It’s not every day that your school gets a brand-new Head of College – fresh out of what some might consider a rival school, as well as a proud supporter  for the NRL team that is in hot contention for the wooden spoon. With plans for the future, an insight into first perceptions, school rivalries and more – let’s take a dive into who Mr. Koch is – the new man in the chair. 

After much preparation for our interview with the new head (and great interruptions of a Wednesday lunch) – we took it upon ourselves to get a further look into who Mr. Koch really is. Coming from a background of a twisting and shifting career path, Mr. Koch serves as the perfect testimony for how hard work culminates to success wherever you go.  

Mr. Koch started off his high school education at the Shore High School over in North Sydney before heading to UNSW after school to pursue an education in… physiotherapy.  

That’s right – after deferring for a year, our now Principal had decided on doing physiotherapy to move into sports therapy, stating that: 

 “I thought physiotherapy was the thinking man sports option.” 

But in that year that he deferred for, he couldn’t help but miss the mathematics of school, deciding instead to follow a degree in biomedical and electrical engineering.  

However, the astute of you might notice that Mr. Koch is not working a job in biomedical engineering – to which you would be correct. 

“I preferred something a little bit more with people. And, for me personally, during those first couple of years of uni, I did that for two years or so. In those two years, my understanding of the gospel and Christian things sort of tweaked for me and I thought my priorities are changing, I want to do something that I thought I could observe when it worked good, and I thought teaching would be a good way to do that. So, I changed switch to do math’s in education and trained as a math’s teacher.” 

“I’d happily teach math’s full-time. Fantastic.”  

Well, there’s obviously more to come, as the man in the chair isn’t a math’s teacher at the moment.  

Following his graduation from UNSW after some navigation to find his true interests, Mr. Koch settled in to teach back at the Shore School where he went to high school. Having found and developed his faith at UNSW, he returned to join the Campus Bible Study to develop it even further, before going to Moore Theological College for a theological degree, moving jobs shortly after to work as a school chaplain at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral School.  

To cut a long story short, Mr. Koch had his fair share of experience at other schools in the area before finally ending up in a different leadership role at Arndell.  

“My old boss encouraged me to pursue becoming a principal or a head at some point, at the first I was like, no, I want to keep doing what I’m doing. But over time, I was persuaded that wouldn’t be a bad thing to do. So that’s what I went to Arndell in the role that I had there. And certainly, I learned a lot.” 

And finally, we arrive at today, with Mr. Koch as the new Head of College. 

“One of the reasons why I really love William Clarke, is because what’s important to me, and what’s important to College line-up very closely. So, when I see the purpose statement, I read that I’m like, yeah, that’s me.” 

Mr. Koch looks forward to furthering the mission of the purpose statement, looking at developing who we want to be as learners, as well as what we achieve as these learners, strengthening the College in everything that they do well already.  As the new Head of College, he looks to keeping the practices we have now and stabilising them.  

“It is possible to have what people call ‘change fatigue’. I know that in the last year or two, there’s been lots of big changes. And so, for that reason alone, it wouldn’t make sense to make big changes straightaway.” 

Mr. Koch finished one of his final steps to settling in at the school this Monday at his commissioning service. The service featured exhibitions of music from the school’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble as well as the College Orchestra, accompanied by singing from the school captains. Esteemed guests that included prolific figures in Anglican schools around the area also attended, with the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel. He spoke to Mr. Koch and the audience at length on the importance of servitude, before ultimately commissioning Mr. Koch as the new Head of College. 

Among the refreshments, conversations, and celebrations, the commissioning marks the start of a new era for the College, as we all look towards the future of the College under Mr. Koch’s watchful eye.