Principal's trauma-informed approach to teaching kids and building trust

Grant Quarry

By Grant Quarry
Published April 27, 2022

By any measure, your average school day at Galilee School in the ACT is anything but orthodox.

Principal Tim McNevin says Galilee School’s approach is to understand each young person, to get to know each of them and what their particular challenges are, what their particular story is, and then to respond as best it can to what it learns about them.

For starters it’s a four-hour day split into four learning periods and four extended break periods.

But then there’s nothing ...

This story appeared in the March 2022 edition of Australian Teacher Magazine.

Head of Special Education Services (H01) - Happy Valley State School, Special Education Program (Happy Valley Cluster)

Department of Education and Training (Queensland)

Happy Valley State School is seeking applications from dedicated and capable leaders to fill the position of Head of Special Education Services within the Happy Valley...

Teaching - Secondary / May 21, 2026

Principal (Level 4) - Mount Isa School of the Air

Department of Education and Training (Queensland)

An exciting opportunity exists for a focused and dynamic leader to join Mount Isa School of the Air's leadership team as Principal, from 13 July 2026. If you are an in...

Teaching - Secondary / May 21, 2026

Principal (Level 5) - Bowen State School

Department of Education and Training (Queensland) Townsville

An exciting opportunity exists for a focussed and dynamic leader to join Bowen State School's leadership team as a Temporary Principal (Level 5) from 29 June to 11 Dec...

Teaching - Secondary / May 21, 2026

School news / Policy pickle: navigating the precarious road ahead for wearable devices in classrooms

Wearable devices in the classroom present serious privacy and data security risks for schools, a legal expert has warned, yet inconsistent rules about their use are clouding the scene for school leaders across the country.

School news / ‘Years behind’: NAPLAN analysis reveals scale of Australia's educational inequity

Australia’s school system is actively widening learning gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children, damning new analysis drawing on 17 years’ worth of NAPLAN data has revealed.

School news / Employment rates for next-gen Indigenous women soaring due to education drive

Rising Indigenous employment is being driven by women who are better qualified than men and more likely to attend school and avoid the justice system, new research has revealed.

School news / Gifted Awareness Week shines light on learners our education system isn’t seeing

The stereotype of the gifted child as a confident, straight-A student sitting at the front of the class does not always match the reality in Australian classrooms, and as many experienced educators know, the consequences of under-identification of...

School news / ‘Nothing to lose by holding out’: Vic teachers not happy with 32 per cent pay offer

An in-principle agreement which will see Victoria’s public school teachers pocket pay rises of up to 32.4 per cent has been struck between the Allan Government and the Australian Education Union – but some argue the proposal fails to deliver bette...

School news / The 50-year fight to recognise rural mums’ unpaid education support role work

For Matilda Pearce, a school day might involve online classes in an outback farmhouse, doing maths in a paddock, practising spelling words in the car or reading a book on the long trip to town.

Opinion / Why more diagnoses won’t fix what’s happening in Australian classrooms

Walk into any school staffroom in Australia and ask what has changed over the past decade and the answer is strikingly consistent.

School news / Canvas breach: Australian schools the likely target of sophisticated phishing scams

In the wake of the Canvas data breach, Australian teachers and school leaders should now brace for an imminent wave of highly targeted phishing scams aimed at their communities, a cyber safety expert has warned.

School news / ‘We took out all the group work’: school’s instructional shift lifts literacy outcomes

Before one small regional Victorian school overhauled its approach to teaching English, there was a lot of ‘busy work’ underway in lessons – but not necessarily much actual learning happening.

School news / Concern grows as Budget targets ‘inappropriate’ disability funding for schools

Described by the Albanese Government as ‘ambitious’ yet grounded in ‘responsible’ economic management, the 2026/27 Budget cracks down on the tax treatment of housing and trusts, and delivers new tax sweeteners to workers – but what’s in it for sch...

Comments