This afternoon I met Greg White who is the principal at St Mary's Catholic Primary School...


St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School serves a multicultural community in Dandenong in Melbourne, Australia. Greg and his team aim to provide a safe, happy, caring and supportive learning environment for all their children by respecting and appreciating the diversity of their community and providing a broad, integrated curriculum, relevant to the childrens individual needs that will prepare them to meet the challenges of the future... so we have a lot in common!

Greg was visiting colleagues at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Primary School and was also visiting other Leeds schools. He was deeply impressed by what he had seen in our amazing schools and it was great to spend some time with Greg and talk about what we have achieved here in Leeds over the last nine years. It is interesting that colleagues in Australia are facing the introduction of a National Curriculum and national testing at key points in their childrens learning so it was interesting to discuss with Greg what we have learned over the last twenty years developing a creative primary curriculum and the associated assessment for learning.
Chris