Highlights of his time in Rovers include helping deliver a Moot, travelling to Kandersteg, and touring Russia on a Rover friendship tour that was caught up in a coup and lost contact with home for several terrifying days. The experience was a turning point in Brendan’s life. When the situation calmed, his Rover friends returned home, but he elected to keep travelling.
As a Leader he was awarded the Medal in the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2007 and the Silver Kangaroo in 2019.
Professionally, Brendan was appointed principal, at age 34, to a school that was $2 million in debt and struggling to survive. CRC Sydenham today has an annual budget of $30 million, and is Australia’s largest senior secondary Catholic school, with 960 full-time year 11 and 12 students, as well as providing training for 700 students from 19 nearby schools.
Apart from the conventional pathways offered by other secondary schools, CRC Sydenham offers vocational training through 16 business units that give real-life experience and bring significant revenue for the school’s continued development.
These businesses include a bakery, restaurant, catering business, food van, market garden (with bees and chooks), theatre and events space, a beauty salon, hair dressing salon (and mobile salon for school formals), personal fitness training, and framing and sign writing businesses.
The school is globally recognised for its innovation, as well as being well-visited by State and federal MPs.
The micro-credentials earned by CRC students are similar to the qualifications earned by youth in Scouting – a story Brendan shares keenly with MPs.
Brendan’s formal qualifications include Bachelor of Education (Visual Arts); Graduate Diplomas in Religious Education, and Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations; and Master of Business (HR & IR major), and Master of Education Policy International.
