Living Waters Lutheran College in Halls Head has a new head honcho, and his name is Patrick Moore.
Mr Moore became the deputy principal on July 12, meaning he is in charge of Living Waters’ Halls Head campus, working under principal Sue Sullivan, who oversees both the Halls Head and Warnbro Living Waters campuses.
Mr Moore said he was jumping into the role with both feet, and looked forward to ensuring he leads a school that is ‘of’ the community, not just ‘in’ the community.
“I had been employed at Living Waters... at the Warnbro campus previously, so everything is familiar, but different at the same time,” Mr Moore said.
His teaching specialty was maths and science to begin with, but as a natural leader he quickly progressed into leadership positions.
Originally from Saint Louis in the USA, after his time at Warnbro from 2004-09 he moved to Hamilton in Victoria where he was deputy principal for six years at Good Shepherd College, another Lutheran school.
After Good Shepherd College, he became the principal of Foshan Concordia International School in Foshan, China, which is about 400km from Hong Kong.
“I had a great experience, a lot of great things i experienced and learned and took in about being in China, but it’s really made me appreciate and have a better understanding about how great it is actually here,” he said.
Mr Moore said life in Foshan has broadened his worldview and helped him to better understand Australia’s context as part of the Australasian region.
“I can really appreciate being a foreigner in a country where you don’t speak the language, and how difficult it could be for some of our refugee situations where people are coming here,” he said.
“It helps me understand too, Australia does have a great relationship with, but we also have a strong influence from Asia… and so I understand that context now, and understand the role we play within that context… how important that is for our future, and for our students future as well.”
He said Living Waters has a strong focus in acknowledging the Asian influence in their curriculum, for example, learning Japanese as a second language and studying the region in history and social studies.
“I know our students in the future as they grow up will have a better understanding of that… for our young people to grow up to be happy and confident, they’re going to have to be comfortable in that reality,” he said.
Mr Moore said integrating technology into the student’s learning was an important part of their becoming responsible global citizens.
“You can interact and mix with people of different cultures and ethnicity, on Facetime, Skype, you name it, Twitter, and all those type of things to help our students have a larger view of the world, which is going to help their reality, because the wider we make it, the better they are going to be,” Mr Moore said.
With about 140 students currently studying on the Halls Head campus, one of the major changes Mr Moore and the college staff are aiming for is to grow in numbers, while still retaining what Mr Moore described as a “family feel”.
