Mr Malcolm Elliott
BEd MEd
Non-Executive Director
Malcolm Elliott’s 45-year career has included teaching from Kindergarten to Year 10 in rural and urban settings in Tasmania, being principal of two high schools, and the role of Coordinating Principal in the Glenorchy Cluster of Schools (10 primary and 3 high schools).
Malcolm holds Bachelors’ and Master’s degrees in education from the University of Tasmania. He has a particular interest in assessment of, and for, learning. His Master’s dissertation is titled Class Parliament: an evaluation of a teaching strategy.
Malcolm was president of the Tasmanian Principals Association from January 2015 to December 2018 where he represented principals in primary schools, high schools, and secondary colleges. Malcolm was closely involved in the consultation and implementation of Tasmania’s new Education Act (2016). Other notable work included reforms to primary school senior staffing allocations, principal health and wellbeing, support for students with disabilities, signing the Declaration on Education Workforce Development, and sitting on the Ministerial Roundtable for Education Workforce Development.
Malcolm collaboratively instigated cross-sectoral conferences with colleague associations in Tasmania. He has been an advocate for differentiated professional learning for principals and other school leaders.
From 2015 to 2018, Malcolm was a member of the Australian Government Primary Principals Association (AGPPA) National Council, Australian Secondary Principals Association (ASPA) Board and, in 2018, the National Advisory Council of APPA. This work included commissioning major papers for AGPPA and ASPA as well as education futures thinking, curriculum development, leadership development, and advocacy and support for principal health and wellbeing – all work which he has continued in his current role. In 2021, he received the ACEL Tasmania Public Discourse Award.
Malcolm was appointed to the AITSL Board of Directors in 2020, and in 2021 was appointed as Chair of AITSL’s School Leadership and Teaching Expert Standing Committee.
In 2021 he was appointed by the then Minister for Education and Youth, the Hon. Alan Tudge, to the four-person expert panel for the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review.
He joined the Gonski Institute Advisory Board in 2022.
Malcolm Elliott is immediate past-president of the Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) – a position he held from 2019 to 2023.