30 March 2017

Newsletter Articles

Welcome

Welcome to our new look newsletter thanks to the support of Schoolzine. I’m hoping, with your input, this will become much better & more informative and will be a great means to share the good work we are doing in our schools and in our PPCs.

Our Newsletter has become platform agnostic [we can use it on pc /ipad /phone /laptop] and is interactive. We can embed text, photos and videos and add pdf documents. We also have a survey facility and as you can see our twitter feed and web page are linked here as well. In the coming weeks we will have an App as well which will allow all of those features you probably are aware of - particularly notifications, but more on that later.

We will be calling on you to send in photos & videos of PPC and school events that you think will be of interest to our members. Details later.

President’s Report

As the Term draws to an end, I would have to agree with the majority of Principals I have spoken to – it has been one of the hardest starts to the year in memory. The job is getting tougher and when we have difficulties with some of the DoE tools, it certainly adds to the anxiety felt around the state.

I don’t think the changes and uncertainty around us have been beneficial to our plight and certainly have caused us concern. The change in Minister was a shock when you consider Adrian Piccoli’s vision, advocacy, strong consultation and performance were highly valued by us, but ah politics !! Adrian has come out strongly supporting our new Minister and in our early meetings, Rob Stokes has impressed us with his passion and willingness to continue supporting principals, schools and Gonski.

The Secretary is still finding his feet in our big organisation and has the rhetoric right – the need to support principals and wrap support around schools is his priority. So far he has offered additional Directors, but as many principals have told Chris Presland [SPC President] and I, this is not the type of support we need. The PPA and SPC will continue to push for additional administrative support through the appointment of Business Managers through staffing entitlement. The rising burden of administrative and compliance tasks is what is taking us away from our Instructional Leader role in our schools & if we want better student learning outcomes, we need help to remove those shackles.

The long delay in appointing the two new Deputy Secretaries has also added to our anxiety. Deputy Secretary Janet Davey has brought her depth of knowledge with her and has been very supportive in our discussions particularly around SPaRO and A-Z tool and hence the common sense extension of time, but she has been in caretaker mode. We have long advocated that these two new Deputy Secretaries must have school experience and must be able to work together. The appointment of Murat Dizdar [with schools experience] and Georgina Harrison is welcomed, but is hard to understand for the role of Educational Services, that school experience wasn’t a pre-requisite. Of course we will be more than willing to consult, support and give advice when they start in the last week of Term.

Workload Intensification

In our discussions around the Area Councils and at State Council, as I mentioned earlier, we have been bluntly told that our colleagues are struggling with the workload. This is what the NSWPPA has been doing to alleviate some of the issues:

• Business Managers Working Party …pushing FTE allocation & modelling. We are in alignment with the SPC and SASSPA on this.
• Meetings with Leadership & High Performance, Rel ED Lila Mularczyk & Dep. Sec Janet Davy re tools. This has led to SpAro time extension and a re-look at the A-Z tool and policies that will be dealt with.
• Supporting the Flourish program with Dr Adam Fraser – Shellharbour PPC initiative & looking at the possible roll out across the state.
• State Council has endorsed the role of Professional officer for 12 months. This is the support for principals experiencing the most difficult situations. Past President Geoff Scott, with his experience, contacts & knowledge will continue with this unpaid work.
• State Council has endorsed a revamped Flow Chart for principal support that your delegates and Presidents will share with you at your next PPC meeting.
• We have highlighted the PPC support person role [usually the Deputy President in PPC] at State Council and asked Presidents to ensure we follow up with colleagues.
• In discussions with DoE we have emphasised the PSL support role for our colleagues, so please invite them to your PPC meetings.
• Endorsed CESE research on “Principal Workload” that has just gone out to tender. The research “will investigate principal workload & time use through the collection and analysis of primary data, including time and motion study and qualitative interviews”.

Term 1 State Council

With over 120 attending our Term 1 State Council [delegates and presidents from each PPC] we were very busy getting the “good oil” from the Minister & senior DoE officers. You will get reports at your local PPC, so I won’t elaborate here except for two major inputs.

