Dear Families

Welcome to the 2023 school year - what a wonderful start it has been!

I am honoured and privileged to join the St Andrew’s School community as Principal and look forward to getting to know you and your family throughout the term.

Firstly, I want you to know I am a husband, father, educator, and leader. I know what it’s like to juggle life’s many and varied demands, while trying (it’s tough!) to stay fit and honour my own wellbeing. I’m a proud South Australian and committed to ensuring that St Andrew’s School is a high performing, flourishing community where all are nurtured and valued.

High performing organisations have a continuing cycle of listening, deep analysis and reflection, planning, and implementing. As I’ve commenced in this role, embedding myself in the various operations of the School, I am impressed with the staff team at St Andrew’s School, their dedication to creating a learning community where children are known and valued. St Andrew’s School has a proud history of strong academic performance, while offering a breadth of diverse opportunities for students to flourish in alignment with their passions.

I am an advocate for building upon the strengths of an organisation and a firm believer that St Andrew’s School should have a clear focus on personalising learning for all students. As such, we recently engaged Hender Consulting to assist us in recruiting a market leading executive with a clear passion for learning and teaching. David Hodges has made an immediate and positive impact in this new position as Deputy Principal and will continue to drive high level learning strategy across our school, whilst also connecting on a personal level with staff and students. This year we also welcome a new Primary Years Program Coordinator, Mary-Anne Muhl. Some of you may already know Mary-Anne from her previous role as Year 4 teacher last year. Mary-Anne is an expert in inquiry-based learning with vast and impressive international school experience. Both David and Mary-Anne will work with our teams of learning and teaching staff on the personalisation of learning for our students, along with the consistent implementation of our learning programs. Alongside these two new and critical appointments, I’m pleased to share that next week we commence recruitment for another new position, Head of Personalised Learning. This position builds upon the important foundational work of Nicole Joanni, Coordinator of Inclusive Education and School Support, who will shortly commence maternity leave. I will keep you updated on the progress of this important process.

As Principal, I will continue to listen, analyse, reflect, plan, and implement in a timely and meaningful manner. St Andrew’s School is one of Australia’s finest and my commitment to you is to ensure we have the best people, working in proven ways, to deliver personalised learning for our students.

Warm regards

Luke Ritchie
Principal