Melbourne Montessori College Principal, recognised as an Influential Educator for 2024
August 9, 2024
Melbourne Montessori College Principal, Daniel Thomas, has been named as one of Australia’s ‘Most Influential Educators’ for 2024.
The Most Influential Educator list is compiled by the country’s leading educational publication, The Educator, and recognises Australia’s most outstanding teachers and principals.
It acknowledges their expertise, innovation, leadership and significant commitment to the success and wellbeing of their school, students and staff.
For Daniel, the recognition is both a surprise and a very humbling moment.
“The educators who are included on this list every year are always inspiring and impressive, so to be named on that list myself this year is a great surprise and an even greater privilege,” says Daniel.
“I see this honour as recognition of how hard everyone at Melbourne Montessori College has worked to ensure the school’s ongoing success and achievements. We really are a team and a strong community and that has allowed our school to thrive and become the inclusive, vibrant and special place it is today.”
Daniel’s inclusion on the Most Influential Educators list recognises the great strides he has made since arriving at the school in 2022. He has restructured the school’s operations and entrusted and supported senior staff with control and responsibility for day-to-day management.
Unusually for a principal, he continues to teach and firmly believes that principals should ‘practice what you preach’. This has enabled him to build strong and trusted relationships with each student, and with their families.
These connections are reinforced by the fact that Daniel’s ‘office’ at the Brighton campus is a roving standing desk and laptop in the library where staff and students can freely approach him to ask questions, raise any issues they want to highlight, or simply have a chat.
“School leaders need to develop relationships with students and staff,” says Daniel.
“They always know where I am and they know I’m there to support them.”