The Minister Rob Stokes impressed with his openness & willingness to be a regular at State Council. He mentioned the following:

• His vision of education. It is about both equity and excellence.
• These are central to the social contract – it’s a balance between the haves and have-nots. These are at the heart of the current national funding agreement- a general right to quality education.
• This government continues to have a strong commitment to the agreement. NSW expects the Commonwealth to keep its commitments.
• Excellence – what does it look like in classrooms across NSW? We want Principals to be strong instructional leaders. We also understand the workload. Principals have so much to do.
• The tension between administration and focusing on teaching and learning. We need to be inspirational and demonstrate a love of learning.
• He has visited a number of public schools and is amazed by the wonderful work happening in schools.
• He is keen to hear from us so we can find the best way of providing support. He was struck by the enormous workload of a Principal. Please exercise the discipline of balance. Work-life balance is critical.

Minister Stokes addressing State Council

The Secretary, Mark Scott, touched on a few issues that are bubbling away including:

• Radicalisation of students & the importance of the wellbeing of students & staff
• Quality teaching and learning in the classroom and expert leadership are the ways we are going to lift education in our schools
• How does the DoE support principals and how do they cultivate and support new executive aspiring for the leadership roles such as principals. This is a clear area of focus we are working on
• Now that we have such more responsibilities and burdens to traps us in our office, how can the DoE support us to become better educational and instructional leaders. Mark has asked CESE to make up a report to address this issue

Peter Holmes [Wollongong PPC President] asked the Secretary a question that we all wanted answered:

“Good morning Mark and welcome! Thanks for your words of hope and acknowledgement this morning.

In 2016 NSWPPA conducted a Principal support survey which reflected in part what we already knew, and shocked us in other ways. Statewide, 42% of Principals in public primary schools indicated they were either not coping at all or were just coping. In Wollongong the percentage was higher at 54.

At the time of the survey, 63% of us in Wollongong PPC had suffered or were currently suffering from work related health issues. If, as this survey indicates, around half of us at any given time are hanging by a thread or worse, surely it makes it exceedingly difficult for schools to be led with the highest level of effectiveness, vibrancy and commitment they could and should be.

Among other things, we’re being told to Bump It Up; to raise proficiency results for our students. That requires school cultures of high energy, intense focus, positive relationships and loads of buy- in from staff. Given the alarming survey results, how realistic is the expectation that Principals are leading in a way to effect the change required and meet system demands?

Since the survey, rather than having any opportunity to regroup, Principals have dealt with a relentless number of new initiatives that were under resourced, came with little or no support, guidance and training, and often, simply didn’t work properly. These frustrations were, and continue to be, the cause of so much wasted time and unnecessary stress.

A myriad of homework tasks for Principals have come from the High Performance and Assets Directorates in particular (e.g. the AtoZ Tool, SPaRO, tree audits, fire safety statements). Added to these were the rollouts of LMBR and External Validation, along with things like the new look MyPL and ever increasing responsibilities in e-Safety. All of these new tasks were assigned to school leaders, whom many within the Department knew were already struggling with excessive workload and all sorts of work-related stresses.

And all of this has been going on in school buildings that leak like sieves in stormy weather, and in buildings that heat up to the high 40s during the hotter weeks. How can anyone, students or staff, be expected to be productive in conditions like these?

But I don’t want this to be a whinge. It’s not.

Principals want to lead; I want to lead. We want to make a positive contribution to the lives of students and to public education as a whole. But until we’re given the space, time, resources and flexibility to do our job, many of us will continue to see this aspiration as nigh on impossible. In the current climate, we’re at breaking point.

So, my question to you is twofold. What measures can be taken to communicate to all directorates, to cease rolling out ill-considered initiatives until the current ones are at least fixed to a satisfactory standard, and what actions might be considered to demonstrate to Principals their welfare is a high priority in this time of reform?”

Answer: Mark assured us that he hears us, supports us and has strategies in place to make this an important priority.

Adrian Piccoli receiving Award and gifts at State Council to a standing ovation

Adrian Piccoli was also invited to State Council, as we wanted to say thanks and farewell to our Education Champion. We thanked him for his consultative style, his willingness to listen to principals in the field, his open-ness to ideas & suggestions from us, for his efforts to lift the standards in NSW schools and his unwavering advocacy for Gonski.

