15 May 2017

Newsletter Articles

President’s Report

It certainly has been an “interesting” start to the Term with lots of focus on SpaRO and the difficulties in uploading information. Pashnit has been running hot and there have been lots of sharing to support our colleagues. Our frustrations with the tool were certainly exacerbated by IT issues and a system crash earlier last week. A huge thanks to PSL Merrilyn Jenkins, who has been integral to a lot of the support provided on Pashnit and of course to the LHP team who worked really hard to support us.

Workload Intensification and Principal Wellbeing has continued to be the focus for Executive and key chairpersons with several meetings and work on collecting evidence (see the following article).

Last Term we sent out our first e-newsletter through Schoolzine. We sent links to 1843 and 1042 were opened [56.4%], with 799 un-opened and 2 bounced back (email address issues). Whilst Schoolzine advise this is an extremely good opening rate for a first newsletter, I can’t help but feel disappointed and certainly hope the word spreads that this is a much better version of our What’s Hot.

Later this week we will begin trialling the Schoolzine App which will allow us to send notifications to individuals, Reference Group members, delegates, Presidents, treasurers etc once everyone signs up. More details to follow.

Gonski

We have certainly been inundated with rhetoric and facts and figures and it has been hard to determine what position we are in. But there are a couple of key points we need to consider:

• Years 5 & 6 of the Gonski/ NERA agreement are the next two years where we are supposed to gain the greatest amount of funding – The Federal Government is reneging on our agreement.
• The NSW Government signed a bi-lateral agreement with the Federal Government and NSW has committed to it’s side of the agreement.
• Our Minister has been on record as reminding the Federal Government of this agreement/ contract and has consulted the Solicitor General for advice.
• AGPPA and APPA have long pushed for a needs based, sector blind funding mechanism for schools.
• Our schools have been the beneficiary of equity loadings which have enabled us to put in place strategies, resource classrooms, employ staff & allow for time to support our students achieve their best. Funding many of us have never had before and we have been anticipating additional funding to continue and expand activities.
• We received notification from the Federal Minister directly to our schools advising of next year’s funding and this was closely followed by correspondence from our Secretary advising “You should not rely on these figures for future planning or budgeting purposes”
• Our Minister advised that we would be $1.8 billion short of our current agreement with the Federal Government.
• NSW Teachers’ Federation emailed members a comparison of what our schools should receive in years 5 & 6 of Gonski and what they would receive under the Turnbull Plan. Using figures provided under an FOI request, Federation has highlighted the absolutely devastating position our schools will be in if the Senate supports the Turnbull Plan.
• David Gonski is not reviewing the funding model. He will be reviewing what the funding should be spent on to improve student learning outcomes…. This is a concern if his panel is filled with “experts” with a “narrow barrow to push”.

This is a critical time for us in schools. Our school communities need to inform their Federal member and Senators of their position. Correspondence to the Senate cross- bench stating the differences in the models and what schools will miss out on is another key strategy. We can’t afford to sit on our hands.

Along with SPC President, Chris Presland, P&C President Susie Boyd and Deputy President of Federation, Garry Zadkovich, I addressed a media activity last week as part of the Public Education Alliance. We were highlighting the need to honour the bi-lateral agreement and the difference in funding from Gonski and the Turnbull model.

Public Education Alliance Press Conference on Gonski

Principal Workload and Time Use Study

Following representations by both PPA and SPC, the Secretary, through CESE, has organized this study. The research activities to be conducted by Deloitte, include a range of direct observations conducted over a full school day of 120 Principals, interviews and focus groups, with a randomly selected group of principals from a representative sample of schools. During Term 2, some of us may be contacted by a researcher representing Deloitte and the DoE with a request that you agree to participate in one of these activities.

If contacted, your assistance in being part of this very important research is important. Taking up the opportunity to participate will greatly benefit the DoE’s understanding of the challenges currently faced by principals. If you are selected it is important that you provide information that demonstrates your working day. If you typically work from 6.00 am …they will be there; if you work until 6.00 pm, they will also be there. There will also be an opportunity for you to advise the sort of work you did overnight. It is vital that you are honest & frank with your advice.

