Hi I’m Harry!
I have worked in Education since 1987, in fact, well before… if you count being the second eldest of eight children.
I enjoyed a wonderful first phase of my teaching career at Wesley College, Glen Waverley during the transition to the new Senior School. I also had the opportunity to “Travel the World” during this period. I decided (in 1996) that perhaps I could make a bigger impact in Education if I worked somewhere with (what I had witnessesed was) less opportunities for young people (I felt that my wonderful Wesley graduates would probably be successfully whether I taught them or not!).
The short term aim was to work for 10 years outside Australia…. I returned to Australia in 2024 after being away for more than 27 years!!
I enjoyed 26 amazing years living and working in Peru at Markham College (even though those students were also very priveleged compared to those in the ‘rest of the world’ they were in a position to have an enormous positive impact in Peru)
I was able to work with some incredible people and eventually create and develop a Holistic program eventually called HELIX (H=Holsitic, E = Experiential Learning, L = Leadership, I = International Citizenship, X = X-Factor “What’s your X-Factor?”) in my role as Deputy Head HELIX. The opportunity to compliment the academic program with education outside the classroom [including outdoor education, extra-curricular activities involving an enormous range of sport, adventure, craft, performing arts, democracy and more, service learning projects, national and international trips all involving significant challenges and great learning opportunities for students (and staff) which became part of the ‘DNA’ of the school] is something I will always be grateful to Markham for.
Collaboration with the LAHC in a project in the Andes with students from 16 different schools in Latin America which resulted in a presentation (with two of the student leaders) in COP28 Dubai planted the seed for the idea of educational consulting.
In 2024 we (my wife Vanessa and son Luka) moved to Darwin, Australia where I worked with Haileybury Rendall School as Director of Boarding., but we decided to return to Victoria to be closer to my aging parents and I spent the rest of the year writing down ideas in a manual for the formation of the X-Factor-Ed consulting business.
I am currently working (part-time) at my ‘alma mater’, Wangaratta High School in 2025 whilst I prepare to launch X-Factor-Ed. An enormous thank you to all to the positive influences I have had along this journey thus far.
