Culture Building for Responsive Leadership

Aitken College is multi-generational employers with expertise transcending many disciplines. In its relatively short history, it has experienced exponential growth, gaining a reputation as a unique educational provider in the outer north-west of Melbourne.

Like many Independent Schools, the college prioritises articulating strategy, engaging the workforce, building relationships, and supporting professional growth (including leadership development).  

One of the powers of educational institutions is in their ability to learn from the experiences of others and then apply strategies that are best suited to the local school environment.

Recently, our Executive Director: People and Culture, Mr James Phillips, presented at the Independent Schools Victoria (ISV) Human Resource Managers Retreat, attended by over 70 independent school professionals.

Presenting on Culture Building for Responsive Leadership, he highlighted some of the strategic change initiatives that Aitken College has been undertaking.

Some of these would already be obvious to our College Community, such as further embedding our Strategy Plan to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned in understand what the College is putting in place to best serve its students, parents and staff.

The effect of others, such as developing our internal emerging leadership talent, will bring about lasting cultural change for students, parents, and staff, securing the long-term commitment to the Greenvale community.

The ISV HRM Retreat is an annual event attended by those with Human Resource responsibility in member schools across Victoria. This year, alongside Mr Phillips, presentations included Supporting Staff Wellbeing and Managing Psychosocial Risks in Schools, Performance Management, the Victorian Institute of Teaching, and Developing a Human Resource Strategic Plan.

Aitken College is committed to serving its community and more widely, other independent schools who can benefit from our support, building on the strong foundations forged 26 years ago. We look forward to strengthening existing relationships with other ISV member schools and developing new ones as they emerged.