50 Brisbane School Principals Worth Knowing in 2026

Last updated: August 2026

Introduction

Brisbane has about 50 school principals worth knowing if you work in or around education in this city. This page puts them in one place, with each leader's current school, a distinctive detail about the school they lead, and a link straight to that school's own page.

The list covers state schools, Catholic schools and independent schools across Brisbane City, from small special schools to some of the largest secondary campuses in Queensland. Primary and secondary leaders both appear. So do leaders of schools with a very specific brief, including an intensive English language school for newly arrived young people, a school inside a children's hospital, and a secondary school built around the aviation and aerospace industries.

As of August 2026, every leader named here is listed as the current principal, executive principal, head of college or headmaster on their own school's website. Names are presented alphabetically by surname for easy navigation, and the order carries no other meaning.

If you are a principal, a deputy, a board member or a parent, the useful thing about seeing 50 school leaders side by side is the range. Two schools a few suburbs apart can be solving completely different problems. I put this together because I work with school leadership teams across Brisbane and I kept wanting one page that showed how varied this city's schools actually are.

Why school leadership in Brisbane matters

Brisbane is not one school market. It is several, sitting inside the same city and drawing from very different communities.

A principal at a bayside primary school with 1,100 students is managing growth, staffing and playground space. A principal at a special school is coordinating health plans, communication supports and transitions into adult life. A principal at an inner-city school where more than forty languages are spoken at home is designing every parent communication twice before it goes out. The job title is the same. The daily work is not.

That matters for anyone choosing a school, applying for a leadership role, or supporting principals professionally. Knowing who leads which school, and what that school is actually built to do, is more useful than a general impression of a suburb.

It also matters because school leadership in Queensland is a long game. Several leaders on this page have been at their school for years, and some have returned to schools they once taught in. That continuity shapes what a community expects from its principal and how quickly change can move.

The practical reason to keep a page like this is simple. When you need to reach the right person about a partnership, a programme or a piece of research, you want the current name and the school's own page, not a guess.

1. Kym Amor

Principal, Coorparoo State School

Kym Amor is Principal of Coorparoo State School, a state primary school serving one of Brisbane's older inner southern suburbs. The school sits close to the Coorparoo shops and draws families from a mix of long-settled and newly arriving households. Amor leads the teaching team, the school's improvement planning and its day to day relationships with families.

Coorparoo State School describes its approach as promoting student success through a balanced pursuit of excellence in academic, cultural and sporting endeavours, and builds what it calls Coorparoo Character by encouraging students to be kind, curious and resilient. That is a useful example for other leaders because it names the character outcomes plainly enough for a parent or a new teacher to repeat them.

2. Timothy Barraud

Principal, Balmoral State High School

Timothy Barraud leads Balmoral State High School, a co-educational state secondary school in Brisbane's inner east at Morningside. Balmoral serves families across the Bulimba, Hawthorne and Cannon Hill catchments and is one of the smaller inner-city high schools, which shapes how closely staff can know each student.

The school states that it fosters a culture of excellence in learning and vocational training, empowering all students to strive for exceptional student focused pathways tailored to individual strengths and interests. Holding academic and vocational pathways together in one stated culture is worth noticing, because many secondary schools still describe those two routes as separate tracks.

3. Carolyn Bofinger

Principal, Fig Tree Pocket State School

At Fig Tree Pocket State School in Brisbane's western suburbs, Carolyn Bofinger is Principal of a Prep to Year 6 school set in a quiet riverside pocket near Kenmore and Chapel Hill. Bofinger is responsible for the school's curriculum, its staff team and its partnership with a strongly involved parent community.

The school says it is proud of its long-standing reputation for academic excellence, inclusive values and commitment to developing the whole child, and that students lead and take part in a range of meaningful initiatives. Student-led initiatives are a practical detail for readers, because they show responsibility being handed to children rather than only described in a values statement.

4. Michelle Bond

Executive Principal, Queensland Children's Hospital School

Michelle Bond is Executive Principal of the Queensland Children's Hospital School, based at South Brisbane. This is a state school whose classrooms sit inside a hospital, so Bond leads teaching for children and young people whose schooling is interrupted by illness, treatment or recovery.

