Head of Campus, St Kilda Rd
Excellence in educational leadership and management
The Brief
Since commencing as Principal of Wesley College, Mr Nick Evans, has engaged Liz Jones and the Fisher Leadership team to support Wesley to appoint key positions including the Head of Campus St Kilda Road, Head of Campus Glen Waverley, Head of Sport and Director of Learning. In September 2020,
The Head of Campus, St Kilda Road position became available due to the resignation of the incumbent. The Principal, Mr Nick Evans, approached Fisher Leadership to support Wesley to appoint the Head of Campus, St Kilda Road on the basis of his prior experience working with Liz Jones at Melbourne Grammar School, both as a candidate and a client. This is a key role responsible for the educational leadership and management of the St Kilda Road campus which comprises approximately 1600 students. Wesley sought a Head of Campus with strong influencing skills along with the ability to question and manage change. The appointee will need to bring the staff team together, and with all the Heads of School being new to their positions the challenge will be to lift performance across the board.
Solution Building
Fisher Leadership conducted a national search, utilising our broad candidate and referral partner networks to identify highly qualified candidates. In assessing potential candidates the Fisher Leadership team sought to identify a driven and ambitious up and comer in the school sector, with the position providing a career steppingstone to future Principal positions. The Selection Panel considered an initial list of seven external and two internal candidates, with six candidates chosen for an initial interview, including one internal. After a second round of interviews the final three candidates completed psychometric assessments and Fisher Leadership conducted thorough, 360-degree referencing.
The Outcome
Ms Kim Bence, from Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney, was announced as the successful appointee and commenced with Wesley School in early January 2020. Kim demonstrated an extensive educational career focused in the teaching, learning and wellbeing domains. Wesley was keen to capitalise on Kim’s experience overseeing the Faculty Heads and Teaching and Learning teams at Ravenswood, with her remit extending across the planning, design, implementation and delivery of curriculum, assessment and reporting.