Our Leaders and Coordinators
Meet our leaders and coordinators who guide our school's mission, vision, and values, fostering a unique and enriching educational environment.
Panha Pal
Executive Principal (Founder)
Our goal is not just to prepare students to make a living but to prepare them to live a powerfully purposeful and relevant life. We guide them to see beyond personal gain and to understand their place in the world — to become young men and women who uplift themselves, their families, and their communities. When your child graduates from Pal Buddhist School, they will leave with more than academic knowledge. They will leave with an awakened mind, a generous heart, and the equanimity to sail through life’s hardship and turbulences. They will enter adulthood as noble leaders whose thought, speech, and action is a source of the light of hope, inspiration, and protection for both themselves and others.
Helen Lam
Principal
Pal Buddhist School is a community focused on nurturing each student's potential in a safe, inclusive environment. While providing a strong academic foundation based on the NSW NESA curriculum, the school's core mission is to develop ethical leaders. It achieves this through a holistic approach that integrates mindfulness and ethical reflection, and by fostering a strong partnership between teachers, families, and the community. The ultimate goal is to empower students for both academic success and a meaningful life.
Senior Leadership Team
Tony Chung
Numeracy Coordinator
Zoe Shaw
Primary Coordinator
Andrew Calvert
Literacy Coordinator
Zoe Shaw
Primary Coordinator
As Primary Coordinator, my core purpose is to mindfully cultivate a nurturing and interconnected learning environment where each child's innate curiosity and inner growth flourish. I guide our dedicated teachers in creating experiences that foster not only academic foundations but also inner peace, empathy, and a strong sense of belonging within our Pal Buddhist School community, working closely with families to support each unique journey of self-discovery.
Andrew Calvert
Literacy Coordinator
At Pal, we see literacy as the foundation of all learning. As Literacy Coordinator, my role is to ensure every student develops the reading and writing skills required for academic success and confident participation in the wider world.
Our approach is grounded in research. We align our reading instruction with the Science of Reading, using explicit, structured methods that are proven to build strong decoding, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. In writing, we draw on The Writing Revolution model developed by Judith Hochman, teaching students to master sentences before moving to paragraphs and extended responses. This ensures clarity, precision, and confidence at every stage.
Strong literacy outcomes depend on strong partnerships. We value transparency and collaboration between teachers, families, and students so that learning is purposeful, consistent, and shared.
Tony Chung
Numeracy Coordinator
The world is governed by numbers, shapes, directions and logic. With the Pal Buddhist School STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Department, I look to unlock students’ potential as future pioneers by helping them master of these principles. We cultivate students’ curiosity about how the universe works. We provide students with inspirations from past and present masters of academia and industry. We nurture students’ abilities to turn their knowledge into practical innovation.