The school incorporates Queensland Hospital Education Programs, which extends its work beyond a single site. For anyone thinking about leadership, this is a reminder that a principal's job can involve holding a child's education steady through the hardest year of their life, and coordinating with clinicians and home schools rather than only with teachers.

5. Melissa Boyle

Principal, Rochedale State School

Melissa Boyle is Principal of Rochedale State School on Brisbane's southern edge. She leads a large Prep to Year 6 community and works alongside staff, students and parents in a suburb that has grown quickly around the school over the past two decades.

Rochedale State School was officially opened in 1931 to serve the southern edge of Brisbane City, and its current enrolment now exceeds 950 students from Prep to Year 6. That combination of a long history and continued growth is useful context for leaders who are trying to keep a settled school culture intact while the enrolment keeps climbing.

6. Phil Savill

Principal, Gumdale State School

Phil Savill is Principal of Gumdale State School in Brisbane's bayside east, between Wakerley and Manly West. The school serves a growing residential area and Savill leads its teaching staff, its enrolment growth and its links with local families.

Gumdale is home to more than 1100 students from Prep to Year 6, and the school describes itself as known for high standards, excellence in education and an inclusive culture. Running a primary school of that size while keeping an inclusive culture is a genuine leadership problem, and Gumdale is a useful local example of a school stating both aims together.

7. Alan Campbell

Headmaster, Anglican Church Grammar School

Dr Alan Campbell is Headmaster of Anglican Church Grammar School, known widely as Churchie, at East Brisbane. The school is an independent Anglican boys' school with day and boarding students, and Campbell leads its academic programme, its boarding community and its pastoral structure.

Churchie describes four founding tenets that remain at the core of daily activity: academic excellence, spiritual awareness, personal growth and service. Naming four tenets and holding to them over more than a century gives a school an unusually stable reference point, which is worth studying if you are trying to make values decisions rather than decoration.

8. Shannon Carter

Principal, Queensland Academy for Creative Industries

Shannon Carter is Principal of the Queensland Academy for Creative Industries at Kelvin Grove. The academy is a selective state secondary school for students with a strong interest in creative and performing arts, and Carter leads its staff, its selection processes and its academic programme.

As an International Baccalaureate World School, the academy combines the base study of the IB Diploma Programme with tertiary-level studies and real-time learning. That is a distinctive offer inside the Queensland state system, and it gives families in Brisbane a public pathway into the IB that they would otherwise usually have to pay for.

9. Wayne Chapman

Principal, Clairvaux MacKillop College

Wayne Chapman is Principal of Clairvaux MacKillop College at Upper Mount Gravatt, in Brisbane's south. He introduces himself directly on the college's own welcome page and leads a Year 7 to Year 12 secondary community drawn from the surrounding southside suburbs.

The college describes itself as a Year 7 to 12 secondary college in the Josephite and Edmund Rice tradition, conveniently located in Upper Mount Gravatt with a strong reputation for excellence. Holding two founding traditions together in one school is unusual, and it is a helpful example of how a merged history can be named honestly rather than smoothed over.

10. Les Conroy

College Principal, St Thomas More College

Les Conroy is College Principal of St Thomas More College at Sunnybank, a Catholic co-educational secondary college on Brisbane's southside. Conroy leads a community that draws students from one of the most culturally diverse parts of the city.

The college describes itself as a faith learning community of over 1100 students from more than 850 local and international families, and states its purpose as shaping citizens of the future through Catholic education, servant leadership, academic excellence and community advocacy. Servant leadership named as a school-wide expectation, not just a captain's badge, is worth borrowing.

11. Andrew Cousins

Principal, Clayfield College

Dr Andrew Cousins is Principal of Clayfield College in Brisbane's inner north. Clayfield is an independent school taking students from Prep through to Year 12, and Cousins leads its junior and senior schools, its boarding community and its staff.

Cousins commenced as the seventh Principal of Clayfield College in January 2020, and has said that the education of the whole child and giving students the opportunity to discover their talents formed the basis for his PhD in education. A principal whose doctorate sits directly under the school's stated purpose is a useful example of practice and study reinforcing each other.

