Simon Mansfield, Vasse Primary School
deputy principal
Simon Mansfield has been focused on leading and supporting school communities to become places of learning rather than places of teaching, by working tirelessly to reinvigorate a passion for learning through inquiry.
Mansfield’s recent work with Vasse Primary School’s inquiry process, in particular, is extremely innovative and has the capacity to advance educational experiences within school and beyond. He created an extensive compilation of inquiry resources as well as a website, presentlearning.com, that comprises a variety of free resources on the process of inquiry learning. He has developed booklets full of divergent scaffolds to encourage engagement in each stage of the school’s “C the Inquiry” process, plus an eBook on wellbeing, information on people, place, and pedagogy, and an overview of the empowerment framework. As an extension of this work, Mansfield holds multiple professional development sessions, to upskill, inspire, and seek feedback from teaching staff. He also often makes classroom visits to engage with students on their inquisitive quests.