Allan Shaw

In a long career in education, Allan worked in all three school sectors across two state departments of education, a Catholic systemic high school and an independent boy's boarding school, prior to his commencement as Foundation Principal at Peter Moyes Anglican Community School in 1999.

Allan concluded his role as Principal of The Knox School, in Melbourne, his second principalship in 2021. These two roles as Principal were separated by the role of Chief Executive to AHISA (The Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia). This also involved the role of Company Secretary for AHISA Ltd. During this time the AICD Company Director’s course was undertaken.

In addition, Allan, post school, initially studied, trained and worked as a Goldsmith, designing and making bespoke jewellery and also as a professional white water rafting guide as a summer job for a number of years.

As a foundation member of the Board of AITSL (Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership), a Commonwealth Company, Allan was deeply involved in the development of the Australian Professional Standard for Principals. In past years, he has also been Vice-President of the Crafts Council of the ACT and of AMICP Ltd, both of which were member focused NFPs. He was awarded a Fellowship of the Australian Council for Education Leaders and the Australian College of Educators for services to his peers.

He currently sits as a member of the Council of Geelong Grammar School, is External Advisor to the Board of the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership and an Ambassador for Independent Schools Victoria. This last role partly involved assisting with developing good governance process for schools, governance advice to both directors and principals and facilitating strategic development.

Allan is an accredited executive coach and is also an accredited facilitator of the Herrmann Whole Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI). He coaches and mentors principals and senior staff.

Allan remains a student of developing the best approaches to schooling. School education is a systems technology, designed to achieve certain outcomes using a set of resources such as time, money and adult expertise. As the demands upon schools have increased, developed and changed, the way the system is designed and implemented has not varied much in many decades. We now find the system is under interconnected pressures. Good governance needs to understand these pressures and with leadership teams develop strategies to meet the learning needs of children and young people, while providing a positive working environment for staff, in which they can flourish.