Nic takes on new role as head at De La Salle Junior School
Nic Mifsud
Nic Mifsud has been appointed as Head of School of De La Salle College Junior School in Malta. He took up this role on September 1st following the retirement of Mariella Vella. Nic has many years of experience as a teacher and assistant head of school and will continue to build on the excellent reputation the school has developed over the years.
Mario Ellul, a long time colleagues of Nic, has sent in this personal portrait of Nic as they start this new journey.
Nic as I know him
As I rack my brains to jot down some biographical notes about Mr Nicolai Mifsud, the Junior School’s new head of school, I try to go back in time to unearth my first reminiscences of Mr Mifsud….though thinking about it, our friendship goes so far back in time that it seems one of those relationships where you cannot think of a time when you did not know a person!
Nic and I have shared so many experiences, so many thoughts, so many ideas, not to mention adventures and good food that choosing a couple for a short biographical sketch becomes a feat almost difficult as meeting the strict deadline imposed by the editor.
Nic is one of a handful of male teachers who made it to the top in the quasi-totally female preserve that is the Maltese primary school system. He is also an old Lasallian to boot, having gone through the Primary and Secondary years of his education at De La Salle: I can still remember his initial embarrassment at calling his new colleagues and former teachers ‘Miss this’ or ‘Mr that’ – which must be the predicament of many a former student who returns to his old school as a teacher! However, I believe that in Nic’s case the Lasallian baggage which he carries around proudly, up to now has served him in good stead, and hopefully will do even more now in his new role as Head of School.
Nic’s specialisation in Computer Studies and IT and his professional approach to a subject which up to the not too distant past had been the recipient of generous funds and good intentions and hardly anything else, helped to put such a crucial department on a sound footing at De La Salle’s Junior School.
His informal, yet very effective way of ‘making it happen’ made computers and everything associated with them more attractive to a number of teachers who up to the early Noughties believed that they could do as they had done for many years without ‘those infernal machines’.
I can still hear Nic telling our colleagues, that short of bringing a 7kg mallet to school and venting their rage on the equipment, there was hardly anything which they could do to damage the computer!
Thanks to Nic, and a team of other specialists, we have done giant strides in this vital aspect of modern education, and with his encouragement we hope to continue to achieve more. I just cannot close the IT bracket without mentioning what most probably will be Nic’s crowning moment when in the wake of the first Covid-19 crisis and lockdown in March 2020, nearly singlehandedly he put the whole Junior School on line and in a fortnight prepped the system, and perhaps more importantly the teachers and the students for going on-line!
I simply cannot imagine how we could have managed, not just without Nic’s technical expertise but without the long hours he put into preparing vlogs, testing the system, running trials, ironing out snags, and all that went with taking 600 students, their parents and their teachers online – making De La Salle a shining example to many others!
I cannot thank Nic enough for bringing a bright ray of sunshine in those drab moments we go through in our professional life: – the sharing of a good coffee (usually brewed by him, as hard as I try, I just cannot get the hallowed drink near to perfection as he does!); the sharing of tit-bits of historical trivia – especially about the hard life our underprivileged parents and grandparents experienced in unenlightened times; the sharing of notes on how to cope with rebellious sons and daughters and tiresome pet shitzu dogs; the sharing of notes on how to try to be a good husband to super-patient-extra-supportive wives; dreaming about future (and hopefully doable) trips abroad…etc etc etc.
Nic and I share a double bond, not just by being Lasallians (though his is certainly a more vintage pedigree), but also because we happen to be brother Scouts. Nic does honour to both Movements – his heart burns with zeal for the educational mission preached by St John Baptist de La Salle as much as it burns for the spirit of adventure and brotherhood nurtured by Lord Baden – Powell. I am sure he has the strength, the will and the imagination to fuse the two to make his tenure of the headship at the Junior School a journey worth living
Mario Ellul , Assistant Head of School