How do we honour an educational leader who has dedicated his career to service through teaching and leading?
How do we thank the Doctor of Education who came to Perth during the COVID months in 2020 to lead Kalamunda Christian School and currently serves as Chief Education Officer for SCEA, where he has helped to secure group registration for our seven schools?
How do we celebrate the resident expert on Pierre Bourdieu (a famous French sociologist on whom Dr Gregg Weaver’s PhD is based) and the most cosmopolitan presence in the Central Office?
With a SCEA News article, of course!
This week, we pay tribute to the amazing Dr Gregg Weaver, who will finish his time with SCEA on July 1, 2026.
Dr Weaver joined SCEA in 2020 as Principal of Kalamunda Christian School (KCS) and has worked as the Chief Education Officer since 2023.
These are just the latest roles in Dr Weaver’s four-decade-long career in education.
From humble beginnings in rural New Zealand, he has also held teaching and leadership roles across three Australian states.
How does someone succeed in leadership over several years?
Attention.
Attention to detail.
Attention to your calling as a leader, regardless of your position as a teacher or an administrator.
“All of teaching and leading hinges on one’s ability to be attentive all the time,” Dr Weaver said this week.
“Actively listening to a parent’s concern, creatively giving time to every one of your 38 Year 4’s in a week, noticing and helping a colleague who is struggling, having your finger on the pulse of the school and the detail you need to make crucial decisions.”
Genuine attentiveness has not only shaped Dr Weaver’s leadership but has helped him build a bank of treasured memories from his working years.
When asked to reflect on his time in education, Dr Weaver went back to the beginning.
“As a primary teacher in New Zealand, you were expected to teach every subject,” he says.
“I particularly loved teaching maths, art and music, even writing two musicals – both with five shows!”
“I loved my two-teacher country school with its Lamb & Calf Day and lighting the pot-belly fire each morning for six months of the year.”
Dr Weaver credits the people around him for modelling genuine care for and attention to others.
He points to Jesus as the ultimate role model – “the most attentive both in his humanity and divinity.”
Throughout his career, Dr Weaver has been attentive to the voice of the Lord.
“What brought me across to Kalamunda Christian School (KCS) was the sense that ‘there is something more.’”
But what is ‘something more’ and what did this mean for the students and parents at Kalamunda Christian School?
Swimming carnivals became more spirited, assemblies now had songs that Dr Weaver had composed in his mind on the morning drive to school, and Captain Kalamunda became the symbol for a permanent smile and an upbeat outlook on life!
An excellent example of his care for the school community was the inauguration of the legendary Weaver Cup – a trophy for the winners of the ‘Parents versus Students’ soccer match each year.
The Weaver Cup remains famous for fostering parent engagement with the school and for bolstering friendly competition.
“He was very passionate about the role of parents in the education of students during his time at KCS,” said one of the fathers from his time at the Walliston campus.
“It was very obvious that he valued the Christian faith, and he cared deeply about our children. He advocated for a new playground, which we now enjoy, and he really got my son into the STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] side of learning.”
The move to Central Office following the retirement of Dr Thelma Perso allowed Dr Weaver to utilise his significant experience in policy documentation and school registration for the SCEA system of schools.
The SCEA schools (which had previously undergone registration as individual schools for more than four decades) now sought ‘Group Registration’ as a set of schools under the guidance of Dr Weaver. This included individual External School Validation visits to each campus, with significant reporting on each part of the school’s daily schedules and policy adherence.
Dr Weaver’s extensive work on the SCEA Group Registration through External Validation enabled the Group registration process to flow seamlessly through the Department of Education Services (DES) protocols, with SCEA receiving accreditation in 2024.
Photo (from left): Dr Graeme Cross (Chief Executive Officer – SCEA), Mr Murray Thomas (SCEA Association Member and former SCEA Principal), Mr Rod McNeill (former Principal – Mundaring Christian College), Mrs Clare Midgley (former Deputy Principal – Beechboro Christian School), Mrs Tabatha Grubb (former Deputy Principal – KCS), Dr Gregg Weaver (Chief Education Officer – SCEA), Mr Craig Hunter (Principal – KCS), and Mr Anthony Ingram (Acting Principal of Primary – Carey Baptist College, Forrestdale Campus)
“My recent years serving at SCEA have particularly taught me that it is imperative that every teacher should give time and energy to grapple with how they meaningfully shape their pedagogy and programs so that they have the fingerprints of Jesus all over them,” Dr Weaver said.
“Every teacher can be the ‘influencer’ that brings young people closer and closer to knowing and loving Jesus. It behoves us all to consider all the ways in which we can bring the gospel to everything we do.”
Dr Weaver has continued to champion the next generation of school leaders as they influence students for Christ, hosting the inaugural Leadership Summit earlier this year.
His ability to “support the fine Principals and senior teams of SCEA” is counted among his favourite memories of his career.
From the rural settings of the New Zealand countryside, to the heights of a Leadership Summit, complete with international speakers and the opportunities to shape the next generation of educational leaders.
‘Whatever the location or situation, it requires the same attention and genuine care for people. The approach must be the same because each person is of infinite worth in the eyes of the Lord.”
Throughout 2025, Dr Weaver has continued to pioneer future-focused endeavours, laying the groundwork for our organisation’s CHARIS Teacher Training School (CTTS), which aims to provide a pathway into the industry for future Christian teachers.
So, what is next for Dr Weaver as he steps into retirement?
“I am looking forward to finding out more of what God wants – becoming, as well as doing,” he says.
“There is a certain taste of freedom that I have never experienced before – where I don’t have to turn up to places by certain times, where I can be with those whom I love the most, and pursue current and new passions, hobbies, and interests.”
Famous for his reading prowess, Dr Weaver has no plans to stop devouring his literary classics anytime soon!
This Christmas time will see him dip into two or three novels, some Irish poetry and reading around the practices of spiritual formation.
“I follow the C.S. Lewis’ dictum that for every new book read you should read at least two old ones – by which he meant very old!”
Travel is also on the menu for the soon-to-be-retired Dr Weaver.
He and his wife Kathryn plan to visit England for a few weeks – “taking in everything from Cornwall to Yorkshire,” – and are looking to visit family currently on mission in Estonia if possible.
We are confident that Dr Weaver will step into every new adventure with his customary ‘joie de vivre’ (French for exuberant enjoyment of life) and wish him all the best as he turns his attention to a new season of life.
