Galanakis leads the way
De La Salle Holy Cross College new head of high school talks on how she plans to lead.
When it comes to being a leader, Linda Galanakis lives by three f words – to be fair, firm and friendly.
The past three months have seen Galanakis play an important role at De La Salle Holy Cross College as the high school’s new head.
She jokingly said she has always told people what to do all while sharing her knowledge, “Even as a child, I would make people sit down and play school. I also always loved writing which is possibly why I became an English teacher.”
Galanakis spent two decades teaching girls’ schools such as St Stithians Girls’ College and then Roedean Senior School. She has no fears about teaching in a co-ed school though she might have questioned if she was up for it. “It was absolutely no problem. It was an easier transition than I thought it would be.”
A day in her life consists of interacting with both learners and staff while her approach to leadership is one that is quite instructional, “That sounds like giving instructions but that’s not it at all. I want to see how I can help staff be the best they can be. I love the opportunity to help develop both staff and children in areas where they need developing and where they want to be developed.”
Even though her role has her sitting behind an office desk she loves the view from in front of the classroom. As she puts it, she needs to know how it is ‘at the coalface’. To her just find herself sitting behind a desk dealing with paperwork would drive her crazy. As this would remove her from knowing what some of the needs are.
At De La Salle Holy Cross she has found a very strong sense of community, “As South Africans, we really need to care about our communities. It is such a need and to see a place like this school continually wanting to serve was for me, a huge drawing card,” she said. Adding faith-based schools offer a different nuance, as it gives children sets of guiding values for life.
Working with children has taught her to have a sense of humour to recognise that they too do learn from their mistakes and most importantly, want to make a difference in the world.
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