👋 About Me
I'm Matt Hurley — currently in senior leadership at a Catholic secondary school in South East Queensland, where I lead student engagement, wellbeing, and pastoral care initiatives. Beyond education leadership, I design and build software systems that solve real problems with privacy and practicality at their core.
🎓 Education & Leadership
With over 11 years in education, my career has focused on creating environments where students and staff can thrive. From classroom teaching to middle leadership and now senior leadership roles, the work has always centred on engagement, wellbeing, and building systems that support people rather than constrain them.
I've held various leadership positions including Pastoral Leader, Assistant Pastoral Leader, and Acting Assistant Principal roles across Catholic education in Queensland. Each position reinforced a simple truth: the best systems are the ones people barely notice because they just work.
🎖️ Before Teaching
Before entering education, I served in the Australian Army as a Rifleman — an experience that shaped my approach to structure, responsibility, and leading under pressure. I also coached cricket and rugby at a GPS school, which sparked an interest in youth development and mentorship that ultimately led to the classroom.
💻 Software Development
My software development journey started with a problem: schools had no practical way to track student engagement and wellbeing data that respected privacy and worked within governance constraints. STARS was the solution — a platform built specifically for the realities of education.
Since then, I've worked on projects ranging from educational apps for children to hardware control utilities and privacy-focused comparison tools. All share the same philosophy: software should serve real needs, respect user privacy, and be built to last.
Much of my recent development work has been accelerated through AI-assisted coding — using tools like GitHub Copilot to handle boilerplate, suggest improvements, catch bugs, and generate comprehensive tests. It's fundamentally changed how quickly ideas can move from concept to production, while maintaining code quality and documentation standards. The projects documented on this site represent what's possible when human intent combines with AI capability.
🎓 Background & Experience
My educational background includes postgraduate studies in Educational Leadership, a teaching degree specialising in secondary education, and undergraduate studies in History and Geography. More recently, I've pursued professional development in cybersecurity, reflecting an ongoing interest in digital systems and information protection.
Before entering education, I completed military service in the Australian Army, which provided foundational training in leadership, operations, and working under structured systems. That experience continues to inform how I approach organisation, responsibility, and decision-making in educational contexts.
🧭 Core Values
People First
Technology serves people, not the other way around
Privacy by Default
Data protection isn't optional—it's foundational
Practical Solutions
Build for real constraints and real users
Built to Last
Maintainable, understandable, reliable systems
📍 Location
Based in South East Queensland, Australia.
📖 This Site
This site documents projects and reflections — not as a commercial portfolio, but as a record of learning, iteration, and building software informed by leadership and teaching experience.
If you find the work interesting or have questions, feel free to get in touch 💬