Careers flow at Trinity
Joining the staff in 2005, Mr Richard Lever has spent a significant amount of his career right here at Trinity. Now the Deputy Head of the Preparatory School, Mr Lever is looking back to reflect on how his time at Trinity has been shaped by support and challenges alike.
In the early days of his teaching career, Mr Lever was working in Queensland, before heading over to London where he says he was able to “refine his craft” for a few years. While overseas, an opportunity to work at Trinity became available.
“Originally, it was only a term contract that was on offer at the time,” Mr Lever recalls. “But I was interested, so I moved back from London to Sydney and took it up – eighteen years later, everything has just flowed from there.”
Moving seamlessly from classroom teacher, to Year Level Coordinator, to Primary Coordinator, to Campus Administrator, to Director of Curriculum and, finally to Deputy Head, Mr Lever is no stranger to adapting to new roles and even now, he says that his current role is all about providing the right solution at the right time.
“There are a lot of different opportunities, a lot of different hats to wear,” he says. “Challenges are always thrown at you but you’re able to learn how to manage them and come out the other side having grown in your own career.”
He cites the jump from middle management to the executive level as one that helped him to grow the most.
“It was a significant step, but it was a huge opportunity to learn new skills,” he says. “But in every step, you’re supported completely.”
This is something he also experienced earlier in his time with Trinity when he undertook his Masters degree while still working as a classroom teacher. The School supported him financially as he undertook his studies. While Director of Curriculum, Mr Lever also became a workshop leader and a school visiting team member for the International Baccalaureate (IB), another opportunity that Trinity supported him in completely.
“These opportunities have opened up the door to so many possibilities in my career and having the support from Trinity to pursue them has been terrific,” he says. “It really aligns with the School’s focus on continuous improvement which isn’t just what we want the boys to be doing. We should always be looking to improve, looking to see what’s next, what’s around the corner.”
Another integral part of his time has been Co-curricular. Over the years he’s been involved with many different Co-curricular activities, but across them all he’s valued the chance it provides to get to know the students away from the classroom, to learn more about their personalities and understand who they are as a whole person.
“The Trinity co-curricular offerings are like the icing on the cake,” he says. “You don’t get these types of opportunities in every school.”
Through all his roles and time at Trinity, he says that everything comes back to the community. Whether he’s meeting with parents, working closely with other staff or checking in with students, the strength of the community is on full display.
“It’s such a rich community. COVID-19 really challenged us, because we have this great community, but how do you stay connected through that? Although we’ve been back on site for a while now, it still makes you appreciate how important keeping connected is and how important community is.”
“I’ve been very fortunate along the way. It’s a great place to work and there are so many fantastic professionals to learn from.”
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