After a tough and tumultuous year, Kristin Simons is ready to hit the reset button. Now, sheâll be taking on the top post for Wilkinson School, set to serve as its new head of school starting this fall.
Currently the schoolâs learning specialist and academic lead, Simons holds a bachelorâs degree in education from Gonzaga University and a masterâs in curriculum and instruction from Southern New Hampshire University. Her 25 years of teaching in public and private schools has focused on working with special education students. But ever since coming to Wilkinson in 2019, sheâs found herself taking on roles supporting teachers and monitoring student success.
Rachel Sadler writes: It’s great to see people recognise that teachers need to focus on the “soft skills”.
Once again, I read an article that says all the right things and makes fantastic suggestions for the future of education. Once again, it fails to note that teachers are constrained by the system.
Ask any of us — we would love to shake up the classroom but we are all stuck. The HSC system from Year 11 to Year 12 (in my state of New South Wales anyway) is so closely linked and geared towards a high stakes test at the end that we have no room to budge.