School boss shuffle sees Carey’s headmaster off to Melbourne Grammar
Melbourne Grammar will appoint a former student as headmaster for the first time in its 161-year history, with the elite school’s seven-month international search ending in Kew.
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An international search for a new head of the prestigious Melbourne Grammar School has ended in Kew with the appointment of Carey Grammar’s outgoing principal.
Mr Philip Grutzner, who has steered the coeducational school since 2010, will take up the role at the boys’ only Melbourne Grammar next year.
His appointment as the 15th headmaster of the elite St Kilda Rd school is another move in a changing of the guard for a number of high profile schools this year.
Mr Grutzner, who replaces Roy Kelley, was told by the Carey board last November, after a review, that he would not be reappointed as they looked to the future direction of the school.
The news was met with sadness by the school which has campuses in Donvale and Kew.
“It has been a difficult experience, as you may appreciate, but I have everything to be proud of and will continue to give my best to the Carey community with grace, dignity and professionalism,” Mr Grutzner told the school community at the time.
But the disappointment has been replaced by the enthusiasm in which Melbourne Grammar school council chair Michael Bartlett announced his appointment today.
“School Council has spent seven months undertaking a global search with the assistance of a leading international recruitment agency,” he said.
“We reviewed an impressive field of candidates from both Australia and overseas. Philip Grutzner was selected because of his unique combination of skills, values and ethos.”
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Mr Bartlett praised his “exemplary experience as a progressive educator and leader of three diverse Australian independent schools” among other favourable comments.
It’s back to the future for Mr Grutzner who attended Grimwade and the senior school from 1976 to 1981.
“In his final year he was captain of Deakin House and the First XVIII football team. He credits his Melbourne Grammar student experience as integral to the development of both his character and his career,” he said.
Mr Grutzner will be the first former Melbourne Grammar student in the school’s 161-year history to return to head the school.
In 1997 he was appointed as headmaster of Braemar College, in Woodend, before heading St Peter’s College in Adelaide, from 2005 to 2010.
He will finish at Carey at the end of the year and take up the new appointment in 2020.
“The Council was impressed by Philip’s passion for education, particularly as it applies in a rapidly changing world, his commitment to the wellbeing of children and young people, his capacity to attract and retain the highest quality teaching staff, and his collegiate approach to delivering change to meet new challenges,” Mr Bartlett said.
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