Scotch College

A Head for learning

An encounter with Dr Gordon Donaldson.

Words: Muriel Reddy – This article appeared in The Age on Saturday 2 June 2007 © The Age (reproduced with permission)

He could have been a rocket scientist, but Scotch College’s outgoing Principal had a passion to teach.

In the end, it was fitting that when Gordon Donaldson announced to the board of Scotch College that he would retire as principal of the school at the end of the year, he did so on Valentine’s Day. This was, after all, a love affair that had endured for 25 years.

Scotch is a demanding mistress, but she is also irresistible. After 156 years of life – she is the oldest school in Victoria - she has only had eight Principals. Donaldson’s service of 25 years is a remarkable achievement in modern times but modest when compared with the 46 years that Alexander Morrison served as principal.

Now, as the curtain falls on a working career in Australia spent exclusively at Scotch, Donaldson must contemplate a life after it. He is apprehensive. His commitment to the School has been absolute.

The life of his own family has revolved around the needs of the bigger family that is Scotch. It has been a working life marked by long days and even longer nights as he managed his time to watch one of the school’s many performances in music or drama, to attend parent–teacher evenings, or to lend support to the efforts of the School’s old boys.

‘Sometimes I am reminded that I will not have a night at home for three weeks, and that’s tough,’ he says, carefully.

When he arrived in Melbourne with his wife, Joyce, and their two young children, Mark and Karen, nearly 25 years ago, they were determined to make the most of their time and opportunities here. It had not been an easy decision to leave Belfast, Northern Ireland, especially as it meant removing the children from two loving sets of grandparents. But Scotch College promised so much. Donaldson was vice-principal of Wallace High School in Lisburn, with an ambition to one day be head of a school, when he read an advertisement for the Scotch College Principal. He sent off for more information and was captivated by what he learnt.

‘It aspired to be a strong academic school and for me, that’s a critical element of what it’s really all about,’ he says, in a still-strong Northern Irish accent. But it had a very well articulated policy of trying to educate the whole person and it had a broad range of programs and activities to support that . . . As I read about all the School did and about its Christian basis which was clearly articulated as well - I felt an affinity.’

But he was not prepared for the campus and those governing it. The people he met during interviews were ‘so obviously powerful and of a magnitude that I hadn’t experienced before’, and the grandeur of the School almost overwhelmed him. He felt more at ease when he met the teaching staff and watched the boys in class. ‘And I realised that underneath all this magnificent structure was the pulse of a normal life in a good school and I felt very comfortable then,’ he recalls. Those initial impressions set his course. ‘In spite of all the grandeur and all the tradition and all the heritage, our job is to focus attention on the boys, who are here to learn.’

In 25 years of building and creating, Donaldson has never lost sight of that fundamental. ‘I think we can have all the infrastructure, all the programs, wonderful sport, music, drama, all the rest of it, but if we fail our students in the classroom, then the rest of it would really not be any compensation.’

Francis Gordon Donaldson was the elder of Frank and Caroline Donaldson’s two children. His father, a travelling salesman for a clothing company, and his mother, who cared for the children at home, were strong influences in his early life. So too was his uncle Billy, his mother’s brother, who was headmaster of a prestigious school in the north of Ireland and took a strong interest in his nephew’s schooling.

On graduating from Queen’s University in Belfast, Donaldson and his wife spent two years in Canada, where he completed his PhD. He enjoyed physics research but felt drawn to the more personal interaction that teaching would offer. Such were his credentials - he really could have been a rocket scientist – that when he wrote to the principal of Coleraine Academical Institution, a respected day and boarding school for boys in Northern Ireland, asking for details about a teaching post on offer, the principal wrote back to say he would hold the job for him.

When Bruce Lithgow, chairman of the Scotch Council 25 years ago, first met Donaldson, he was also struck by the calibre of the man. ‘He had a certain presence about him,’ he recalls. ‘He also had high academic qualifications and, very significantly, he could have been an atomic physicist. He had made a conscious decision to be a schoolteacher and that held a lot of appeal for us.’

