16 August 2017

Newsletter Articles

President’s Report

Welcome to our latest edition of our Newsletter, coming at a very interesting time for us. As I mentioned in our last Newsletter, both the Minister & Secretary have acknowledged the increasing workload we have been under and are working on a plan of support. Our NSWPPA Executive members and those of the SPC have been in unison pushing for additional support & a rationalisation of some of the demands the “Centre” puts on us. More details to follow later in this Newsletter.

It has been great to see on twitter the number of schools who have been really active in promoting Public Education during Education Week. The launch was fantastic again showing the talents of our schools in both Metro & Country… we just hope that one day it can be launched in a primary school.

I hope you all completed the Educational Services survey that was conducted by the McKinsey group. The results of this vital survey will determine the future of support for our schools and it is extremely important, I’ll say that again, it is extremely important, that you completed the survey mentioning such key issues as the levels of curriculum implementation/ pedagogical support/ support for learning difficulties & disabilities/ complex behaviours your school requires.

Principal Support:

Initially, our Secretary believed that the provision of additional Directors, PSNSW, would be the support that we needed to make our jobs easier. Along with the SPC, we have made our position quite clear. An additional 40 Directors was not the type of support we needed, we strongly pushed for more additional administrative support and removal of some of the ridiculous compliance activities that were bogging us down and keeping us from completing our key educational leadership role in our school.

Along with the SPC, we put in a submission to the Minister & the Secretary outlining alternatives to additional Directors PSNSW. We:

• Rejected the notion that additional Directors was the panacea to support principals
• Emphasized the diminishing support for schools in curriculum delivery, teaching & learning, behaviour management, AMU, WHS, ….
• We have been taken away from our core educational role & bogged down with administrivia & compliance
• We then made the following recommendations:
    - Return of curriculum/ pedagogical support
    - Administrative support for schools – flexible allocation as an FTE for all schools
    - Increased staffing of AMU with quicker processing
    - Director – Rural Education to oversee the R & R Blueprint
    - EPAC – Directors supporting principals
    - Director/ Senior Officer of Pre-Schools
    - Director School Staffing – for the difficult conversations principals have.
    - Additional Learning & Wellbeing officers with security of tenure
    - Senior Wellbeing Officers who can liaise with a multitude of referral processes
    - Increased support for dealing with complex behaviours
    - Director SSP
    - Director –Principal Support
    - Officers who can develop work on stopping vexatious complaints/ develop framework for legislation around assaults on principals
    - ICT – increase CC time/ teaching & learning support/ TSO
    - Co-ordinator of OHSC
    - Directors – a role change is needed & PA needed for all of their complaints/RMLs.

Our Executive had a meeting with the Secretary last week and he acknowledges that a broader support package is warranted. The preliminary findings of the Deloitte’s Principal Workload & Time use study are very supportive of our needs for support and the Secretary is using this information to develop a support package for us. I imagine by the end of this month there will be an announcement of additional support for principals & a closer look at those activities, that under the guise of Local Schools, Local Decisions, have been foisted onto us.

So what ever happens in terms of re-organising Networks and Operational Directorates, we will continue to organise the NSWPPA as we do currently i.e. around the current 43 PPC boundaries.

Deloitte’s Principal Workload & Time use study

Many thanks to the 119 principals who were shadowed as part of this process and who gave strong feedback on their workload. We also need to thank those who were involved in the focus groups (school Executive and SASS members) who also were very frank in their advice.

SPC President, Chris Presland, and I have been involved in seeing the draft findings, however they are not ready for release yet. From what we have seen they strongly highlight the need for principal support and confirm our convictions that it is time for the DoE to support us in our schools.

Research methodology:

• Direct Observations – 119 principals
• Contextual Inquiry (14 principals) in depth conversations
• 4 focus groups (principal’s support network – SAO/SAM/DP/teachers etc)
• Subject Matter experts (eg Anne McIntyre, Warren Marks, Dr Phil Riley)
• Stakeholders Interviews (10 DoE Executive; 4 Operational Directorates EDs; PPA & SPC Presidents.)

Term 3 State Council

We are looking forward to our next State Council meeting on August 31 and September 1. We are doing things a little differently this time with our Thursday meeting being held in the Wilkins Gallery in Bridge St. This “step back in time” is just to honour the memory of Bridge St before DoE moves off to Parramatta. Friday will be back at the Novotel in Haymarket.

This meeting is for Delegates, chairpersons and Executive and will host The Minster, Secretary, Dr Phil Riley (National Principal WellBeing survey author) and several workshops on NESA requirements for registration and possibly some work on SEFv2. Delegates will have lots to share back at local PPC meetings.

Delegates please note our times will be 8.30 – 5.00 on Thursday and 8.30 – 3.00 on Friday. If it is necessary for you to leave early on Friday, please contact Deputy President Robyn Evans.

