Mary Baxter began her OneSchool Global (OSG) journey as Campus Principal at its Bendigo campus in 2005. For Mary, it’s been an incredible journey highlighted by demonstrating strong leadership and composure in high-pressure environments – managing multiple stakeholders and navigating significant change.
Now in her 21st year of continuous service at OSG, Mary is the Regional Director of Teaching and Learning (Secondary) overseeing the senior year educational programs across 31 Australian campuses. It’s a vital role at the school which prides itself on developing ‘life-ready’ students under its learning to learn framework.
“The biggest hurdle early on was getting staff on board and buying in to the change we were embarking on by rolling out a national curriculum. Any restructure scares people, and this was a significant one.”
Under Mary’s leadership, the school successfully transitioned to a national model – a process that required belief, resilience and a strong desire to drive meaningful change.
“There was some push-back and a lack of trust in what we were trying to achieve. I kept hearing things like ‘we have always done it this way’ or ‘we won’t be allowed to do this’, but once we transformed processes and documentation the pieces began to fall into place and the changes were making sense.”
Driving change in the face of these headwinds isn’t easy, and Mary believes the best way to bring people on that journey is to lead from the front and demonstrate that you have a plan that can be executed.
“I was able to plan ahead and map out exactly what we had to do and when we had to do it, which gave my stakeholders confidence in the strategy. I also prepared answers to the questions that I knew would come my way, so it was easier to address people’s concerns right away.”
Looking back on more than two decades of achievement at OSG, Mary says she’s most proud of the way the school now has a consistent approach to secondary learning across the country.
“Embedding that national curriculum wasn’t easy, but to me it made sense and ensured equity and fairness for all students regardless of their location. Our learning to learn pedagogy doesn’t mean we teach by osmosis – our teaching and learning opportunities are targeted, planned and resourced. We also have a consistent and fair assessment process that helps students grow and improve as learners.”
While proud of her accomplishments as a leader at OSG, Mary is quick to give credit to her peers and understands her role in nurturing the next generation of leaders coming through at the school.
“I’m blessed to work in a role where I work with superstars every day which makes my role so much easier to execute. We have so much talent in the school and I’m conscious of supporting our young leaders and investing in their development which will ultimately lead to better learning outcomes for our students.”
About OneSchool Global
OneSchool Global is an independent school network that has more than 8,000 primary and secondary students and 2,000 staff across the globe, in regions including United Kingdom, North America, Europe, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and the Caribbean. Our students come from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church community; however, OneSchool Global is not a religious school and only teaches religion as required in the curriculum.