The data and findings from the research will provide evidence for determining the manageability of current principal workloads and will help us all to develop future initiatives that better shape principal support and position our important role as the instructional leader in our schools.

The focus questions, which frame the research are:

1. What tasks do principals spend their time on?
2. What are the enablers and barriers to principals managing their workload? 
 Could some tasks be delegated to other school staff to help manage principal workloads? Could department support materials and communications be improved to help principals to manage their workloads?
3. Is the current principal workload achievable and sustainable?
4. Has there been a change in either the quantity or nature of principals’ work in recent years?
5. What are some examples of exemplary practice from which other schools could benefit?
6. Could the leadership and decision-making culture of schools change in any way to help manage principal workloads?

As well as the day long visits with principals there will be four focus groups which will include SASS and executive members, 12 in depth interviews and interviews with stakeholders and educational sector experts. Chris Presland [SPC President] and I will both be interviewed and are on the Research Reference Group and will be over viewing the process.

Art of Leadership – Master Class

Last week saw the initial Master Class based on the highly successful Art of Leadership program presented by Judy Hatswell & Rob Stones. Graeme Ross, Principal Bellingen PS, President, Mid North Coast PPC and long-standing member of the Leadership Standing Committee provided this report.

As part of the suite of the high quality professional learning options offered by the NSW PPA, the Leadership Standing Committee commissioned Rob Stones and Judy Hatswell, the original developers of the Art of Leadership (800+ participants over 4 years) to develop a Master Class for people who wanted more training in key Glasser theory, after having completed the Art of Leadership.

The first masterclass with 20 people got underway last Monday (May 1) for 3 days, in Sydney. There is a 2nd class scheduled for September and this is full as well. The engagement of all participants was deep, with much time given over to the practicing and reflecting on key strategies taught by Judy and Rob.

The feedback was exceptional and a formal report will be prepared for the Standing Committee over coming weeks.

Flourish

As mentioned in our last Newsletter, The Shellharbour PPC has been involved in a pilot program with Adam Fraser with a focus on:

Studying a group of Principals in detail to understand what the job entails, what roles and responsibilities make up the job, how much time is spent in each role, what parts of their role energise them and get them into flow, what parts of their role stress them and crush their energy levels, what are the habits and mindsets of the most effective principals, what strategies are most effective to improve the principal’s wellbeing, finally how do the most effective principals create a cohesive culture in their schools.

In addition to the study the program includes a face to face program (4, full day workshops every 10weeks) to help the principals be more effective in their role, create a healthier culture in their school and develop habits that foster and look after their physical and mental wellbeing. One of the other focuses of the face-to -face program is to develop the connection and collegial support within the participants.

It is a 3 phase program:

Phase 1

The research phase - partnering with Deakin Business School to understand the world of school Principals.

Phase 2

The intervention phase - delivery of a face to face program that helps the principals be more effective and have flourishing wellbeing.

Phase 3

Re-testing phase - where we measure the impact of the project.

Currently, there is a second group in the Illawarra who are about to start, and there is interest in the Maitland, Queanbeyan and Broken Hill areas. Key members of the State Executive are meeting with Adam’s team this week to discuss options for rolling this out across the state over the next few years. We are carefully looking at costings & how we would cater for the variety of group sizes that may want to be involved.

DoE Schools Division

The new Deputy Secretaries, Georgina Harrisson and Murat Dizdar met with Deputy President Robyn Evans and I before the holidays and then met with our Executive last week. I was also fortunate enough to hear them both be interviewed during “Directors’ School” in Week 1.

Both Dep Secs were impressive around the mantra “ is this going to support students? We need to question the why and will it benefit students”. Other key points from the discussions:

• In discussing why they took on the role “ there is no better way to influence the society we live in”; “its an honour”; “driven by equity & excellence”
• Will absolutely work together and work on breaking down silos
• Recognise that Ed Services support needed for schools & a review will occur. Needs a fresh look, how it is coordinated and how it is received inside the school gate. Looking to improve the impact.
• Additional Directors – no news yet. 1:34 has been difficult
• Recognize the need for a better plan & co-ordination of initiative implementation so schools can plan for it better.
• The Principal role is pivotal; is critical & is an enabling role.
• School Improvement is our focus.
• Learning from mistakes – goodwill is strong, but sometimes the “go” button often badly timed. Need to be convinced that instrument is ready to go.

