The Preshil Council

The Corporations Act (‘the Act’) and the Constitution of the Preshil Association (‘the Constitution’), establish that as the Board of the Preshil Association, Council has ultimate responsibility for ensuring the School is well managed and that its operations are successful.

Emma Zipper

Member of School Council since 2018, Member of Audit & Risk Committee, Council President

I have been a member of Council since my daughter, Ilana, started at Preshil in Year 9. I am a lawyer with a background in corporate law, regulatory (particularly in the health and technology sectors) and governance. Having been a General Counsel and Company Secretary in an international health care group for 15 years, I felt that my experience in the Boardroom could be helpful, by bringing my exposure to best practice corporate governance and understanding of risk management in the context of a regulated sector.

I was motivated to join by a desire to make a difference to a school that embraced innovation in education. I was inspired by the ethos and history of the School as a leader in progressive education and the focus of the school on the education and the wellbeing of every student, encouraging them to become creative and courageous lifelong learners in a rapidly changing world.

I have really enjoyed this time on Council.

Andrew Apostola

Andrew Apostola

Member of School Council since 2017, Vice President 2018 - current, Member of Audit & Risk Committee

Andrew is the co-founder of Portable, a purpose led digital innovation and design company founded in Melbourne. Portable uses design and technology to help organisations transform the way in which they deliver services, particularly in the areas of justice, healthcare, education and government. His specific areas of expertise are in strategy, finance and technology.

Andrew has been a council member of Preshil for the past four years, where he's acted as Secretary as well as Vice President for the past two years. He also chaired the School's strategy committee in 2018 and 2019. Andrew has a long history in secondary education. In early 2020 he worked with his team on reviewing and providing recommendations for the roll out of digital learning across secondary schools in Papua New Guinea. In 2019 he co-authored a report entitled Design for Education, which outlines how schools should use design practices to improve their systems and the user experience of teachers and students. In 2018 he worked with the NSW Department of Education to help design a future hub across the State for students, parents and teachers. In his early career he worked across Victoria and Tasmania connecting secondary school curriculum to digital media at over 150 schools.

Outside of education, Andrew’s main areas of focus are in justice, government and retail and he works actively in these areas through his various roles. He is the author of a range of publications, including Taking Back Retail (2012), which looks at how brands can move into the digital age; Hacking the Bureaucracy (2016), a guide to government innovation; Redesigning Work (2017), a report into how design can respond to the changing workforce; and Data Driven Design (2017) which outlines the case for merging design and data analytics into the same discipline. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from RMIT and a Postgraduate Diploma in English Literature from Melbourne University and is currently enrolled at Melbourne University's Senior Executive MBA program.

Justin Baré

Justin Baré

Member of School Council since 2017, Treasurer 2020 - current Member of Audit & Risk Committee, Member of the Remuneration & Nominations Committee

I have been a Preshil parent since 2016 and my children are in the 11s at Arlington and Year 9 at Blackhall. We chose Preshil for its commitment to progressive education, and the way in which courage is ingrained in the School’s culture and its approach to students. I joined the School Council in 2017 and I think it is important that the School’s governance is characterised by the same culture of Ccurage that we want to see for our children.

I am employed by the University of Melbourne Student Union as its Chief Executive Officer andhave worked there since 2006. UMSU represents all students at the university as well as providing a range of student support services and student engagement programs.We are a student-led organisation that has a particular focuson student welfare and engagement. Prior to working for UMSU I worked in the higher education sector in roles related to student advocacy and welfare.

Since joining the Preshil School Council I have been a member of the Strategy committee in 2018 and 2019, and I have been the Treasurer since July 2020. I currently sit on the Audit and Risk committee and the Remuneration and Nominations committee.

I have a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University and a Masters of Tertiary Education Management from the University of Melbourne.