12. Arthur Cowell

Principal, Coorparoo Secondary College

Arthur Cowell is Principal of Coorparoo Secondary College, a state secondary school in Brisbane's inner south. Cowell leads a smaller high school where senior pathways, wellbeing and attendance are handled close to the student rather than through a large year-level system.

Writing on the college's own welcome page, Cowell describes it as a privilege to lead a school that places students at the centre of every decision while maintaining a commitment to academic excellence, personal growth and community connection. Leaders under pressure often talk about decisions and about students separately, so tying the two together in one sentence is a discipline worth copying.

13. Daniel Crump

Principal, Stuartholme School

Daniel Crump is Principal of Stuartholme School at Toowong, a Catholic girls' school set on the slopes of Mount Coot-tha. Crump leads a Years 5 to 12 community that includes both day and boarding students from across Queensland.

Stuartholme has over 850 students and describes itself as small enough for each student to be personally known, yet large enough to offer an extensive and dynamic range of opportunities. That is a clear statement of a real trade-off, and naming the size a school wants to be is a decision many leaders avoid making out loud.

14. Matthew Denzin

Principal, Boondall State School

Matthew Denzin is Principal of Boondall State School in Brisbane's north. He leads a primary school community that describes itself as welcoming and inclusive, where students are supported to learn, grow and do their best.

Boondall works from a motto of Success by Work and a set of RISE values covering respect, independence, safety and effort, which the school says help create calm and supportive classrooms where students feel safe, connected and ready to learn. Four words that a seven-year-old can actually remember will do more for behaviour than a long policy document.

15. Rachel Dougherty

Principal, Western Suburbs State Special School

Rachel Dougherty is Principal of Western Suburbs State Special School, which serves students with disability across Brisbane's western suburbs. Dougherty leads a specialist teaching and support staff and works closely with families, therapists and other schools.

The school states that its vision is to provide an educational environment that assists and encourages students to develop the skills to live as happily and independently as possible in the community. Framing the goal as independence in community life, rather than only as classroom progress, gives every staff decision a clear test to be measured against.

16. Deborah Driver

Principal, Camp Hill State Infants and Primary School

Deborah Driver is Principal of Camp Hill State Infants and Primary School in Brisbane's inner south. Driver leads a school that operates across two campuses, a Junior campus for Prep to Year 2 and a Senior campus for Years 3 to 6.

The school was established in 2006 after the merger of two adjoining Camp Hill schools, both of which the school says had deserved reputations for excellence. Leading one school across two campuses with two separate histories is a genuine coordination challenge, and it is a good local case study in making a merger feel like one community.

17. Jacinda Euler Welsh

Principal, Brisbane Girls Grammar School

Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh is Principal of Brisbane Girls Grammar School in Spring Hill. She first taught at the school from 2000 to 2007, then held senior roles in Sydney at Pymble Ladies College and SCECGS Redlands, and returned to Girls Grammar as Principal in 2013.

In 2023 the Australian Council for Educational Leaders Queensland awarded Euler Welsh the Miller-Grassie Award for Outstanding Leadership in Education. A long return to a school you once taught in is uncommon, and it is a useful reminder that deep institutional knowledge can be an asset rather than a barrier to change.

18. Nick Fogarty

Principal, St Columba's Primary School

Nick Fogarty is Principal of St Columba's Primary School at Wilston, a Catholic primary school in Brisbane's inner north. Fogarty leads the teaching staff and the school's relationships with parish and parent communities.

St Columba's has been operating since 1917, and the school says it is dedicated to student wellbeing through proactive programs and strategies supporting social, emotional and academic growth. The word proactive is doing real work there: wellbeing support that is planned in advance behaves very differently from wellbeing support that only appears after something has gone wrong.

19. Amber Hauff

College Principal, St Patrick's College

Amber Hauff is College Principal of St Patrick's College at Shorncliffe, on Brisbane's northern bayside. The college takes boys from Year 5 to Year 12, and Hauff leads its academic programme, its pastoral care structure and its staff.

The college describes itself as a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition that has been educating and inspiring young men from Years 5 to 12 for over 70 years, and states a commitment to fostering agency, curiosity and wonder. Naming agency as an aim for teenage boys, rather than only compliance, is a deliberate and useful choice.

