Chad Ferris
Principal Consultant +
ideatED Founder
Chad is talented, insightful and motivating as a coach, trainer and educator. His background in educational approaches gives him much deserved credibility and a real edge as a facilitator of change and impact.
- Emma Polson
School Services, NSW Dept of Education
“Everybody has a story. When we don’t take the time to know someone’s story or worse, create our own version of it, we lose the chance to understand what they need, which is the first step to empathy”
- Jon Acuff
Chad focuses on learning design and organisational culture by developing and sustaining effective and innovative approaches for students, staff, and leaders. He also explores, evaluates, and designs learning spaces that enhance future-focused thinking and learning. Leadership development is a passion and key function of his work, mainly through coaching, mentoring, and professional learning. Chad believes building individual and collective capacity through effective, innovative practices is where real change occurs in preparation for the world of tomorrow.
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User Centred Design principles and Design Thinking fuel Chad’s passion for innovation. He promotes self-determined learners to find, frame and solve real-world problems through genuine collaboration with others. Chad sets out to align the learning cycle across all aspects of education with learning design principles that can be used cross-industry with a clear focus. Exploring and sharing new skillsets and toolsets and being a synthesiser have been pivotal in his success thus far as an innovator and influencer in schools across Australia.
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Chad believes that every learner, regardless of age, has the capacity to change the world. This should also be a fundamental driver for learning and applicable to every individual. It provides the enduring purpose to acquire skills, fuel curiosity, collaborate, think critically, explore creatively, communicate with originality, reflect deeply, and become increasingly aware of self and others. In addition, when there is shared language and practice across a community, a cohesive and robust culture emerges.
Chad’s experience spans metropolitan, regional and remote NSW and interstate areas in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and internationally in the United Kingdom. Chad supports individuals and school communities across Australia, using both the NSW and Australian Curriculums, the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, the Professional Standards for Middle Leaders, and the National Standard for Principals.
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​Being a learner and innovator, Chad uses this passion and motivation and has launched ideatED as a vehicle to continue to challenge school and system assumptions in this globally interconnected and contemporary world. ideatED does not use a top-down cookie-cutter approach. Instead, it challenges and supports leaders and educators to create their learning strategy contextual to their community.
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Chad thrives on bespoke projects that require an eye for detail and solution-focused thinking, taking stakeholders to places beyond their imagination.