Mr Peter Langham
After completing his Bachelor of Technology at Monash University, Mr Peter Langham returned to university to complete a Graduate Diploma of Education and later a Graduate Certificate in Principal Preparation.
Mr Langham began teaching at Narre Warren South Prep to 12 College in 2010. He quickly became an accomplished teacher, as well as taking on a breadth of leadership roles and in 2016, was appointed as an Assistant Principal. The executive leadership team that Mr Langham was a part of, led Narre Warren South Prep to 12 College through a period of significant school improvement culminating with the team being acknowledged with the Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards in 2018.
In August 2019, Mr Langham was asked to become the Acting Principal at Monterey Secondary College, a small school in Frankston North. This opportunity proved to be a pivotal moment in his career. Compared to the Victorian average, Monterey students are three times more likely to be Indigenous, three times more likely to have a disability, and more than 30% of the students are in the Top 5% most at-risk students in Victoria for non-completion of Year 12.
When Mr Langham began at Monterey, there was instability in leadership, as he was the third Principal that year. Many students were disengaged and could intimidate the staff; there was a sense that the students ran the school. At the end of the 2019 school year, almost 50% of the staff left the school. Three months later, COVID-19 had caused the first of many school lockdowns which continued across the next two years.
Over his first four years at Monterey, Mr Langham and the team turned the school around. Staff culture, performance and retention all improved, despite the teacher shortage. Student culture, engagement, literacy, numeracy, and senior school outcomes are all improving, and enrolments have increased by almost 50%. The community now has strong confidence in the school. Monterey Secondary College’s collective work in school transformation through Trauma-Informed, Positive Education is renowned in Victoria, with growing interest nationally, and was recently shared with a university in Ireland.
Mr Langham was acknowledged with a Schools Plus Teaching Fellowship as well as the NEiTA Founders’ Principals Leadership Award in 2022. Mr Langham is most proud of the acknowledgement that his team, the Frankston North Education Plan - a partnership between Monterey Secondary College, Aldercourt Primary School and Mahogany Rise Primary School - received in 2022 with the Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards.
Mr Langham credits his time at Monash University with instilling in him the creative thinking and problem-solving approaches that have enabled his success as an innovative and impactful teacher and school leader. Mr Langham was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award for the Faculty of Education in 2023.