20. Sheldon Hooper

Principal, Mitchelton Special School

Sheldon Hooper is Principal of Mitchelton Special School in Brisbane's north west. The school supports students with disability, and Hooper leads its teaching and support staff and its partnerships with families and the wider community.

Hooper has been principal of the school since 2022 and writes that the commitment there is to a safe, inclusive and engaging environment where every student can reach their potential and every staff member can flourish. Naming staff flourishing in the same sentence as student potential matters in specialist settings, where the emotional load on staff is high and turnover is costly.

21. Jo Hughes

Executive Principal, Calamvale Community College

Jo Hughes is Executive Principal of Calamvale Community College, a Prep to Year 12 state college on Brisbane's southside. Hughes leads one of the larger school communities in the city, spanning primary and secondary years on a single campus.

Founded in 2002, the college had grown to an enrolment of over 2600 students at the start of 2026, and it holds a strong reputation for student engagement through academic and sporting excellence programs alongside extra-curricular offerings from Prep to Year 12. Running one leadership structure across thirteen year levels is a distinctive challenge worth understanding.

22. Abi Hurdley

Principal, Graceville State School

Abi Hurdley is Principal of Graceville State School in Brisbane's western riverside suburbs. Hurdley leads a primary school whose work she describes as grounded in a clear commitment to equity and excellence.

The school's Student Code of Conduct has been developed in partnership with students, staff and families, and focuses on responsibility, self-regulation and making positive choices. Building a behaviour code with the students who have to live inside it is a practical way to turn a policy into something a child can explain in their own words.

23. Samantha Jensen

College Principal, Mount Alvernia College

Samantha Jensen is College Principal of Mount Alvernia College at Kedron, a Catholic girls' secondary college in Brisbane's north. Jensen leads a Year 7 to Year 12 community in the Franciscan tradition.

Writing to families, Jensen describes navigating the journey of adolescence together in partnership with families, and instilling a love of learning while uncovering each student's unique gifts and talents. Describing adolescence as a shared journey with parents rather than a problem the school manages alone sets a very different tone for the difficult conversations that follow.

24. Tim Kotzur

Head of College, St Peters Lutheran College

Tim Kotzur is Head of College at St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly. The college takes students from Prep to Year 12 and includes a boarding community, and Kotzur leads across the whole of that Indooroopilly campus.

The college's stated mission is excellence in Christian co-education, under which everyone in the community is encouraged to strive ever higher through curriculum, co-curricular pursuits and service learning. Kotzur has led Lutheran schools in Queensland for many years, including as College Principal at St Andrews Lutheran College, which gives the sector a long view of how these communities change.

25. Janine Leach

Principal, Algester State School

Janine Leach is Principal of Algester State School on Brisbane's southside. Leach leads a large Prep to Year 6 school serving a suburb that has changed substantially since the school first opened.

Algester was the first school in the suburb when it opened in 1971, and from those beginnings it has grown into a large primary school catering for Prep to Year 6 with approximately 900 students. A school that began as the first in its suburb often carries a particular community weight, and that history shapes how a principal is expected to lead there.

26. Bindi Lodge

Principal, MacGregor State High School

Bindi Lodge is Principal of MacGregor State High School on Brisbane's southside. Lodge leads a large state secondary community drawing students from Sunnybank, MacGregor and the surrounding suburbs.

Established in 1969, the school is named after Sir William MacGregor, an early Governor of Queensland, and states a commitment to academic success for all students and to preparing young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to shape the world around them. The phrase for all students is the load-bearing part of that sentence in a school of this scale.

27. Ben Lowrie

Principal, St Laurence's College

Ben Lowrie is Principal of St Laurence's College at South Brisbane. Lowrie served as Deputy Principal at the college from 2021 before being appointed to lead it, and previously spent 18 years at Padua College in roles including Vice Rector for Pastoral Care.

St Laurence's is a Catholic boys' school in the Archdiocese of Brisbane that has been operating since 1915, with a total enrolment of over 2,000 boys from Year 5 to Year 12 drawn from a wide area of the city. Stepping up inside a school you already know well is a common leadership transition and a demanding one.