Lithgow, associated with the School for 70 years, describes Donaldson as one of the finest men he has met and says he will be remembered as one of the great headmasters at Scotch.

If Donaldson was struck by the grandeur of his surroundings in those early days, he was also surprised by the School’s paucity in the field of technology. It had only one computer. He decided to test the waters by providing computers first for teachers to see if they might like to integrate them into their work. They did.

This speaks to Donaldson’s management style. He is not one to force his opinion on others, and reaches his decisions only after careful thought and consideration. Perhaps it is the old researcher still in the man. He established a department of educational research and development, for example, to ensure the school would not be swept up in expensive fads or gadgetry. ‘If we instigate a new program, it is only after we have done the research into what its purpose is, what its goals are, what resources it requires and if we think it is appropriate,’ he says.

‘Then we might let it run, but it will be evaluated again to see if it is achieving its goals ... You have to do due diligence.’

This was pretty much the approach he adopted in those early days. ‘I had to learn a lot,’ he says. ‘I had never been a principal before, so it was quite a learning process. I’m not sure that anything much effective happened in the first two or three years, but when I learnt to have confidence in the people in the School, and learnt to delegate a fair amount of the tasks that needed to be done, then things began to work really well. I reckon the biggest role I have is to delegate to quality people just about every function of the school.’

On Donaldson’s watch, Scotch has built its reputation for recruiting top-class teachers. Michael Robinson, who retired last year as chairman of the School Council after 11 years in the post, says: ‘One of the most important functions of a principal, other than setting the educational agenda, is the selection of staff and the encouragement of staff to reach the highest standards of their profession. That is what a leader in education should be doing. I believe he would see staff selection and staff development as being paramount.’

Those who have been close to him describe Donaldson as humble and naturally self-effacing. He has strong Christian beliefs that have lit his journey through the past 25 years.

The first years at Scotch were difficult. He arrived at a school that was split by the battle for control between the Uniting and Presbyterian churches. ‘Gordon Donaldson united the School,’ says history teacher Bruce Brown. ‘He has also brought about cohesion of staff and has guided the School into change. He recognised and embraced the traditions and the spirit of the school and then transformed it ... The School is acting out what it says in its mission statement and Gordon Donaldson has been able to give expression to that.’

In his first couple of years he also had to deal with the vexing matter of drugs, an issue that continues to confront schools. Although the boys involved were asked to leave the school, expulsions have never been easy for him. ‘I think we all have within us the propensity to be good, or to be not good,’ he says. ‘But we have to create an environment where every boy feels safe, and while there’s a propensity within us to sometimes make bad decisions, that cannot be allowed to diminish the experience of any other student in the School.’

He can still recall the riotous joy at a School assembly following a win in the Head of the River (a rowing race) – he’s uncharacteristically boastful in pointing to those victories in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 – when immediately afterwards he had to tell a student’s parents their son could no longer continue at the School. ‘I haven’t had to expel many students, but each one is a difficult decision,’ he says. ‘And it’s a very uncomfortable situation because you believe as a Christian in the concept of forgiveness but also have to remember your responsibilities to the whole entity. Balancing those issues is difficult. I can’t make those decisions quickly. I have to sit and think really hard about them.’

The years have made him a wise man. Paul Sheahan, principal of Melbourne Grammar, has known Donaldson for most of his time in Melbourne and respects him hugely. ‘He has been a great mentor for people in education,’ he explains. ‘Most of the young ones would respect Gordon very highly, would take note of what he says and incorporate what he says in the way they operate. When difficult issues arise, he is the one they will turn to and they will get sage advice ... He is very highly respected and justifiably so.’

But it is the students of Scotch – the Donaldson boys as they have come to be affectionately known – who will ultimately tell his story. ‘When he came to Scotch, he said it was to be his life’s work,’ recalls Michael Robinson. ‘He has always seen education as being significantly more than scholastic achievement. He sees the importance of developing the whole person ... He will be greatly missed.’ GS