Deputy Secretaries Georgina Harrisson & Murat Dizdar addressing NSWPPA Executive

PSL Conference

I attended part of the PSL Conference held last week and was inspired by the commitment of the group. With a large turnover of principals in this group, it was great to see the collegial sharing of expertise and discussions on how best to support schools.

CESE lead discussions on a draft version 2 of the Schools Excellence Framework and our PSLs, who have been integral in the use of the SEF in the External Validation process, didn’t hold back on suggestions for improvement. We will await further consultation on the SEF.

AITSL School Leadership Roundtable

In mid April I attended this workshop in Canberra led by new AITSL CEO Lisa Rodgers and included many of the AITSL Board, AITSL Senior officers, key academics and Principal representatives from the 3 sectors of schools. The focus was on exploring future directions in school leadership, both preparation and ongoing development in response to the Federal Government’s Quality Schools Quality Outcomes and push for an increased effort in Principal Preparation. Just keeping you up to date what is happening on the national scene.

The four themes discussed were:

1. Leading teaching & learning – instructional leadership. The importance of instructional leadership, its effective practice & how to prepare aspirant leaders for this aspect of the school leadership role.
2. Developing self & others – professional learning. Considers what we know about professional learning for school leaders across Australia and how to ensure that leaders are prepared for the role.
3. Leading the management of the school – professional autonomy. Defines autonomy for school leaders & provides insights from recent international & national research into autonomy across a number of education systems
4. Principal preparation – principal certification. Presents a broad view of some considerations around principal preparation & national pre-appointment certification of principals.

There has been a national review of what is offered for aspirants, and as you can imagine, there is no consistent approach. It is timely for AITSL to work in this space. AITSL’s recent report Preparing future leaders – effective preparation for aspiring school principals made 5 recommendations:

1. take a systematic, standards based and coherent approach to principal preparation
2. identify and nurture leadership talent early
3. match learning pathways to an individual’s capabilities, career stage & context
4. use evidence based adult learning techniques
5. evaluate professional learning for impact

There was lots of discussion on the need for a national approach, how it might develop, who would deliver it, what would be the key components, the use of the Principal Standard or not, and consistency & reliability of any “program & assessment”.

I modelled the NSWPPA “Credential” explaining the key features of engaging with the Principal Standard in a personal & school improvement challenge, supported by facilitators and with input from outstanding speakers (Prof Helen Wildy and Prof Brian Caldwell who have been keynotes at our course, were both in the workshop groups). I explained the importance of the learning journey and then the validation against the Principal Standard & Profiles to trained facilitators. Maybe it’s a model that can be replicated nationally (as there is nothing like what we are doing nationally) ??

NSWPPA “Credential”

This week will see our 2nd tranche of 75 leaders completing their final conference before they do their presentations for their validation. I will be attending Tuesday morning to support the three key people who have nurtured our program since day one viz. Anne McIntyre, Margaret Charlton and Graeme Ross. Together with our wonderful group of facilitators, they have worked hard to ensure the authenticity of the program, the learning, and the growth of our leaders through involvement in this program.

Teaching Standards in Action:

Our Leadership & High Performance Directorate is responsible for one of the best sites for classroom teachers and their professional learning, but it appears that very few are utilizing this brilliant resource. I have included the following information provided by LHP so you can have conversations with your staff and point them in the right direction. Why not suggest a couple do the courses together?:

What is Teaching Standards in Action (TSA) ?

• Teaching Standards in Action website (TSA) www.tsa.det.nsw.edu.au (released February 2016) offers teachers and leaders easy-to-access information about the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, accreditation and professional development.
• TSA distils key requirements and research and provides relevant links to policy and procedural information in these areas, assisting teachers across the profession to use standards-based practice that supports their accreditation.
• TSA offers more than 100 hours of NESA registered professional development courses at the Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead career stages. While these courses are accessed online, they promote collaborative professional learning at the school-level.

What are the advantages of the TSA website?