28. Tony Maksoud

Principal, West End State School

Tony Maksoud is Principal of West End State School, an inner-city state primary school on the Brisbane River peninsula. Maksoud leads a large and unusually diverse school community in one of the city's most densely settled suburbs.

The school describes itself as a vibrant inner-city learning community where belonging is the foundation for excellence and flourishing, and says that when students feel a genuine sense of belonging they are able to take risks and think deeply. Treating belonging as the foundation rather than the reward is a sequencing choice that changes what a school does first.

29. Lisa Masek

Principal, Sherwood State School

Lisa Masek is Principal of Sherwood State School in Brisbane's western suburbs. Masek leads a long-established primary school serving families across Sherwood, Graceville and Corinda.

The school says its staff development is research-based, evidence-informed and strategically targeted to support the learner, the curriculum and learning itself. Naming the three things professional learning is meant to serve is a small discipline that prevents a staff development budget drifting into whatever happens to be popular that year.

30. Adam Mathewson

Principal, Eagle Junction State School

Adam Mathewson is Principal of Eagle Junction State School at Clayfield in Brisbane's inner north. He returned to the school community in 2026 after time away in system roles.

Mathewson spent 2024 as a School Improvement Coach and 2025 as a School Supervisor in Far North Queensland before returning, and says the focus for 2026 is strengthening a sense of belonging that supports success, engagement and wellbeing across the school community. A leader who has coached other schools and then come back to run one brings a rare double perspective.

31. Kath McDonald

Principal, Aspley Special School

Kath McDonald is Principal of Aspley Special School in Brisbane's north. McDonald leads a specialist staff team supporting students with disability, many of whom need additional support for specialised health requirements and complex communication needs.

The school states that it is unique in being the only special school in the Brisbane City Council area providing programs solely for secondary aged students with disability. That makes it a genuinely singular role in the city, and it is worth knowing about for anyone working on transitions from school into adult life for young people with high support needs.

32. Maria McIvor

Principal, St John's Anglican College

Maria McIvor is Principal of St John's Anglican College at Forest Lake, in Brisbane's south west. McIvor leads a secondary community serving one of the city's fastest growing corridors.

The college says its approach to education embraces innovation in teaching and learning, providing a supportive yet challenging environment where students are equipped to navigate an ever-changing world, and that its values empower students to become compassionate leaders and active citizens. Supportive yet challenging is a hard balance to hold in practice, and stating it publicly invites accountability for it.

33. Geoff Mill

Principal, Sunnybank Hills State School

Geoff Mill is Principal of Sunnybank Hills State School, a large state primary school on Brisbane's southside. Mill leads a school serving one of the most linguistically diverse parts of the city.

The school states a commitment to providing a curriculum with intellectual quality that encourages children to make links from the tangible to the abstract through real-life and life-like learning experiences. That is a precise description of what good primary teaching is actually trying to do, and it is more useful to a new teacher than a general promise of high standards.

34. Sheena Millar

Executive Principal, Indooroopilly State High School

Sheena Millar is Executive Principal of Indooroopilly State High School in Brisbane's west. Millar leads one of the larger state secondary schools in the city, serving families across the western suburbs.

Indooroopilly is a co-educational Independent Public School with a tradition and reputation for student success, and the school says it supports students to develop self-discipline and social responsibility within a nurturing environment. Independent Public School status gives a principal more local decision-making authority, which makes this a useful school to watch for how that autonomy is actually used.

35. David Munn

Principal, Aviation High School

David Munn is Principal of Aviation High School at Clayfield, next to Brisbane Airport. Munn leads a state secondary school built around a specific industry focus rather than a general catchment.

Opened in 2007, the school was established to provide direct pathways for students seeking careers in the aviation and aerospace industries in Queensland, and its curriculum has been influenced and supported by those industries. A school curriculum shaped in partnership with the industry it feeds is an unusual arrangement and a practical model for anyone thinking about school to work transitions.

36. Bianca Murphy

Principal, Holy Spirit School New Farm

Bianca Murphy is Principal of Holy Spirit School at New Farm, a Catholic primary school in inner Brisbane. Murphy leads a small school community close to the city and the river.