Upper House Inquiry

NSW Upper House Inquiry into the provision of education of students with a disability or special needs in government and non-government schools in NSW.

The NSWPPA made a submission to this inquiry [Ian Hughes, Di Robertson, Graeme McLeod, Jackie Malecki & myself] and on Monday Di Robertson [Vice President] and Graeme McLeod [Chair Disabilities RG] joined our SPC colleagues and SEPLA to address the Inquiry and answer their questions.

Our statement highlighted:

We, as Principals, run great schools engaging in outstanding programs to support students with diverse and often highly complex needs. We accept all!

It is evident that the gap is not narrowing between the provision of services to students with disability and special need and the number of students who are presenting at NSW public schools. The number of students presenting is increasing- our survey clearly showed that whilst many processes have been improved, there is a huge gap between where students are and where they go to school and how they are supported. The lack of available positions is a significant equity issue as it continues to vary across the state. Students are lining up for available places in suitable settings.

The funding issue remains a key highlight. The capacity of students to receive the support they require. Ensuring all students with disability and special needs receives the support they require is essential. High support students with violent behaviours often require support above current ratios. Funding is not ensured for these students outside of the existing staffing ratio. Ensuring the teachers standing before all of these students continue to have high standards, extensive knowledge and relevant training is critical.

For a child in Brewarrina accessing services is very different to a child in Bondi- our network service centres were put in place as an interagency model to help fill this gap, however principals are reporting that the Network Service centres are not meeting needs and indeed some principals indicate they have no knowledge of NSE contacts with schools. These hubs are essential for students with disability and special needs particularly in more rural and remote areas.

Key issues for Schools for Specific Purpose are the inequity of primary versus and secondary funding issues and teacher release issues where there are secondary students. The funding formula applied to mainstream schools does not correlate to equity in settings where ratios are different such as support units and SSPs. The RAM allocation formulas unfairly disadvantage support units and special schools across the state.

Managing and supporting students presenting with violence and behavioural issues, as well as mental health issues is a complex matter that can have profound impacts on teachers, on schools, on systems and on families supporting these students. Whilst our schools engage a raft of programs and supports to address these student needs, our survey indicated a critical need to review funding available to support these students at levels that ensure workplace managers/Principals can ensure the safety and wellbeing of the student, others students and the staff working with them.

Our submission in summary:

• Recognises the success of our system to cater for the diverse needs of our students.
• Highlights the high demand for support for students with a disability / learning need & the frequent lack of available places.
• Identifies that placements are not always available locally, or are not provided in a timely manner.
• Recognises there have been improvements in accessing funding, but highlights the over complicated access request process and often inadequate funding levels to meet individual’s needs & there is often long lag time for the funds to come to schools.
• Strongly recommends that an urgent review of support for complex behaviours in schools be completed.
• Indicates that equity issues impacting on Schools for Specific Purposes and Support Units be reviewed.
• Seeks a review of placement panel guidelines and support class classifications that reflects a needs based approach ensuring they have sufficient and appropriate levels of resourcing.

The New South Wales Primary Principals’ Association strongly supports the rights of children with disability to have equitable access to quality educational provision and resourcing regardless of the educational context. Thank you all for the opportunity to present to the inquiry.

Preparing to address the Upper House Inquiry

Ombudsman Requests

Shared Facilities:

I have recently been interviewed by officers from the Ombudsman’s office as part of a wide ranging brief regarding the sharing of school facilities. The ombudsman’s office is investigating how government & non – government schools, councils and groups could share facilities for the benefit of communities.

Behaviour management in schools:

Di Robertson, Graeme McLeod, Daniel Hayes and myself are about to be interviewed by the Ombudsman’s office with the following Terms of Reference:

The focus of the inquiry is behaviour intervention & support in schools for all students who require that support. Particular consideration will be given to the needs of students with disability, any including any relevant additional factors that need to be addressed for this cohort of students.

1. Identification of best practice in NSW & other jurisdictions in relation to behaviour intervention & support in school settings.
2. Analysis of the adequacy of policy & practice frameworks across NSW government & non-government school sectors in relation to the development, implementation, monitoring and review of evidence based behaviour intervention & support.
3. Analysis of the adequacy of current complaint management & appeal arrangements across NSW government & non-government school settings in relation to behaviour intervention & support practices.

