Gerard Houlihan, St Michael's Grammar School
deputy head of the school
Gerard Houlihan is a 20-year education veteran who incorporates the principles of constructivism, cognitive neuroscience, improvement science, and a raft of evidence-based approaches to leadership, teaching and wellbeing.
As deputy head at St Michael’s Grammar School, Houlihan has led the creation of a K-12 Triage Framework, which identifies clear pathways of actions and escalation that staff can follow when dealing with students who present with behavioural, social and emotional, academic, and health issues. He also initiated work around “intelligent agents” and student wellbeing “dashboards” which led to his research in artificial intelligence in relation to wellbeing issues such as school refusal, academic engagement, and classroom management, through the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Houlihan designed the St Michael’s SchoL-AR Program, which negates social distancing by privileging connections and engagement through weekly family mentoring, class, sports, music, clubs, and wellbeing.