In January, Deborah Clancy commenced her new role as Executive Director of Education at Newcastle Anglican.
After almost 38 years spent teaching in regional classrooms, 28 in leadership positions, and three as Lakes Grammar school principal, the mother-of-three is keen to sink her teeth into a role that promises to be both challenging and rewarding.
Q. Do you prefer to be called Deb, Deborah, or Mrs Clancy?
A. I’m a Deb, or Deborah, but never Debbie.
Q. Born in Sydney, educated wherever your dad could find the best surf
(Crescent Head, Ballina, Byron Bay), what did you love about school life?
A. Structure, and strawberry-flavoured milk at recess.
Q. You started your career in 1987 and have worked all over NSW. What
was it that drew you to teaching?
A. My high school chemistry teacher Mr O’Connor. He had a sense of humour like me and that made learning enjoyable.
Q. What has been your favourite subject to teach?
A. I’m trained in science, my favourite topic is biology, anything about animal behaviour, definitely
not physics.
Q. What will you miss most about Lakes Grammar?
A. The kids, the noise, the relationships.
Q. Tell us about the new role…
A. The ED role helps the four Newcastle Anglican schools work together,
to leverage off the expertise that we have in each school and within our organisation. It could include streamlining processes, sharing information, ensuring our schools are all utilising the shared services we have at Newcastle Anglican, like
the Communications and Marketing team, People and Culture,
and Finance.
Q. What are some of the goals you hope to achieve within the new role?
A. I’d also like to work on broadening the outcomes for our students, including catering for alternative futures because not all kids want to go to university.
I’d like to explore ways to boost our results, which includes learning how to use AI effectively to improve our student’s education.
And I really want to improve the sharing within our schools – utilising our resources more effectively. If one of our schools is struggling to have a staff member teach physics for example, why can’t we share the lessons being taught at another of our four schools remotely?
I’ll be working on building relationships between Newcastle Anglican and its four schools so we can see the bigger picture and enable greater success.
Q. List your five favourite things:
A.
1. Sleep
2. Reality tv
3. Soft drinks
4. A 6am gym class
5. The beach
Q. What is something people might not know about you?
A. I don’t like small talk.
Q. Tea or coffee?
A. Tea, just two dunks of a tea bag with lots of milk.
Q. Finish this sentence: The best thing about Newcastle Anglican is ..
A. Our people.
Our staff work so hard to get the best for our students and make sure that they feel welcome, safe, supported and challenged to do their best – whatever that is. I want our educators to be that mentor that our kids remember long after school is finished. The one that 20 years down the track they say, “I remember that teacher, they inspired me”.
We can give that future to our students.
Our point of difference is that we are a collection of faith-based schools, and we are committed to inclusivity and excellence.
Our uniforms are unisex, our attitudes are welcoming, we offer learning in a safe space and promote belonging.
You can be whoever you want to be at our schools.
