Introducing Scots Principal • Mark Hemphill
The adage “you can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy” might have been coined for Mark on his return to the Riverina after 30 years of living in Sydney, Zurich and Hong Kong.
He grew up in Urana, where his parents still live, and attended primary school there. It was in the tiny school of two classrooms, where he learned the importance of community and tolerance. Everyone in Urana was connected by blood, business or friendship and it was no different in the classroom - Mark’s younger sisters and cousins were often in the same classroom so needless to say, students learned to get along.
It was also a proving ground for Mark as he began to understand the value of belonging and contributing: everyone played every sport and participated in all school and community activities regardless of age or gender. Such were the numbers that to refuse was to deny everyone the opportunity; sporting teams needed numbers and could only operate if everyone pitched in. Regardless of the sport or activity Mark adopted the mantra of “have-a-go’ which has influenced many of the important decisions he has made throughout his life.
In the three decades since becoming a teacher, Mark has rounded out his values but still, right at the top, is the sense of community. It’s one of the appealing aspects about his new role at Scots: the school is big enough to afford students a good selection of programs and opportunities, but small enough to know everyone and feel like part of the community.
Mark was always destined to teach. His sisters tolerated many school holidays of learning something new at the behest of Mark. He’d organise sports competitions and take a leading role with younger students at school to help the teachers out. There was never any doubt - in his mind or anyone else who knew him - that he would end up teaching.
He graduated from High School at Wagga and then trained to be a teacher in Sydney.
His first postings were regional schools; St Francis in Leeton where he taught secondary students and was Boarding House Master; St Patrick’s College in Ballarat in the secondary years and, again, in the boarding house; and St Mary’s School in Hay where he went to the other end of the education spectrum and taught Kindergarten and Year 1 students.
Then, armed with his country boy personality and a healthy dose of curiosity and ambition, Mark moved to Sydney to try his luck in the Big Schools. He took up a primary school role at Moriah College, a Jewish school with 1600 students, then became Primary School Deputy Principal and, later, Middle School Principal.
It was in those Moriah days that Mark and his wife Barbara welcomed baby Lachlan to complete their family unit. Now 25, Lachlan was the first to acknowledge that he had “always known” his Dad would return to the Riverina. Going a step further, he even predicted it would be as Principal of Scots one day. His foresight was not lost on his parents last year when Mark accepted the Principal’s position and the couple prepared to move to Albury!
After many happy years at Moriah, Mark and his family made the big step to move to Switzerland as Mark accepted the position as Middle School Principal at Zurich International School and Barbara worked as an ICT lawyer in Zurich and London. They made the most of proximity to historic sites, beautiful postcard destinations and a totally different lifestyle. He ran the Zurich, Munich and Athens marathons and the family skied the Swiss and Austrian slopes in winter and hiked them in summer.
Meanwhile, Mark’s broadening educational perspective expanded exponentially at the International School, which operated on an American curriculum. He was exposed to the demands of families wanting to prepare their young people for Ivy League universities in the US and the concept that failure for their children was not an option.
The experience that he took from that period of his life, specifically in relation to applying for and meeting criteria for international universities in the US and England, has stood him in good stead wherever he has worked since. It’s not the same as in Australia, but his knowledge about the processes - or where to find out about the processes - have helped many a young Australian student trying to navigate the international university process.
But like many Australian couples, the pull of building a family connection for their young son brought them back to home shores.
Mark took up a position as Head of Preparatory School at Knox Grammar in Sydney. It rounded out his experience across the breadth and depth of Australian education, from Kindergarten to Year 12 and from day students to boarders.
He continued with the Australian curriculum when he later was appointed Head of The Australian International School in Hong Kong. The learning curve needle teetered on maximum for the three years he was there. In his position, he was somewhat of a diplomat for Australia. Laying wreaths on Anzac day, meeting officials and representing the Australian ex-pat community. He presided over the school when the Hong Kong protests were at their height in 2019 followed by the start of COVID-19 the following year when Mark had to make many decisions daily to keep his school community safe.
COVID brought him home at the end of 2020. Like many people, COVID reminded him of the value of family and the yearning to be closer to his parents, his sisters and extended families grew stronger as the months passed. He had returned to familiar territory at Moriah College as Head of High School but it was still not home.
Then the Scots job was vacant and it felt like an omen.
He has returned to the Riverina looking for a balanced lifestyle; one where he’s not in the car for an hour just to get home (he walks to work now), where he can indulge his love of skiing, kayaking and hiking (all now on his doorstep) and where he can reconnect with family and friends (they’re coming out of the woodwork already!). He also wants to be part of a supportive community - just like the Scots community.
But it won’t be a one-sided love affair, where Mark reaps all the benefits.
Mark has a wealth of experience in parent education and wants to establish programs at Scots that will support parents and provide information about what’s normal for teenagers, help parents and students navigate the HSC years and show parents how they can help their kids to help themselves.
He strongly believes that Scots has an important role to play in providing excellent education as an alternative to sending children away to metropolitan boarding schools. He believes regional parents should be able to access high quality schooling but still have their kids home on the weekends to bolster their own community groups and sports teams. Without the kids, he says, some of those small communities would languish.
But if there’s one element of education that Knox and Moriah have taught him well, it’s to recognise what it takes to be a highly academic school. Both schools are regularly, if not always, in the top 20 schools in the State for HSC results. He knows what it takes and how to get the best out of those high achieving students.
That’s not to say he believes all students are destined to be University graduates.
Some of the hardest conversations he’s had with parents are those had at the behest of his students, who can’t seem to convince their parents that university is not their pathway. Mark believes every student has their own path to follow and university might not be it for some.
So, what can we expect of Mark Hemphill in his early days as Principal?
Already he’s met boarders, day students, parents and alumni. He’s planning to be visible to all, but particularly students. Fifteen minutes on the front gate greeting students will be his routine. Kindly calling out students who are wearing an extra earring, the wrong uniform item or wearing it sloppily will be as much on his agenda as understanding what makes each person tick, what their likes and dislikes are and gauging how they’re feeling. He wants to show that he is genuinely interested in them.
Mark Hemphill, the boy from Urana who has achieved great things in education, wants to be part of the Scots community in every sense of the word.
Let’s welcome him!
