It’s 6.15 AM at Hoi An International School.

The campus is quiet. The classrooms are waiting. There are no children running through the corridors yet. And somewhere on campus, Mr Brett is usually there with a cup of tea.

By 7.45 AM, the quiet is gone.

Students begin arriving. There are sleepy faces, big smiles, quick conversations and the occasional child who needs a little more encouragement to make it through the gate.

And there is Mr Brett.

Greeting them. Saying hello. Asking questions. Having a quick chat before the school day begins. It is a routine he has kept for years.

Since joining the school in 2019 as Vice Principal, Mr Brett has grown with HAIS, later becoming its Principal. Alongside that journey, his four children have grown up here too, with some joining as early as Kindergarten. He has watched them move through Primary and into Secondary, making friends, discovering who they are, finding the things they love, getting things wrong, getting things right, and growing up along the way.

So while Mr Brett has been helping to build and lead HAIS, his own family has been growing up alongside it. He came to lead a school. His children came to learn. And somewhere along the way, they all grew up together.

The teacher who started it all

Mr Brett’s own journey into education began long before Hoi An.

He grew up in Bankstown, Sydney, in a close-knit family where extended family was part of everyday life and dinner conversations could stretch well beyond the meal itself.

Then, in Year 11, a teacher changed the way he saw learning.

Mr Brett moved schools and chose Modern History, even though he had not studied it in Years 9 and 10. It turned out to be a leap of faith that shaped his future.

“From the moment I walked into that class, I loved going. I was always the first one there because the teacher was amazing at capturing your imagination and bringing you into the story.”

The teacher did more than teach content. He made students curious. He made them want to know what happened next. There was clear teaching, but there was also questioning, discussion and inquiry.

Mr Brett remembers thinking that this was what learning could feel like.

Years later, after moving through teaching and leadership, that experience stayed with him. Perhaps it is one reason he has always believed that school should be more than a place where students simply complete their work.

They should want to be there.

Finding his way to Hoi An

In 2019, Mr Brett’s journey brought him to HAIS.

His wife, Tram Anh, is Vietnamese Australian, and the idea of spending part of their family life in Vietnam had always been somewhere in their long-term plans. Mr Brett wanted to remain in education, but he also wanted to find a school whose values felt right.

Then he discovered HAIS.

“What sort of caught me was the idea of this holistic education in this wonderful UNESCO town of Hoi An.”

The school was young. There was plenty to build, plenty to learn and no shortage of challenges ahead.

But Mr Brett saw something in it.

An inspiring mission. A different kind of school. A community worth investing in.

So he came. And he stayed.

The serious side… and the other side

Mr Brett can appear serious.

He has high expectations, speaks directly and isn’t afraid to make difficult decisions. But those who know him well also know another side.

He has a warm heart. He likes conversation. And he has a very good sense of humour, including about himself.

His own school reports provide the evidence.

“I worked hard but I also liked to chat.”

His mother, he recalls, would read his reports and say:

“Brett’s doing exceptionally well… but…”

The “but” was always the same. He could talk less in class.

Some things, apparently, haven’t changed.

And perhaps that little story tells us something. Behind the title of Principal is still the same person who once sat in a classroom, talked too much, found a teacher who made him love learning, and eventually decided that education was where he wanted to spend his life.

What makes a good school?

Ask Mr Brett what makes a good school and his answer is simple:

Student-centred.

For him, every important decision comes back to one question:

“How does this benefit the students who are entrusted to our care?”

It sounds simple. But behind that question is a bigger belief about what school should feel like.

“As a student you need to feel supported in the journey.”

For Mr Brett, education is not simply about what happens when a teacher stands at the front of a classroom. It is also about confidence, relationships and pastoral care. Knowing when a student needs encouragement. When they need a challenge. And when they simply need someone to notice.

Perhaps that is what Mr Brett means when he talks about putting students at the centre. Not simply asking what they achieve, but thinking about the person they are becoming.

And that thinking extends to how he sees success and failure.

Mr Brett’s love of rugby league also finds its way into how he thinks about education. He often talks about the difference between losing and failing.

“There is a big difference between losing and failing. Losing reflects the score, whereas failing reflects the attitude.”

It is a simple distinction, but one that says a lot about how Mr Brett thinks about young people. A bad result doesn’t define a student. A mistake doesn’t define them. Even losing doesn’t define them. What matters is what happens afterwards.

Will you try again? Do you learn? Do you get back up? Do you keep going? For Mr Brett, these are the things that matter. The qualities he wants students to carry with them long after they leave HAIS.

Before the school day begins

And sometimes, those lessons are learnt long before the first bell rings.

This year, Mr Brett began running optional Strength and Conditioning sessions before school. At 6.30 in the morning, while the campus is only beginning to wake, nearly 30 secondary students are already out on the school football pitch.

They choose to be there.

There is no timetable telling them they have to come. No bell has rung. They have simply made the decision to get out of bed, turn up for one another and begin their day doing something difficult together.

The sessions are about fitness. But they are also about something more.

They are about learning to keep going when you are tired. When your legs feel like they are stuck in quicksand. When the next repetition feels harder than the last and the mountain in front of you suddenly seems much bigger than it did at the start.

They are about standing shoulder to shoulder with your HAIS teammates and finding something more to give.

There is teamwork in that. There is resilience. There is character.

And perhaps, years from now, when school is a distant memory and life presents one of those moments when things are difficult, when the road ahead feels long and you are not quite sure you have enough left to keep going, something from those mornings might remain.

The lesson may not be remembered as a Strength and Conditioning session. It may simply be the quiet knowledge that you have felt like this before. You have been tired before. You have wanted to stop before.

And you kept going.

There is something else worth noticing about those mornings too.

Mr Brett does not simply stand on the sideline and tell students what to do. He is there with them. Running. Working. Tired. Doing the same things he asks of them.

There is something wonderfully simple about that.

A Principal could give a speech about resilience. He could talk about teamwork, perseverance and character in an assembly.

Or he can meet nearly 30 students on the football pitch at 6.30 in the morning and show them.

Perhaps that is leadership in its simplest form: never asking young people to go somewhere you are unwilling to go with them.

And perhaps those early mornings give us another small window into what matters most to Mr Brett.

The students.

Seven years and still at the gate

After seven years at HAIS, Mr Brett has seen countless students come through those gates. Some arrived as little children. Some have now grown into young adults, preparing for life beyond HAIS. And alongside them, he has watched his own children grow too.

When asked about the school motto, Find Your Passion. Realise Your Dream, Mr Brett doesn’t talk about a grand career ambition.

He talks about ordinary moments.

“I love welcoming the students into the school. I enjoy the conversations I have with colleagues.”

And then he talks about his children.

“I love being out there in the morning and seeing my children with smiles on their faces enjoying the game of handball or whatever they might be doing.”

Then comes the simplest answer of all:

“So for me, the passion is absolutely there. And do I think it’s a dream? I do.”

Perhaps that is the part of Mr Brett’s story that stays with you. Seven years ago, he came to Hoi An to help shape a school. Along the way, it became a place where his own family grew up too.

And tomorrow morning, when the campus is quiet again, there will probably be a cup of tea, an early start and, a little later, the familiar sounds of students arriving.

And there will be Mr Brett at the gate.