Founded by the Sisters of Mercy, the school says its underlying Mercy values of faith, belonging, compassion, respect and service guide its members, and it works to a vision of ever learning, ever growing. A three-word vision that fits on a wall and inside a sentence is far more likely to survive contact with a busy term than a paragraph.

37. Ben Orford

Principal, Yeronga State High School

Ben Orford is Principal of Yeronga State High School in Brisbane's inner south. Orford leads a secondary school known across the city for the breadth of cultural and language backgrounds among its students.

Yeronga State High School has a long record of recognition in Queensland's education awards, which the school lists publicly on its own site. For leaders elsewhere, a school that publishes its award history alongside its current programme is making it easy for families to see what it has been consistently good at rather than only what it is promoting now.

38. Troy Parsons

Principal, Queen of Apostles Primary School

Troy Parsons is Principal of Queen of Apostles Primary School at Stafford, in Brisbane's north. Parsons leads a co-educational Catholic primary community and describes his students as unique, vibrant and engaging.

The school runs from Prep to Year 6 with a current enrolment of about 320 students, and states a commitment to developing an inclusive and culturally responsive environment where everyone is supported, accepted and empowered to thrive. Culturally responsive is a specific practice rather than a general sentiment, and a school of this size can genuinely deliver it person by person.

39. Julie Peel

Principal, Milpera State High School

Julie Peel is Principal of Milpera State High School at Chelmer in Brisbane's west. Milpera is not a conventional high school, and Peel leads a staff team with a very particular brief.

Milpera is an intensive English language school for newly arrived young people of refugee and migrant background, where teachers hold formal qualifications for teaching English as an additional language and teach English through literacy, humanities, mathematics, science and health. For anyone interested in how a city welcomes new arrivals, this school is one of the most important in Brisbane.

40. Luke Reed

Principal, Mt Maria College

Luke Reed is Principal of Mt Maria College at Mitchelton, a Catholic secondary college in Brisbane's north west. Reed leads a Year 7 to Year 12 community that families often describe as close-knit.

The college says it is just as proud that students graduate with a broad range of life skills, strong friendships and positive values as it is of their education, gained through the many experiences they encounter. Saying plainly that friendships and life skills sit alongside results is a helpful counterweight in a sector where the results are the easiest thing to publish.

41. Debbie Spanner

Principal, Indooroopilly State School

Debbie Spanner is Principal of Indooroopilly State School in Brisbane's west. Spanner leads a large primary school whose families come from a wide range of cultural and language backgrounds.

The school says each child's day involves natural interactions and experiences with a range of cultures, religious beliefs and languages, and that its inclusive and caring environment helps children develop as respectful, responsible global citizens. Describing diversity as part of the ordinary daily experience, rather than as a special programme, is a quietly significant framing.

42. Kylie Steinhardt

Principal, Forest Lake State School

Kylie Steinhardt is Principal of Forest Lake State School in Brisbane's south west. Steinhardt leads a large primary school in a planned suburb that grew rapidly around it.

The school states that its values shape expectations, strengthen relationships and create a positive culture where all students feel secure, confident and ready to engage in learning. Linking values directly to expectations is the step most schools skip, and it is the step that decides whether a value ever changes what happens in a classroom.

43. Karen Tanks

Executive Principal, Mansfield State High School

Karen Tanks is Executive Principal of Mansfield State High School on Brisbane's southside. Tanks leads one of the largest schools in Queensland, with a staff and student body drawn from across the south east of the city.

The school says its student and staff cohorts represent a wide range of socio-economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, with over forty different languages spoken in the homes of its students. Leading a community with that many home languages requires deliberate communication design, and it makes Mansfield a useful place to learn how large schools stay connected to families.

44. Nicole Trethewey

Principal, Moggill State School

Nicole Trethewey is Principal of Moggill State School in Brisbane's far west. Trethewey leads a Prep to Year 6 community in a semi-rural pocket of the city with a long local history.

The original Moggill State School opened on 12 February 1866, and the school today holds high academic, social and extra-curricular expectations of its students. A school approaching its one hundred and sixtieth year gives a principal an unusual asset, because community memory can be used to support change rather than only to resist it.

