New Staff Profiles
At the start of the year, we welcomed Mr Alex St Vincent Welch as our New Head of Junior School Music, and Janine de Paiva as our new School Chaplain. Here we learn a bit more about them.
Welcome to Alex St Vincent Welch Head of Junior School Music The root of the word ‘educate’ comes from the Latin root, educare; ‘to lead out’. Whilst politicians suggest we need to stuff more in, I’m aspirational that our role as teachers is to ‘lead out’ of a learner their innate skills, interests, and their full potential. As a music teacher, my passion is to make our students more musical, music being already so intrinsic to who we are as human beings. At Camberwell Grammar, it feels like we have so much scope from Pre-Prep to Year 12 to find and lead out the boys’ musicality. I grew up in country NSW and Queensland, and whilst my parents aren’t musical, they instilled in all of us a love of music and the rigour and discipline required to achieve anything. I was convinced to play the Oboe at university, but you’ll find me happiest tinkling the ivories, composing and playing. I taught in Brisbane before moving to Canada to enjoy the -30ºC winters and verdant summers. I studied conducting at the University of Toronto and then moved to London to teach at a school where their school choir sang on film soundtracks, like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I’ve been back in Melbourne for 5 years now and am thrilled to be back teaching boys. They make me work really hard. I’m deeply passionate that every child should have access to a rigorous and joyful Music Education. There is surprising neuroscientific research about how transformative music is for
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the developing brain – one researcher having described it as ‘food’ for the brain. Music is this remarkable human tradition that connects us beyond language and can transform how the brain works at a cellular level. And here we are thinking that all I do is roll around on the ground singing songs and listening to Bach with Year 3! I’m currently studying Educational Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, and I believe that the course is really informing how we should be designing our curricula for the 21st century and thinking deeply about what our boys need in and out of the classroom. What struck me before I even began in the classroom is the enduring commitment so many people have made to the School. Having taught at some very old schools in Canada and the UK, Camberwell Grammar is young by comparison. However, there seem to be some wonderful traditions that are being preserved and celebrated, particularly those that are musical. Whilst my big thinking starts with ‘how could I, in my tiny microcosm, contribute to the rich history of this school’, every day I’m looking forward to simple things like just being in class and connecting through music. I’m looking forward to nurturing those things from the past that the last two years have dampened, like performances and massed singing. Part of teaching boys is guiding and ‘leading out’ that boundless energy, and I can’t wait to get stuck into trying some wild and creative things.
