Sacked St Paul’s Principal Dr Paul Browning reveals he is in the dark over reasons behind ‘shock’ decision

Former St Paul’s School principal Paul Browning has revealed he is still in the dark as to the full reasons behind his “extremely disappointing” and controversial ousting.

Former St Paul’s School principal Paul Browning. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Former St Paul’s School principal Paul Browning has revealed he is still in the dark as to the full reasons behind his controversial ousting more than 10 months ago.

The award-winning principal of the prestigious Brisbane school was sensationally ousted in September last year amid allegations of a “toxic clash” with the powerful Anglican Church.

Dr Browning - who was St Paul’s principal since 2008 - said he was not given any other reason why his contract ended at the school aside from the fact the school wanted to go “in a new direction”.

The controversial decision triggered mass outrage from students and parents.

“In leaving St Paul’s, I still want to continue supporting victims of abuse in any way I can,” Dr Browning said.

Anglican Schools Commission chair Bishop Jeremy Greaves at the time said the “upset and confusion” over the incident had been “deeply regrettable”.

Bishop Greaves said the decision to not extend Dr Browning’s contract was made by the commission earlier that year.

“Dr Browning was understandably unhappy and sought to challenge the decision. This has prolonged the process. Such as (sic) decision was not made lightly. There was a lengthy and broad consultative process which sought the views of a range of education experts and leaders within the church,” he said at the time.

Dr Browning, a long time advocate for victims of child sexual abuse, said he had been working on his new start-up Vivedus – a learning activation company.

The company will contribute ten per cent of its profits to Blue Knot Foundation, a trauma and abuse support group, who had involvement supporting a former St Paul’s sexual abuse survivor that Dr Browning had worked closely with over the years.

Archbishop Jeremy Greaves being installed in St John's Cathedral Saturday December 16, 2023. Picture: John Gass

Dr Browning said, as an educator, it was “confronting” to know children had been abused in school, suffering in silence during his time supporting victims with “little to no help or assistance” during the eight years he spent supporting them.

In the wake of the “extremely disappointing and traumatic time” both for himself, the community, staff and students, Dr Browning said it created an opportunity for him to he start a new chapter and share what he has learnt.

“In leaving looking for a new venture and a new opportunity, we started a company called Vivedus and Vivedus is essentially a learning activation company,” he said.

Dr Browning said the privately owned company was supported by shareholders and raised $800,000 in 24 hours from the “passion of people” who understood the work and was started on March 4 this year with interest from schools globally.

“Education has really been stuck in the 19th century for a very, very long time and something does need to change to ensure young people have the skills and capacities to drive the future,” he said.

Hundreds of students and parents gathered at the corner of St Paul’s School protesting the sacking of the school principal Paul Browning.

Vivedus is a platform with five components including a planner tool for teachers linked to the national curriculum with in-built AI designed to cut teacher workload, an issue Dr Browning said he had been working with staff on at St Paul’s.

Dr Browning said there was also a Grow and Progression module to support teachers to get better at what they do as well as a “Learner Profile” developed with the University of Melbourne to measure and assess a child’s creative intelligence which could potentially be used alongside ATAR for university entrance or job applications.

“It’s the first time anywhere in the world that anyone’s been able to develop an assessment tool to measure a child’s higher order cognitive skills and then report to parents about the development of those skills,” he said.

“And it’s those skills that are necessary for their employment in the future or their opportunity to actually start their own business,” he said.

Hundreds of students and parents gathered at the corner of St Paul’s School protesting the sacking of the school principal Paul Browning.

Unlikely to go back into teaching, Dr Browning said he wanted to have a broader impact on education and improve education for kids everywhere.

“To be perfectly honest, what I miss immensely is the interactions with the students everyday and the community that was St Paul’s school.”

Meanwhile, Blue Knot Foundation President and executive director Dr Cathy Kezelman said Dr Browning was “fantastic” for making the contribution from Vivedus.

“To continue the connection with him in this way and the generosity obviously of his organisation and continuing the work he started with survivors it's just such a genuine engagement from him.”

Dr Kezelman said his approach to supporting victims was “full of heart, full of thought, full of care and very, very powerful”.

“Paul and I made contact related to his work at his previous school and just the very inspiring way that he supported survivors and brought the school community together to really empower people to heal.”

St Paul’s School was contacted for comment.