St Peter’s Woodlands farewells Principal St Peter’s Woodlands Grammar School, SA
After 17 years, Mr Christopher Prance has decided to complete his tenure as Principal of St Peter’s Woodlands. Throughout his time at St Peter’s Woodlands, Christopher built a happy, child-centred place, full of hope, beauty and laughter. The school has seen incredible growth over the course of his leadership, with enrolments doubling and the introduction of a long-day Early Learning Centre in 2016, resulting in ninety percent of enrolees transitioning into Reception to complete their primary experience. As a result of Christopher’s leadership, St Peter’s Woodlands is the pre-eminent early learning and primary school in the western suburbs of South Australia. His dedication to the importance of quality early education has seen significant investment into learning environments and infrastructure, teaching resources and training, and an ongoing commitment to ensure every child has the best start to their educational journey. Early in his teaching career, Christopher worked in schools experiencing disadvantage and with students with high levels of special needs, which consequently formed his passion to support all children to experience success in their learning. He is proud to leave St Peter’s Woodlands with a strong heritage of inclusivity. His leadership has seen the introduction of an inclusive learning support model, with an array of allied specialists working onsite, supported by qualified teachers and education support officers. Christopher has worked closely to rekindle and unite the 28
school’s historical connections with The Parish Day School of St Peter’s Glenelg and Woodlands Church of England Girls School with great success. He leaves the school with a strong, thriving connection with its mother church, St Peter’s Glenelg, with both clergy Reverend Andrew Mintern and Reverend Michele Yuen, working jointly at St Peter’s Woodlands as Chaplains. Elected as the Chairman of Anglican Heads Forum in South Australia in 2012, Christopher also served as the representative for South Australian Anglican Schools on the National ASA Management Committee for the past six years. He also chaired the South Australia Provincial Anglican Education Trust driving Anglican initiatives in SA for the past four years. Christopher has accepted a newly created position of Head of Educational Services at the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia commencing in 2021. He will be involved in providing strategic leadership to AISSA’s expert team of Senior Educational Consultants. We thank Christopher for his years of service to our school community; the children, staff and families have been blessed by his leadership and we wish him well for his future endeavours. St Peter’s Woodlands is delighted to welcome Ms Helen Finlay in Term 4, to become the third Principal of this vibrant, gracious, and embracing learning community. ASA NEWS