• Teachers and school leaders now have a ‘go to place’ for accurate up-to-date information about teaching standards and accreditation requirements at the different stages of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
• Using TSA teachers and school leaders can be confident they have the most relevant NESA and Departmental policy and procedural information they need about accreditation.
• TSA can guide the development of school-based registered professional development as TSA gives access to current research-based information about effective professional development as identified in the AITSL Charter for Professional Development and by the Department’s Centre for Educational Statistics and Evaluation (CESE).
• TSA can be used flexibly. It’s online and can be accessed anywhere, at any time, on any device ensuring equitable access for all permanent, temporary and casual teachers in the Department.
• TSA supports the development of a more consistent understanding of teaching standards and accreditation across schools.

Why engage with TSA courses?

• All courses are free, easy to facilitate and offer teachers significant registered professional development hours, with well-supported advice and scaffolds.
• The courses on TSA are NESA registered, tightly linked to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and model teaching practices required in the standards.
• The TSA suite of courses provides coverage across all 7 standards and the majority of the 137 standard descriptors across Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead.
• TSA courses are blended – all content/processes are accessed online, but they are intended for sustained, collaborative engagement at the classroom and school level over time.
• TSA courses have high-level internal coherence, that is, terminology, concepts and processes introduced in one course will be put into practice in another course across the suite.
• TSA course content, procedures, scenarios can be customised to school and classroom contexts.
• TSA courses are easy to differentiate to meet teachers’ different professional development needs.
• TSA courses can support professional development needs that arise from PDP processes.
• TSA courses are centred on current, research-based information that has identified the following characteristics as critical to effective professional development, that is, professional development that is relevant, collaborative, practice-based, future-focussed, challenging and sustained.

Stronger Smarter Institute – Leadership Training

Australia’s Biggest Indigenous Initiative in Education: For Good Reasons

The Stronger Smarter Institute believes Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander students and their families deserve excellence in local schools and communities across Australia.

We have delivered on our objective for over a decade. The flagship Stronger Smarter
Leadership Program has
trained 2,448 teachers, community leaders, educators, Aboriginal Education Workers and school leaders from across Australia (7 February 2017).

Today more than 80% of our graduates are in active teaching duties. We train educators. We build efficacy and workforce engagement. The Stronger Smarter Leadership Program trains in the ‘how’. It offers practices, behaviours and processes so participants build school and classroom cultures that are the cement of school improvement agendas.

Collaborating and supporting change with school and community leaders is key. Our partners in change are community members, departments of education and independent schools.

The Stronger Smarter Institute and the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) will host a Stronger Smarter Leadership program (SSLP) in Western Sydney at the Rooty Hill RSL Club on 26-29 June and 31 August-1 September. Please contact Dyonne Anderson telephone 0437 421 341 or Michal Purcell telephone 0428 801 883 at the Stronger Smarter Institute for further details and to register for the SSLP. Places are limited to 25 participants.

APPA – Connected Leader

Below is the next issue of Connected Leader and it is ideal to send to your Leadership Team and, indeed, all staff in your school. Not only bringing a wide range of news and views, Connected Leader also challenges our thinking and offers valuable professional learning opportunities.

The article on WA's long serving principal, Pauline Grewar of Castletown PS in Esperance is a quite unique and extraordinary story. From beginnings of hardship and frugality, Pauline, at near 80 years old, retired with a reputation for energy, charisma and drive in serving her school, its students and staff, and her community. Well worth a read!

I hope you can forward Connected Leader to your staff.

We hope you enjoy our 2nd edition of What’s Hot using Schoolzine. As always, your Executive Team is keen to support you. Please feel free to contact us.

Regards
Deputy President Robyn Evans; Secretary Jackie Malecki; Treasurer Rob Walker and Vice Presidents: Lyn Davis, Terry Fisher, John Mularczyk, Di Robertson, Louise Green, Ian Reeson and Phil Seymour President.

Schoolzine

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Schoolzine has been an industry leader in digital school communications for 10 years. They are dedicated to customer service, product development and understanding the school landscape that keeps them at the top of the industry. Schoolzine’s Parent Engagement Platform consists of 3 packages, an eNewsletter, Mobile App and Website offering. Purchased separately or together, they guarantee each package will make engaging with parents easy and even enjoyable for a school of any size. Schoolzine addresses the need for media-rich, interactive content that engages parents.

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