Connected Learning Matters

Along with some 350 others I attended a symposium at Homebush presented by The Networks of Inquiry & Innovation (NOIINSW) on the SDD this term. Led by Natalie Mansour (Glenmore Park PS), David Sim (Lurnea PS) and Michael Newcombe (Sackville St) and team, the focus on Growth Mindsets and Inquiry Learning and many examples of communities of practice was inspiring. Having connected with Canadians Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert and several Canadian schools, the NOIINSW team really encouraged teachers and principals to reflect on their current leadership style, teaching practice and follow up on Spirals of Inquiry.

The Seven principles of learning for Inquiry –Oriented leaders:

• Put learners at the centre
• Emphasise the social nature of learning
• Understand that emotions are central to learning
• Recognise individual differences
• Stretch the learner
• Use assessment for learning
• Build horizontal connections

I also loved this vignette shown on the day:

Director’s School

Along with Chris Presland, SPC President, I attended part of the day where all of our Directors in Schools Division gathered to discuss future directions for schools. Our Secretary, Mark Scott, had a presentation where he elaborated on the following key directions for DoE. These are just my potted notes:

• Executive as 1 team operating together. Strategic Plan Semester 2.Clear Executive priorities- for each Division.
• Package around school Leadership. job description 4 Principal/ Leadership- support & structures for school leadership/ aspiring principals-more structured approach needed/ managing poor performance/ work on school admin & staffing levels/ broader HR review
• Literacy & Numeracy look at intervention strategies.
• School Funding - RAM modelling, NSW hasn't signed-detail yet to come/ Allocation & distribution for discussion
• $4.5 (b) Infrastructure.- Cluster Planning" - issues to come!! school maintenance-a rub point.
• HR-a major challenge talent development/ compliance vs service mindset
• Move to Parramatta
• Education 4 a changing world- rate of change/ how do we respond in a curricular sense?
• Role of Directors: not enough quality time/ should be seen as an asset 4 the school. A partner with Principal.
• Values: What is it like 2 work around here? How do we do things around here? Are we student centred? Do we make decisions based on students? Do we work together?

QTSS Launch

I accompanied the Minister, Rob Stokes, to Carlingford West PS recently to officially launch the final phase of the QTSS initiative. Funding of the additional $88m, as part of the $244 million earmarked for this initiative, was finally rolled out to all schools this term. This is just an outstanding initiative for our schools and gives us the flexibility to focus on teaching & learning that suits our context.

Secretary’s and Minister’s Awards

Robyn Evans (Deputy President) and I were the representatives on these panels with the Public Education Foundation (PEF). It was heartening to see the number of applicants for these prestigious Awards, but again, there were far more secondary applications than primary. We need to highlight these awards more and ensure we acknowledge the parents, staff, students and school programs that are brilliant in our schools.

Principal Induction

Robyn Evans (Deputy President), Rob Walker (Treasurer), Lyn Davis (Vice President) and I addressed the 100 newly appointed Primary Principals a couple of weeks ago at the Novotel Brighton. The 100 were a mixture of permanent appointments and long time relieving principals.

APPA

This term’s meetings were held in Adelaide and one of the key points of interest was on the Terms of Reference for the Gonski Review. As you are aware, this review led by David Gonski “will examine evidence and make recommendations on the most effective teaching & learning strategies to be deployed”. In particular the review will focus on the effective & efficient use of funding to:

• Improve student outcome’s and Australia’s national performance, as measured by national & international assessments of student achievement
• Improved the preparedness of school leavers to succeed in employment, further training or higher education
• Improve outcomes across all cohorts of students, including disadvantaged and vulnerable students and academically advanced students (“gifted students”)

To support these recommendations, the Review will also:

• Provide advice on related institutional or governance arrangements to ensure the ongoing identification and implementation of evidence based actions to grow and sustain improved student learning outcomes over time
• Propose related transparency and accountability measures that support the effective monitoring, reporting and application of investment.

As professional Associations, APPA and NSWPPA will be working on submissions to this Review when they are called. We need the voice of educational practitioners to be heard.

APPA Forum

Whilst in Adelaide, APPA organized a forum on Principal Wellbeing where Dr Phil Riley presented more of his findings from his national survey (he will be speaking at our Term 3 State Council in a few weeks). He spoke clarifying the connection between individual and organisational wellbeing – health, work, values/principles, collective/social and personal growth. The longitudinal Principal Health and Wellbeing survey is currently being conducted to assess effects of complexity and workload demands on school leaders. Phil Riley’s findings align with the findings from the Principal Wellbeing Survey conducted by the NSWPPA.

Gabreille Leigh (ex VPA and AGPPA President) spoke of her current wellbeing pilot – “Wellbeing Empowering Leaders” Program and the introduction of the program across the state..