45. Ben Truscott

Principal, Manly West State School

Ben Truscott is Principal of Manly West State School in Brisbane's bayside east. Truscott leads a community-focused primary school committed to building strong, respectful and positive relationships with students, families and the wider community.

The school describes a set of signature practices through which children develop the skills to be safe, respectful and confident learners in a calm, inclusive and supportive environment, supported by staff professional development aligned to curriculum, pedagogy, inclusion and wellbeing. Naming signature practices makes teaching consistent between classrooms, which is what parents notice most when a child changes year levels.

46. Sharon Volp

Principal, Mt St Michael's College

Sharon Volp is Principal of Mt St Michael's College at Ashgrove, a Catholic girls' secondary college in Brisbane's inner north west. Volp leads a Year 7 to Year 12 community in the Good Samaritan Benedictine tradition.

Volp writes that girls arrive at the college at the very beginning of the adolescent journey and leave as young women on the cusp of early adulthood, and that the college has a proud tradition of achieving excellence across academic, cultural and sporting arenas. Describing the six years as one continuous journey is a clear way to explain what a secondary school is actually for.

47. Richenda Wagener

College Principal, Whites Hill State College

Richenda Wagener is College Principal of Whites Hill State College at Camp Hill, a Prep to Year 12 state college in Brisbane's inner south east. Wagener leads a single leadership team across primary and secondary schooling on one site.

The college runs a French Bilingual Program, with a dedicated deputy principal listed for it on the college's own staff page. A state school running a bilingual programme with its own senior leader attached is unusual in Brisbane, and it is a practical example of a school protecting a specialist programme by giving it real structural weight.

48. Craig Wattam

Principal, Ambrose Treacy College

Craig Wattam is Principal of Ambrose Treacy College at Indooroopilly, on the Brisbane River in the city's west. Wattam leads a Catholic boys' college taking students from Year 4 through to Year 12.

The college describes itself as a Catholic boys' school in the Edmund Rice tradition where learning, leadership and service inform all its endeavours and serve as its core pillars, and commits to teaching boys that the heart of their schooling is a desire to make the world better through their words, actions and leadership. Three pillars are easy to hold staff and students to.

49. Erin Wedge

College Principal, Mary MacKillop College

Erin Wedge is College Principal of Mary MacKillop College at Nundah, a Catholic secondary college in Brisbane's north. Wedge leads a community with a strong local history in the northern suburbs.

The college was established in 1964 and is grounded in the Catholic tradition, especially the teachings of Mary MacKillop, Australia's first saint, and it states that success looks different for everyone and that it is committed to helping all students realise their potential. Saying openly that success is not one shape is a useful message for a senior student who is not on an academic pathway.

50. Kim Wickham

Principal, Loreto College Coorparoo

Kim Wickham is Principal of Loreto College Coorparoo in Brisbane's inner south. Wickham leads a Catholic girls' secondary college that is part of the international Loreto network of schools.

In 2026 all Loreto schools across Australia are marking the virtue of felicity, and Wickham has written about the way students and staff welcomed one another early in the year setting a positive tone for everything that followed. A shared annual virtue across a national network gives each school a common language, and it is an interesting model for any multi-site organisation.

What these leaders show us about school leadership

Reading 50 school pages in one sitting surfaces patterns that no single school would notice about itself.

The first is that the strongest schools name a small number of things and repeat them. Four RISE values at Boondall. Three pillars at Ambrose Treacy. Coorparoo Character in three words. When a school reduces its expectations to something a child can say out loud, those expectations start showing up in classrooms. Long values statements do not survive a busy term.

The second is that belonging keeps appearing before achievement, not after it. West End says belonging is the foundation for excellence. Eagle Junction's stated focus for the year is strengthening belonging so that success, engagement and wellbeing follow. That sequencing is a leadership decision, and it changes what a school does in the first fortnight of the year.

The third is that specialist schools state their purpose more precisely than general ones. The schools with a narrow brief, a hospital school, an intensive English language school, an aviation school, a special school, describe what they are for in a single clear sentence. General schools often need a paragraph. Precision is easier when the job is narrow, but it is available to any leader willing to choose.

