Dr Helen Drennen

Dr Helen Drennen brings extensive national and international experience in education, at both primary and secondary levels, to her current role as Principal of one of Australia’s leading coeducational independent schools, Wesley College Melbourne. 

A graduate of Monash University, the Australian National University and The University of Melbourne, Helen’s early scientific work on learning and visual pathway development has been published, as has her more recent work on developments in international education.

Helen is currently a member of the International Baccalaureate Board of Governors, Chair of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, Australia, a member of the Advisory Board of the Players Association of the Australian Football League, and a Trustee of the Shrine of Remembrance in Victoria.

Prior to becoming Principal of Wesley College Melbourne in 2003, Helen was the Academic Director for the International Baccalaureate, based in Cardiff, Wales, UK from 1997 – 2002 and the Director of the Asia Pacific Region from 2002 – 2003. Before these two international appointments, Helen held the position of Head of Campus, Glen Waverley at Wesley College Melbourne 1994 – 1997. In October 2007, she completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard University Business School, Cambridge, USA, and in 2010 was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Council of Educators and a Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders in 2011.

Since her appointment as Principal of Wesley College Melbourne, she has established the Wesley College Institute for Innovation in Education, the first research-based institute of its type in a school and has also played a leading role, alongside her Aboriginal partners in the Kimberley, Western Australia, in establishing the Yiramalay/Wesley Studio School for students in Years 10 –12 on Leopold Downs Cattle Station via Fitzroy Crossing. The Studio School is a ground-breaking educational initiative and a model of school and community partnership in practice which promises to transform educational opportunity and cross-cultural learning for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian students together.

Established in 1866, Wesley College is a Uniting Church school of more than 3,100 students with three campuses in Melbourne, three outdoor education sites, a residential program in Clunes and a Studio School in the Kimberley, in north-western Australia. In 2016, the College will celebrate its sesquicentenary.