The founders are highly qualified and experienced teachers with lived-experience caring for three of their own anxious, neurodivergent teenagers. Through needing to support their children through difficult experiences in mainstream schools, they saw a clear gap in the ACT educational landscape
During 2020 and 2021, the founders of Connections High School found their two of their teenage children struggling in mainstream high school in the ACT. They began considering alternative schooling options, but discovered that options were very limited. In the second half of 2021, after a some very positive experiences in the small hospital school, their daughter enrolled at a very small performing-arts high school catering to students from Years 7-10. The move to a small school resulted in a significant improvement in their daughter’s mental health, academic engagement and social connections. In 2024 she was able to make the move to a mainstream public college, where she is happy and doing well, both socially and academically.
As their son was not interested in performing arts, they began looking for an alternative small high school. The lack of a suitable school that would meet his needs brought to light a clear gap in ACT educational options – the need for a small-by-design high school, catering for students with additional social and emotional needs, for whom a mainstream school was not appropriate.
The founders are teachers with post-graduate qualifications in education and combined experience of nearly 40 years. They have successfully worked with children from a wide range of backgrounds, including many who would have benefitted from an alternative schooling model, and now want to use their expertise to offer high school students learning opportunities better suited to their unique needs.