The Councils of St Andrew’s Cathedral School and Gawura School today announced a strategic transition of the schools’ leadership.
Dr John Collier, who has served as Head of School for 12 years, will be moving to an ongoing role focused on the area of Christian education. The details of this are still being discussed and are expected to take shape over the next few months as the transition gets underway.
The next leader of the school will be Oxford educated, internationally experienced school leader Dr Julie McGonigle who will return to Australia from the UK late next year to work with Dr Collier before becoming Head of School from 1 January 2022.
“The transition is strategically designed to occur when, thanks to Dr Collier’s transformational leadership, we are at our strongest point in history,” said the Very Rev Kanishka Raffel, Chair of Council.
“Dr Collier has served our community with great distinction and under his very popular leadership, we have flourished both as a Christian community and as a first-rate educational institution for our students.
“Dr McGonigle’s deep Christian faith and her vision for education align with the history of our schools and our vision for the future, and I am genuinely excited about the next era.”
Dr McGonigle worked on-site as the Schools’ Deputy Head – Academic Improvement for a year in 2017, and continued her strategic work with the school upon returning to the UK in 2018. She was educated at Oxford University and is currently serving as a leader for the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (a group of six schools) and as a Trustee for the Hope Learning Trust (an Anglican school trust with ten schools).
“Dr McGonigle will be the first female Head of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in our 135 year history – making this both a poignant and exciting moment for us,” said Mr Raffel.
