. We know from research that partnerships with the community are incredibly important to the success of schools. You've got a really strong bond with that community, haven't you? And you're involved in quite a few activities outside school as well.

DM: Yeah. Look, Caloundra, I wasn't born in this area, but I certainly always loved coming here, even as a child, I've been involved with the Surf Life Saving movement since the 90s. So, I actually did my bronze medallion at Kings Beach in, I think, 1997. So just about 30 years. And I've stayed in the Life Saving movement, which is something that I really enjoy. My children do Nippers and row surf boats, as do I, and yeah, it's a great way to be a part of the community. And my kids play a lot of sport, and have some involvement in our parish.

And so, yeah, look it comes pretty naturally, it’s life-giving to be a part of the community that you work in. And previous to moving back to the Sunshine Coast we actually lived in 2 rural places in northern Queensland where you really have no choice but to be immersed in community life, and the barriers and differences between what school and what's community are probably a bit more blurred because everyone's, you know, you probably do know everyone a bit more in a town like that. And so, we've become used to that and it's pretty life-giving.

JE: Mm hmm. So, we're going to actually wrap up for this episode. I don't want to keep you too long today. But over the next few months then we'll chat about what's happening – some of the decisions that you’re making there. So, we'll have a think about building and learning spaces, the instructional side of things, recruitment – which it was a massive topic in Series 2, and it probably will be again this year, although hopefully things will improve on that – enrolments, community partnerships as well. So, I'm really looking forward to that.

Regular listeners to the series then will know that we always end the School Assembly episodes with the same 2 questions. So, get ready for those. We talk about proudest achievement, biggest challenge and key learning so far. So, it could be something quite small, it could be something large. Let's start with the proudest achievement then.

DM: Look what's been something that's given me great pride is just seeing some of our team come together. And I was actually just asked by a parent at rugby on the weekend ‘how’s it all going?’ And I'm just, I was really excited about a few of the appointments that we've made and to be able to say, you know, without exception I'd be delighted for any of those people to be teaching my own children. Fills me with grape pride and hope in the possibility of what that's going to be like next year. So that'd certainly be my answer there.

JE: And biggest challenge that you've had with coming into the school so far.

DM: Yeah, look, you know, there's plenty of challenges in an opportunity like this. Mostly they're overshadowed by excitement and adventure. But you know the challenge of rain and delays and uncertainty around delivery dates and buildings, I think that's potentially the biggest challenge, and the need to be flexible. We've all had schools through things like COVID, so we've become quite versatile, but there is a great unknown there and people that like to be planned and organised, that's certainly a challenge.

JE: Mm hmm. And what about sort of key learning from this particular journey with the school so far. It's been about a year or so you were saying, quite hard to pick a key learning because each month we'll probably look back just only on the last 4 weeks. But is there something that stood out for you? Something that you've learnt that you thought ‘that's a bit different than I thought’.

DM: Yeah. Well, I guess you know, this is such a unique year and I'm sure that anyone who's been on that journey would attest to that. But the work is so seasonal and really shifts even as every new role comes on, your attention turns to somewhere else that you need to be. And my key learning has been just to focus on what really matters at the time and you know you could apply that to a few layers of your life I guess – your wellbeing and your work and what's in front of you, and getting things done while you can. So that's been my response to that.

JE: Well, that's been a fantastic first episode Dan. Getting to know you a bit better and about Notre Dame College in Bells Creek there. As I say, over the next sort of 11/12 months or so then we'll be following you and the team and getting some insights into what it's like to be a foundation principal of a brand-new P-12 school and all the sort of strategic planning and leadership aspects of that as well and the community aspects. So, have a great month and we'll catch up with you again in September.

DM: Thank you, Jo. Great privilege to speak with you and I hope to speak with you again soon. You take care.

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