Daniel Ingvarson

Member of School Council since 2022

Daniel grew up in a family where education was the central, he started working in IT and education in 1987, undertook a thesis on this new thing called the internet in 1991, built the first Education Internet Service Provider in Australia in 1993, built the first school specific Internet gateway in 1995, and in 1998 he built the first Internet portal that linked logins to Internet activity in a centralised infrastructure. In 2000 Dan went on to conceive, design, and develop an e-learning platform which won the National Innovation Award from AIIA, and sold this business in 2006.
From 2008 Daniel went on to conceive and lead the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP). NSIP key achievements include; creating a national standard for exchange information between systems, and the development of the National Identity Management Framework (NIMF).
In 2014 Daniel made the move to New York and assisted their State Education Department in the implementation of an replacement system when in-bloom was canceled - called RICone it was an edtech marketplace to enable secure digital eco-systems and support innovation with school choice. Daniel initiated and delivered The Gates Foundation funded k12 Federation, an educational cooperative that coordinated collaborative solutions across organisations. Daniel then founded MoxieReader a tool to encourage independent reading programs to help kids increase their daily reading practice. MoxieReader was selected out of 500 applicants to participate in the StartED accelerator at NYU in New York, and he developed a high level network throughout the startup ecosystem across the USA.
On his return to Australia Daniel was appointed the Victorian EdTech Ambassador, authored a strategic review of EdTech for Victorian Government, undertook research review of tracking student progress with data for ACER, established an edtech market review of formative assessment trends, was appointed the inaugural chair of the CEO circle, ClearPath Syndicate, assisted John Hattie to establish a framework for categorizing how edtech supports high impact teaching practices and undertook a CTO role to enable the turnaround of a young edtech startup.

Felicity Bernstein

Member of School Council since 2022

Council Member since 2022, Chair of Building & Environment Committee, Member of Advancement Committee

Felicity is co-founder of mutli-award winning Architectural Practice Melbourne Designs Studios (MDS) , an inspirational leader in the field of sustainable and contemporary architecture. She designed and built her own regenerative home , which has won a string of architectural awards in 2021 and 2022, is carbon positive ( better than carbon-zero ) , a Passivhaus Premium ( the highest international sustainable rating ) and is regularly inviting both professionals and the general public for tours and seminars. Her passion is to create and maintain architectural spaces with the human being and the planet at heart.

Her three children recently joined or are about to join Preshil and she feels so lucky to have been able to offer her children a place where they learn to become creative thinkers, thoughtful and peace loving global citizens.
Felicity recently joined Preshil Council to contribute her experience and knowledge in sustainable architecture, and to support Preshil in looking after the unique building environment we have here, helping to future-proof the school by maintaining, adapting and improving this unique existing environment.

Doug McCurry

Doug McCurry

Member of School Council since 2015. Principal’s Appointment 2015 - current. Member of Remuneration & Nominations Committee

Between 1988 and 2021 I was an educational researcher at the Australian Council for Educational Research specialising in testing and assessment. As a researcher my main interests are: concepts of and the assessment of generic and work-related skills; the assessment of socio-cultural and interpersonal reasoning; and the assessment of writing as reasoning. I have a PhD concerned with collective teacher judgement of generic skills.

I have always been interested in progressive education. I taught for two years in the late 1970s at ERA, the school formed by Preshil parents because there was then no secondary Preshil. I taught for three years at Blackhall before being offered a job at ACER in 1988. I have been in contact with various Preshil staff, and have been aware of developments at the School over past thirty years.

When I resigned from Preshil at the end of 1987 Margaret Lyttle called me at home and said her curse would pursue me down the generations. On the day of my last Preshil staff meeting I was for the first and only time quite incapacitated by a migraine headache. Margaret sent me a parting gift of one of her favourite books and wrote on the inside cover that I would return. I have been very happy to do so, even if in a small way, as a member of the School Council.

Since retiring from ACER in 2021 I have joined my partner’s educational publishing company and am producing curriculum and assessment materials for the VCE Englishes.

Toby Borgeest

Toby Borgeest

Member of School Council since 2021, Council Secretary, Member of Audit & Risk Committee, Member of Remuneration & Nominations Committee

Toby is an alumni of Preshil, having attended as a student in secondary years at Yallambie and Blackhall in the1980s. He is a parent of teenagers who attend his local state high school. Toby is a lawyer who was previously a partner at a national law firm working in Melbourne and in Perth. Toby currently practises as a barrister and is a member of the Victorian Bar specialising in commercial, employment and industrial relations law.
Graham Parr

Graham Parr

Member of School Council since 2020, Member of Remuneration & Nominations Committee

Graham joined the Council in 2020 as a Preshil parent and an educator with four decades’ experience in schools and universities. When systems across the world are forgetting the crucial importance of diversity, creativity, and positive relationships in education, Preshil stands as a beacon of hope.
Graham looks forward to working with his fellow councillors and the rest of the Preshil community in this exciting period of renewal and consolidation.

The Preshil Association

The Preshil Association is an unlisted public company limited by guarantee whose primary objective is to provide a progressive education for children from pre-school age.

The Association owns and operates Preshil, and its members comprise parents, guardians, teachers, alumni, and friends and neighbours of Preshil.  It holds an Annual General Meeting each April or May.