Varied roles and strong professional support

At Trinity, it’s not uncommon for staff to be involved in multiple roles throughout the School as they get involved with teaching, Co-curricular activities, and pastoral roles. At Trinity’s Preparatory School, cross-discipline work is frequent and Mr James Bremner is no different. At the Prep School, James is a P.E. Teacher, Sportsmaster and a Stage 2 Pastoral Leader. 

“There’s a bit of everything,” he says. “On Mondays and Tuesdays I often work through a lot of admin work. I get the sports fixtures ready during the week, look ahead to events that are coming up, liaise with coaches and more.

“When it comes to the more pastoral care role, I look out for boys who may have anxiety around school, or behavioural issues. I go over behaviour plans and oversee strategies that we can be putting into place, as well as working with and supporting staff.

“Somewhere in there there’s a bit of teaching too,” he laughs. 

Taking on so many roles might seem like a recipe for overload, but James says that he thrives amongst the variety of his week. 

“I enjoy taking on multiple roles because it’s a chance to be a really integral part of Student life at the School in multiple ways.” 

Helping students to grow and become more confident is something that James sees as a common theme throughout each of his roles and he names it as one of the most satisfying things. 

“In my pastoral role a few years ago, I had the opportunity to work with a boy who had a lot of anxiety around coming to School,” he says. “He would arrive late and I’d take him for a walk to make sure he was okay and to talk him through it. Seeing him grow and become more comfortable – there was huge fulfilment in that.

“As a P.E. teacher, I love teaching games and sports, and I love coaching, but I also really enjoy the health, wellbeing, relationships, safety side of health. I love teaching about the body, especially how it interacts with what we are doing in PE and sport. 

“P.E. is just not always prioritised at other schools. I really enjoy seeing what the boys can get out of a private school education.

“I also love the fact that I’m challenged by our boys – in the best way. A lot of them may be  first generation Australians, so sport is not something they’re necessarily accustomed to. We have to introduce some kids to it. I love having the opportunity to get them involved with sport for the first time and I love seeing them flourish.” 

It won’t come as a surprise to learn that things are pretty busy at the Prep school generally, and particularly for James. 

“It’s always busy at Prep,” James says. “You never really get a chance to stop. We move from one carnival to another and we’re always looking forward to the next thing.” 

Whatever the next week brings, James is content with the way his different roles keep him on his toes, allow him to learn through his work, and constantly improve operations.  

“I enjoy the vastness of my role. I organise buses and maintenance of sport facilities as well as everything else – if I wanted to move outside of teaching and into sports management, I feel I’ve gained significant experience that would allow me to do so because of what I’ve gained through Trinity.”

His time as Sportsmaster, in particular, has seen him be supported professionally in a way that he recognises he might not have been at another school. 

“Trinity has given me an opportunity to gain hands-on leadership experience. ‘Sportsmaster’ is considered a middle management sort of role but I haven’t done a Masters of Leadership or anything like that. Instead, I’ve gained practical leadership experience under people who already have that experience and have been in roles a lot longer than I have.

“I’ve had opportunities to do things I wouldn’t have had elsewhere and there’s certain Professional Development that I’ve been sent on that I wouldn’t have had the backing to do at another school – I have free reign to be independent and make calls for the sports department.” 

“The School had faith in me,” he says. “It’s important for anyone who’s looking to work at Trinity to know that the School has faith in people and offers support professionally to help you thrive.” 

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