The scope of the Inquiry will include (but not be limited to) specific consideration of time out rooms, restrictive practices & restraint as well as suspensions & expulsions.

External Validation

EOI For Peer Principals for External Validation and Recruitment of PSLs For An Eligibility List: -

Both EOIs appeared in last week’s SchoolBiz on 24 March. Please encourage colleagues to take note of these EOIs to ensure we gain the very best candidates. There is a one-week turn around for the Peer Principal EOI and a two-week turn around for the PSL Recruitment EOI.

Dates have just been released for schools involved in the 2017 external Validation. There has been a mix up and some of us have been placed in our Annual Conference Week. This was a mistake and will be rectified.

Gonski

A Gonski bus left Adelaide 3 weeks ago and a Gonski bus left Brisbane at the same time. They visited many schools on the way, especially those that have featured in the latest “Getting Results Vol 2”. My School Hayes Park was one of the many schools visited. They arrived in Canberra on March 22 and were met by Labor and Greens politicians who support the extension of funding for 2018-19 when the majority of funds will flow through to schools.

We absolutely need to continue this campaign by lobbying our local Federal members and showing the benefits of any additional funding your school has received.

Wollongong & Shellharbour PPC Presidents,
Federation President & NSWPPA President

Gonski bus at Hayes Park PS

In Canberra, SEPLA, federation & PPA Presidents and SPC Deputy President

Gonski group in Canberra with all states & territories represented

Tanya Plibersek & Bill Shorten address the Gonski rally in Canberra

Gonski Illawarra connection including MPs for Whitlam & Cunningham and Secretary of the Labour Council

New Parliamentary Secretary for Education

Gareth Ward is now the parliamentary secretary for education and has vowed to be a passionate advocate for students and teachers. Mr Ward, who is also the Member for Kiama, said he was a “strong supporter” of Gonski education reforms and a “proud product of public education”.

“I want to use this role to ensure that students in today’s classrooms have every opportunity to reach their full potential,” he said. “Having been a student with a disability, I look forward to being a strong advocate for students that are walking the same path I did. I want them to know that they can be all they want to be.”

Minister's and Secretary's Awards for Excellence for 2017

Once again, these awards will be highly sought after. All the information about the 6 awards can be found at the Public Education Foundation website.

There are a few differences this year - firstly that all applications must be made online. Secondly, in an effort to encourage as many teachers as possible to submit high-quality nominations we are allowing nominees in the Teaching Excellence category to submit either a 500 word professional statement or to upload a 3 minute video outlining their achievements.

Nominations are open until 19th June.

Also, advance notice for the Public Education Foundation Annual celebration of excellence and awards ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday 17 May at Sydney Town Hall.

SPaRO

Rel Director in High Performance Bruce Inwood has asked to share this information:

After a meeting with Bruce Inwood, Michele Howland and Scott Paterson of the Leadership and High Performance team there are a few tips that may help.

Uploading school logo – Ensure you have an image file (jpeg , gif or PNG) and not a word file.

To ensure that the Principals Message fits on one page, please remove any carriage returns as you may end up with a blank page you cannot remove.

The carriage returns and other hidden formatting will display once the paragraph marker is selected from the top toolbar in Word (see screen shot below).

Schools that have transitioned from OASIS to SAP during 2016 need only make one selection when setting up the financial information for your Annual Report

• Financial information (for schools using both OASIS and SAP/SALM).

If you have an OASIS table that has not totalled – delete the zero and it will recalculate a total for you.

Newsletter

Hopefully you will have enjoyed the new format and can see the potential for sharing the great things we are doing as an Association. If you have some movies/ or pics of some things you are doing that you think all our members will appreciate, please forward them to me pseymour@nswppa.org.au

On behalf of our executive team of Deputy President Robyn Evans; Secretary Jackie Malecki, Treasurer Rob Walker and Vice Presidents Lyn Davis, Terry Fisher, Louise Green, John Mularczyk, Di Robertson, Ian Reeson, Executive Officer Mark Pritchard, Professional Officer Geoff Scott, Webmaster Andrew Stevenson and myself ….enjoy the rest of Term and try to re-charge the batteries over the break.

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event