This year, Carey has established a new Strategy and Partnerships portfolio, designed to look beyond the day to day and focus deliberately on how the School positions itself for a rapidly changing educational landscape. My role is to help Carey think clearly about where to invest energy, how to build meaningful partnerships and how we translate strong educational values into sustainable, future-facing opportunities.
I come to Carey from higher education, most recently working in the Vice-Chancellor’s office at the University of Melbourne, where I led large-scale programs in learning design, organisational development and educational innovation. Before that, I spent two decades working in schools across Australia and the UK, in both teaching and senior leadership roles. Across those contexts, one lesson has remained consistent: schools that thrive are not those that chase every new idea, but those that are clear about purpose, grounded in evidence and thoughtful about how change is implemented.
This portfolio exists to support exactly that kind of work at Carey. It is focussed on strengthening educational practice, developing pathways and programs that respond to real student needs, and forming partnerships that extend what the School can offer without losing sight of what matters most. In short, it is about helping Carey work smarter, not harder, so that teaching and learning can remain the central priority.
That framing matters, because the pressures facing schools today are real, structural and unlikely to disappear – which brings us to the broader context in which this work sits.
Working smarter so teaching can matter more
One of the quiet truths in education is that our best outcomes are rarely delivered by a new program or a shiny platform. They come from how people work together: the habits, routines, professional judgement and shared expectations that shape everyday teaching and learning. Research across decades is pretty consistent here: the quality of instruction and the strength of a school’s professional culture are among the most powerful in-school influences on student learning. The tricky part is that the conditions required for that culture – time, trust, focus and feedback – are exactly what modern schools often struggle to protect.
As Executive Director – Strategy and Partnerships, a core part of the role is to help strengthen Carey’s reputation as a ‘career growth accelerator’ for educators. In plain terms, that means building the systems and partnerships that make it easier for great teaching to flourish, and harder for admin drag, fragmentation and change fatigue to win.
The problem we cannot ignore
Across the sector, workload pressure and role complexity have increased, while expectations around wellbeing, inclusion, learning diversity and digital risk have accelerated. At the same time, professional learning often becomes a long list of ‘things to attend’ rather than a coherent pathway that improves practice. That mismatch is costly: it burns time, lowers energy and makes it harder for staff to feel genuine agency.
A more realistic approach
Carey is already shaping a clearer philosophy through Learning with Purpose: a framework that prioritises a ‘learn it all, not know it all’ mindset, professional agency and deliberate opportunities to apply learning, evaluate impact and share practice. Our job is to help turn that philosophy into visible, practical infrastructure that supports staff to do their best work. Alongside this, there is a strong emphasis on leadership, contribution and outward engagement. We want Carey to be a place where people can grow, lead and contribute to the profession, not simply participate in it. This means fostering purposeful connections, partnerships, and exchanges that allow ideas to flow both into and out of the School.
Importantly, this outward focus reflects a broader responsibility. Carey benefits from significant professional expertise, resources and opportunity, and with that comes the obligation to share, collaborate and contribute beyond our immediate community. Thoughtfully designed partnerships enable us to do this in ways that strengthen the wider educational sector, while also creating opportunities to reinvest in what we offer our own students and staff.
Taken together, this work is about being intentional, ethical and pragmatic: reducing unnecessary friction where possible, protecting time for the human work that matters most, and ensuring Carey continues to learn, contribute and lead with purpose.
None of this is about doing more. It’s about doing the right things, with enough focus to make them stick. If we can protect time for meaningful professional growth, support staff agency and build a culture where learning is normal for adults too, we improve the experience of staff and, inevitably, the experience of students.
That’s the work: making Carey an environment where educators thrive, because thriving educators build thriving young people.
Dr Karl Sebire
Executive Director – Strategy and Partnerships
