When Australia’ s The Educator went looking for individuals who have made a significant contribution to the K-12 education sector for their 2016 National Hot List they did not have to look far. They were searching for individuals at the forefront of education innovation and leadership, and agreed that Catherine Misson, Principal of Melbourne Girls Grammar (MGGS), fit the bill.
Catherine joined MGGS in 2008 and has been leading an innovative change agenda within the school community, and within the education sector more broadly, ever since.
“At a time of unprecedented change in expectations for women, there has never been a more important time to prepare our girls for life beyond the school gates,” says Professor Katie Allen, Chairman of MGGS Council. ” As a school with a long tradition of excellence in girls’ education, we are proud that Catherine has led such a strong agenda of innovation. This award recognises her vision; one that is embodied in the curious, creative and ethical women of action graduating from our school.”
Catherine is a leading voice for enterprise education, a vision that places students at the heart of schooling initiatives that promote the non-cognitive attributes of learners to ensure they are ready to thrive in the 4th Revolution. She has developed an educational narrative that champions the development of an enterprising mindset in youth, to ensure that students today are being equipped for a digital age in which their experiences of work and wellbeing will be vastly different to those of their parents.
Catherine has always questioned the status quo in the educational paradigm in schools, and she is now leading the way through the design of innovative school programs at MGGS, including new ways to imagine the use of time, roles and of young people taking control of their learning.
In 2017, under Catherine’s leadership, the MGGS community will boldly implement a new Senior Years Program that has been architecturally crafted to deliver on this agenda. Wellbeing is at the core of the program, fundamentally shifting the focus for our girls to learning first what makes them well, confident and capable, and then leveraging this resilience for rigorous academic outcomes.
Through her establishment of the Centre for Educational Enterprise (CEE), Catherine has taken this agenda global, launching in 2016 the Enterprising Schools Network to connect educators who are acting and leading for the same greater purpose.