Stephen Clarke

Background

About Stephen Clarke

A thoughtful, enthusiastic, and authentic leader, my focus is on creating environments where faculty, staff, and students feel valued, inspired, and empowered. I am a strategic and entrepreneurial Head of School with experience developing programmes that will enhance student achievement by cultivating relationships, nurturing school culture, and supporting teacher growth. My strengths lie in fostering transparent and collaborative cultures that identify and prioritize improvements, develop innovative programmes, and inspire growth. Survey results over the past two years, indicate that faculty, parents, and students love our school and are highly satisfied with my leadership. My educational experience is wide ranging with over 20 years of service in various leadership roles. During my tenure at Ridley College, I have held the following posts: Head of Lower School, Head of Upper School, Deputy Headmaster, and IT Director. In my experience, a culture of consistency and kindness strengthens the sense of school belonging amongst all community stakeholders, improving the quality of education within the classroom. With a similar focus on collaboration, our community has worked extensively on diverse and complex initiatives. Some of these initiatives include: • Introducing new grades - Kindergarten to Grade 4 – effectively doubling the size of Ridley’s Lower School. • Reducing attrition rates from 15% to 9% • Adopting the IB Continuum of Programmes – PYP, MYP, and DP – making Ridley College Canada’s only K-12 Co-educational IB Continuum Day and Boarding school. • Conceiving, planning, launching, and implementing the transformational Chandran Institute for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and The Chandran Master Teacher Programme I enjoy working in school environments that value collaboration, creativity, and innovation. And I am quick to celebrate work of colleagues, recognizing that we are all blessed to stand on the shoulders of those that came before.