Mount Evelyn Principal Phil Comport with students Alannah, Talya and Aaaron. 47
By Tania Martin
MOUNT Evelyn Primary School is on par with some of America’s top ivy-league institutions according to principal Phil Comport.
The principal has just returned from an international four week study tour research mission into overseas education systems.
He said the trip was affirmation that Mount Evelyn was on the right track for the future.
Mr Comport was chosen for the trip as part of a Victorian education program for high performing principals.
He said it was an opportunity of a lifetime.
Mr Comport decided to work with two other principals from the region from Manchester and Warrandyte primary schools.
“We were keen to see how other countries interpret modern educational research and what it looks like in other places,” he said.
But their trip was ‘hijacked’ before it even started.
The trio’s original plan was to fly out to Finland and then the United Kingdom but the Iceland volcanic ash cloud issue prevented that from happening.
Flights were grounded across most of Europe after the cloud posed an air traffic safety risk.
They were rerouted to Japan and then headed to the United States of America ahead of schedule.
When they first reached Hong Kong, the principals were advised by a travel agent to start their tour in Japan.
Mr Comport said at the time there were more than 50,000 people stuck in either the Hong Kong or Singapore and they would have had no chance of going anywhere.
“We were told we would have better access to the UK from Japan but when the volcano kept going we had to change the plans and went to straight the US,” he said.
Mr Comport said most of the study tour was focussed on New York and Toronto in Canada.
He said a visit to the Calhoun School in New York was one of the highlights.
Families have to pay $40,000 a year for their children to attend the school.
Mr Comport said the school was going through a very interesting challenge of how to improve education in New York.
He said in a school which had the resources to do anything, it chose to do much the same as Mount Evelyn.
“It also placed the highest importance on ways schools are seeking to individualise student learning, rather than a one-size-fits-all formula,” Mr Comport said.
“We must be aware of and build on each individual child’s own talents and be very aware of their preferred learning system.”
Mr Comport said some of Calhoun’s initiatives included teachers working more as coaches and mentors and offing a more flexible grade arrangement so children are not always in a room with 25 other students.
This is a similar philosophy used in Mount Evelyn’s refurbishment project.
“It’s great to see what we spent $9 million building really fits with others thinking as well,” he said.
“To some extent it showed Victorian education was world class…I think that’s a good thing for the community to know.”
Findings from the study tour will now be presented to key leaders in the Education Department.
