Matthew Hughes the new principal at St Luke’s Anglican School

A long-time teacher with a passion for leadership has taken over the top job at St Luke’s Anglican School, replacing Virginia Warner as principal.

Matthew Hughes has taken over the role of principal at St Luke’s Anglican School.

A long-time teacher with a passion for leadership has taken over the top job at St Luke’s Anglican School, replacing Virginia Warner as principal.

Former deputy principal and head of middle school, Matthew Hughes will take over the role from Mrs Warner, who has relocated to her hometown of the Gold Coast as principal of St Hilda’s School.

Mr Hughes comes to the role with decades of experience as a teacher, though he has spent years doubling in educational leadership roles as department head and director of learning and innovation.

Building on his time in leadership he said the decision to apply for the principal role was triggered by the school’s “unique culture,” and not driven by a desire to step up professionally.

“I would not have chased a principalship anywhere else at this point in my career,” he said.

“I think it’s imperative that everyone follows the path that’s laid before them, as a person of faith I think that path is not a coincidence.”

“I kept pursuing leadership opportunities as they became available and really the step to principal was about staying in faith-based education and using my talent to serve the St Luke’s community.”

As a father of three students, all of who attend St Luke’s, Mr Hughes has a personal connection to the school’s culture, which he summarised as one based on supporting the personal growth of students, not building high achieving academics.

Matthew Hughes said he will continue to foster the school’s positive culture of growth in his time as principal.

However, it is clear the school’s ideology certainly has success in fostering academic achievement, with St Luke’s topping NAPLAN results for the Bundaberg region several years in a row.

Despite the success, which Mr Hughes credits as a “pointy end” educational achievement, the school’s ongoing focus remains on future-proofing, with enrolment numbers expected to bring hundreds of students to the campus in the coming years.

“We educate beyond the academic, we educate the whole person, we educate body, mind and soul,” he said.

“We take some pride when those metrics come out, but I guess for us things like NAPLAN and ATAR are a nice reinforcement of the things that we are doing well.”

Mr Hughes spoke on his own goals for his first year as principal, and said aside from working to reassess a 2017 Masterplan, he will focus on continuing the successful community minded work of the school.

“I think that’s the good thing about St Luke’s is there’s not a lot missing,” he said.

“Coming into the application process, I wasn’t pitching to the panel radical changes - what St Luke’s has got is a great product.”

Originally published as Matthew Hughes the new principal at St Luke’s Anglican School