We recently caught up with a member of our very first alumni group, Sam Higginson-Collits. Sam joined St Columba Anglican School in its Foundation year in 2002 and was part of our very first Year 7 cohort, and was our Foundation School Captain.
After graduating in Year 12 2007 Sam moved straight into education, working at a childcare centre for a year and a half before starting his Primary Education degree through the University of Newcastle campus in Port Macquarie. He finished his degree in 2013 and moved down to Canberra in early 2014 to find a job.
Before long he had picked up a casual teaching job at a school and was covering classes ranging from Environmental Science to Indonesian. He then worked for a year teaching Kindergarten, then spent the next five years working in the same school providing specialist support teaching across the school.
This year Sam has transitioned into working in a small group program which helps students with a wide variety of learning needs engage in differentiated learning. Sam says he is loving being a teacher and often looks back to his time at St Columba and realises how lucky he was to have such passionate teachers guiding him. He credits his SCAS teachers as sparking his passion for teaching, and says that he would not be where he is now without them.
Since moving back to the ACT, Sam says he has rediscovered his passion for the Canberra Raiders NRL team and attends every game. He has also recently celebrated his wedding to his partner Sian, and says that they are looking forward to the future and starting a family.