The fourth pattern is about staff. A number of these schools name staff flourishing alongside student potential in the same sentence. In specialist settings especially, that is not a courtesy. Leaders who protect their people are protecting the programme.

The last one is a caution. Almost every school claims excellence. What separates them is whether the next sentence explains how, and who is responsible for it.

How to use this list

Start with the school, not the person. Each entry links to the page where that leader introduces their own school. Read what the school says it is for before you form a view about its leader.

If you are researching schools for a family, use the range here to work out which questions matter to you. A school that names its behaviour code, its signature practices or its professional learning focus is telling you how it operates day to day, which is usually more informative than results alone.

If you work in education and want to connect professionally, approach it the way you would any other professional introduction. Read what the leader has written, be specific about why you are reaching out, and go through the school's published contact channels rather than a personal one.

If you are a school leader yourself, the most useful exercise is comparison. Pick three schools on this page that are nothing like yours. Read their welcome pages. Notice what they say first, what they leave out and how many ideas they expect a family to hold. Then read your own school's page as a stranger would.

If you are a board member or a system leader, this page is a reminder that the leadership job varies enormously across a single city. Support that assumes one kind of school will fit only some of these people.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many school principals are in Brisbane?

Brisbane City has more than 300 open schools across the state, Catholic and independent sectors, so there are more than 300 principals in the local government area alone. This page covers 50 of them, chosen to show the range of school types across the city.

What is the difference between a principal and an executive principal in Queensland?

In Queensland state schools, executive principal is a role used at some of the largest or most complex schools, including several Prep to Year 12 colleges. The core responsibility is the same. The scale of the school, and often the size of the leadership team beneath the role, is larger.

Do Brisbane state schools and independent schools have different leadership titles?

Yes. Queensland state schools generally use principal or executive principal. Independent and Catholic schools use principal, college principal, head of college or headmaster depending on the school's own tradition. This page uses each leader's exact title as their school states it.

Which Brisbane schools have a specialist focus?

Several on this page do. Aviation High School was established for careers in aviation and aerospace. Milpera State High School is an intensive English language school for newly arrived young people. The Queensland Children's Hospital School teaches students receiving hospital care. Whites Hill State College runs a French bilingual programme.

How do I contact a school principal in Brisbane?

Use the school's own website, which is linked in every entry on this page. Queensland schools publish a general office phone number and email, and requests are directed to the principal through the office. Contacting a school through its published channels is faster and more appropriate than a personal approach.

Conclusion

Fifty names on one page is really fifty different versions of the same job. Some of these leaders run schools of more than 2,000 students. Some run schools of fewer than 200. Some are working with families in their first year in Australia. Some are working with families whose grandparents attended the same school.

What the list shows is that Brisbane's schools are far less uniform than the phrase state, Catholic or independent suggests. The useful comparison is not sector. It is purpose. A school that knows exactly what it is for, and can say it in one sentence, tends to be easier to lead and easier to choose.

If you are close to this work, the practical next action is small. Pick three schools from this page that are unlike yours or unlike the one you know best. Read the leader's welcome page in full. Write down what they said first, and ask yourself whether your own school could say its purpose that plainly.

This page will be kept current as leadership changes. If a name here is out of date, the school's own page linked in the entry is always the better source.

Related Reading

9 School Principals to Follow in Australia and NZ: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/school-principals-australia-new-zealand

30 Outstanding School Principals to Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/school-principals-follow-linkedin

3 New Zealand School Principals Worth Following: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/new-zealand-school-principals-worth-following

25 Working Genius Facilitators Brisbane Leaders Trust: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/working-genius-facilitators-brisbane

25 Best Executive Coaches in Brisbane: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/executive-coaches-brisbane

Work with Jonno

If your school leadership team is working on clarity, culture or the hard conversations that keep getting postponed, that is the work I do. I run keynotes, workshops and facilitated leadership sessions with school teams in Brisbane and further afield. To talk about a session for your team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. He works with schools, corporates and nonprofits around the world. To enquire about a keynote, workshop or facilitated leadership session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.