New Headmaster announced

A message from the Chair of School Council

Mr Philip Grutzner BForSci, DipEd, MBA, FACE

It is with great pleasure that I announce the unanimous decision of Council to appoint Mr Philip Grutzner as the 15th Headmaster of Melbourne Grammar School. Philip will take up the position in January 2020.

School Council has spent seven months undertaking a global search with the assistance of a leading international recruitment agency. We reviewed an impressive field of candidates from both Australia and overseas. Philip Grutzner was selected because of his unique combination of skills, values and ethos:

  • his exemplary experience as a progressive educator and leader of three diverse Australian independent schools;
  • his capacity to lead, inspire and significantly develop the school communities he has overseen;
  • his outstanding education sector leadership experience, both in Australia and internationally; and
  • his personal commitment to, and passion for, Melbourne Grammar School.

Philip is an Old Melburnian. He attended Grimwade and Senior School from 1976 to 1981. In his final year he was Captain of Deakin House and the First XVIII football team. He credits his Melbourne Grammar student experience as integral to the development of both his character and his career.

He will be the first Melbourne Grammar alumnus in the School’s 161-year history to return as Headmaster.

His career in education began in 1987 at Camberwell Grammar School where he taught Biology, Mathematics and Science, coached tennis and football; and served as a Housemaster.

Following a year at Manchester Grammar in the UK, in 1997 he was appointed as Headmaster of Braemar College, a progressive school in Woodend, Victoria.  He served as Headmaster of St Peter’s College in Adelaide, from 2005 to 2010. He is currently Principal of Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne, where he will conclude at the end of 2019, having overseen a significant programme of innovation and development.

Philip has an outstanding reputation as both a leader and progressive educator.  He is widely and respectfully regarded in the Australian education sector as a person of substance, intelligence and humanity. He is ideally suited to our School community and will build on the significant legacy that will be left by Mr Roy Kelley.

The Council was impressed by Philip’s passion for education - particularly as it applies in a rapidly changing world, his commitment to the wellbeing of children and young people, his capacity to attract and retain the highest quality teaching staff, and his collegiate approach to delivering change to meet new challenges.

Philip has been a Board Member of the Australian Anglican Schools Network. He is a Board Member of Independent Schools Victoria and the Independent Schools Council of Australia; peak bodies representing independent schools at state and national levels. He is also Chair of the G30 Schools, a group of 30 leading schools from around the world.

Philip is fully committed to Melbourne Grammar’s approach to educating the whole person, its diverse co-curricular programme, its Anglican values and traditions, its co-educational junior and single-sex secondary campus structure, and its emphases on academic excellence, together with opportunity, diversity and inclusion.

Philip is married to Dr Yasmine Layher, a consultant anaesthetist. They have two daughters, both aged in their early 20s.

I look forward to welcoming the Grutzner family to our community in the New Year when Philip returns to Melbourne Grammar School, as our Headmaster.

Michael E Bartlett
Chair of School Council
Melbourne Grammar School