Adam Majsay, Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning) K-12

Each month, we find out more about a nominated staff member. 

SPOTLIGHT ON … ADAM MAJSAY

What is your role at Emanuel School?
I am Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning) K-12. In this role, I work with Mr Watt, Mr Abelson, Mrs Brody and our teachers in shaping the strategy and direction for what teaching and learning looks like at Emanuel. It is an important responsibility and a job that I really love. I get to work with teachers to talk about what we value in teaching, and to influence the experience of students in their learning

How long have you been at Emanuel School?
This is my sixteenth year at Emanuel. I started here in 2007, as Assistant Head of Music, teaching Primary and High School music, conducting concert bands and choirs. Since then, I’ve had five years as Head of Music, almost six years as Director of Studies 7-12, and then the last three and a half years as Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning) K-12.

What do you enjoy about working here?
I adore Emanuel School. This is a place that I have felt welcome at since the moment I first visited for my job interview in 2006. It is a school where individuality is valued, where people can be free to be themselves, and where everyone has an opportunity to become the best possible version of themselves. Staff, students and community members really feel like family. I love that I walk into my classes, or the choir I lead, or meetings with other teachers and I can be certain that I will have FUN!

What have you learnt about yourself at Emanuel?
I’ve really valued that Emanuel is a place in which I have been encouraged to grow and develop as a teacher and as a leader. Every year brings new challenges and new opportunities each year I’ve had a goal to develop in one or more areas of my teaching and leading. 

What is your favourite memory?
There are so many memorable moments over the years. For a long time, I was involved in staging the High School musical productions with Ms Bauer. Each of the musicals we have put on over the years – Oliver, Once on This Island, 13 the Musical, Back to the 80s, Little Shop of Horrors, Fiddler on the Roof, Legally Blonde and Into the Woods – have been incredibly rewarding as a Music Director. However, I have to say how special it was to stage Fiddler on the Roof as the first musical in our own Millie Phillips Theatre, especially given how significant this story of Jewish tradition is for our community. Bringing that story to audiences each night will always be something I hold close to my heart.

Mr Majsay’s dogs: Winnie and Peggy, both female kelpie/cattle dog crosses

What do you do to unwind/ what do you enjoy doing outside school hours?
I love music and I love fitness and, where I can, I love combining the two. My daily routine after work is to visit the gym on my way home. My Year 11 Music class will know that I’ve got my Spotify ‘Gym Vibes’ playlist that I use to keep me motivated while doing my workouts! My love of music and especially singing is something that motivates me to keep busy in my spare time. I am the Music Director and conductor of a large community choir, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir, so I run rehearsals for this wonderful group every Thursday night and on some weekends, and we put on big concerts three or four times a year. I love the choir’s values of diversity and inclusion and respect for the individual – they reflect the values of Emanuel School in so many ways too. I think that’s why I feel so equally at home in both an SGLC rehearsal and at Emanuel School.

 
What song do you know all the lyrics to?
That’s way too hard to answer – as a singer and music teacher, I think the list might almost be endless! But… my go to karaoke song-starter is a classic Australian song that might be more familiar to teachers and parents than Emanuel students: Daryl Braithwaite’s Horses!

What do you wish you could tell your 12-year-old self?
“Adam, you’re going to be OK.” 

At the end of Year 6, my family moved from one side of Sydney to the other, so I started Year 7 at a new school, living in a new area. It was a big boys’ school, with a big sports program focused on playing rugby union. At that time, I hadn’t discovered exercise and fitness, so sport was something that I really wasn’t into yet! I loved reading, and learning, and singing – so I didn’t fit in particularly well, and unfortunately got bullied quite a lot, for quite a lot of years, for those reasons and others. 

Looking back, I’m astounded by the resilience and coping strategies that I was able to draw on to get through those years, and come out the other side as a confident, happy and well-balanced person. I know that it was a tough time, and at the start of Year 7, as a 12-year-old, it was pretty daunting trying to fit in, but also not compromising on being myself. 

So, I would tell myself to stand firm in who you are, that you are who you are meant to, that who you are is perfect, and that, above all, you’re going to be OK! It’s the message I would also give to any Emanuel student struggling with their sense of self and their place in the world.

If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
There has been a phrase that I have held close for many years, and it’s the aspiration I hold for myself and for all the teachers and students that I have the privilege of working with.

“Be the best you can be”. It’s super simple, but, for me, it highlights how we can all aim for continuous improvement and that we should aspire to be successful in all that we do. It acknowledges that success doesn’t look one single way. We should aim for success, in whatever beautiful version of success that is right for us – as an academic, as a creative artist, as a sportsperson, as a sibling, as a parent.

Have a look at what Mr Majsay, our Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning), gets up to in his spare time –  last weekend he conducted the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir at their 30^th anniversary celebrations at the Seymour Centre, with guest soloist, Queenie van de Zandt.