Former APPA President, Norm Hart, discussed the preliminary findings of his “Out of Balance: The Workload Never Stops” project and I’ve included an infographic to highlight some of his early findings

Our team of Robyn Evans, Bob Willetts– Flourish Founder and John Bond – Chairperson Principal Support Reference Group, presented the Flourish Project. Bob shared the driving force behind the project and the success of the pilot project to date. Transforming leaders at a time where our attention and focus is on operationalising reforms in our schools. Bob spoke about Principal Wellbeing through a focus on managing work load, quality of life, performance, connectedness with colleagues, recovery, sleep, energy, third space needs to be a priority. They discussed this project focuses on research and action around what the job looks like today, what makes a high performing Principal and how Principals have flourishing wellbeing. John shared the impact his participation in the project has had on his professional practices and personal life.

Literacy & Numeracy Strategy:

At a recent meeting with Jenny Donovan as Rel ED Learning & Teaching, we discussed the following:

• Learning Progressions – currently 194 are trialing the progressions in the 3 sectors with a final version due in November.
• PLAN 2 software is being developed as is a refreshed Best Start that will be able to be filled in on an IPad type device.
• EaFS schools will be given Professional learning around Learning Progressions, PLAN 2 and Best Start v2 starting later this term.
• Term 2 2018, Professional learning in these areas will start for volunteer schools.
• NAPLAN Online – Readiness testing is starting this week. In Stage 1 Technical readiness 50% of schools were ready, 23% needed advice, 14% needed ICT support and 7% will be exempt. There has been a lot of Professional learning provided with 3,735 teachers involved. NSWPPA, SPC and Teachers Federation have expressed grave concerns about this implementation, the disruption to schools and the headaches for those organizing it in school and will eagerly await the findings.

Treasurers were In

With changes pushed on us by the Tax Office, Treasurer Rob Walker has conducted Face-to-face and vc sessions focusing on our Charity status and the need to amalgamate our ABN status and tidy up a few of our procedures. Our volunteer Treasurers who complete some fairly difficult tasks, would be greatly helped if more and more of our members paid by Salary Deduction (the form is on our home page of our website below). Many thanks to those who could make the meetings, Rob will be following you up if you missed out.

School Excellence Framework – SEFv2

We have been represented on the Schools Excellence Advisory Group (SEAG) by Deputy President, Robyn Evans, Chair of Assessment, Planning & Accountability RG chair Bob Willetts and myself where we have held robust discussions on changes to the original SEF. Whilst acknowledging the SEF v1 was a “living document” and as such could be improved there have been some changes that we liked and others that still don’t sit that well with us.

Our overall impression is that the purpose has shifted. We strongly believe that this document should be an aspirational document where schools focus on what best practice is, and work toward achieving that goal across the 3 Domains and 14 elements having their context in mind. It would appear to us that it is now becoming more of an accountability document. Unfortunately the PSLs, who work in-depth with the SEF, haven’t had enough quality time to give authentic feedback. The document currently sits adrift of the Schools Excellence Policy (owned by School Operations) and sits with CESE which we contend is not the place for it.

Saying that, there have been improvements:

• The framework is now organized into thematic strands of practice within each element, with descriptors that flow across the 3 levels ( Delivering/ Sustaining & Growing / Excelling)
• Efforts have been made to make statements clearer
• Some elements that overlapped have been sorted

Our understanding is that a whole package on School Excellence, which includes the policy, SEF, School Planning guidelines, School development Reviews, EV, Annual report guides and School Self-Assessment guidelines will be forthcoming in the next week or so.

Rural & Remote Education Conference:

On behalf of the organising committee, I encourage you to register for the Rural and Remote Education Conference to be held at Novotel Sydney Brighton Beach 7-8 September. Last year’s inaugural conference in Bathurst was highly-rated by participants, and this year’s program promises to be even better.

The theme is What Works! Sharing our Success. There is a great workshop and speaker program, with a load of practical strategies and programs that could be applied in a wide range of schools and contexts. There will be 28 workshops, nine spotlight sessions with innovative schools, three Aboriginal education spotlights and one interactive interest-based network session.

The Conference is open to principals, executive and teachers K-12, so please consider sending a team.

Flourish

As mentioned in our last Newsletter, The Executive have decided to organize the delivery of Flourish across the State so we can be equitable to our members, where ever they may be. For a standard cost of $2,600 the four day face-to-face course, spread over 4 terms, the research by Deakin University and Social support structures are all included.

Phase 1 - Research

The research phase - partnering with Deakin Business School to understand the world of principals including a 10 day diary study.

Phase 2 - Intervention

Education - Done through 4 full day workshops complete with workbook - 1 term apart, where the group get together at an offsite location.

Behaviour change strategies - These are a series of initiatives that will facilitate behaviour change in the principals and make it easier for them to implement the information presented in the sessions.

Collegial support - a large part of this program is the principals learning from each other and supporting each others development.

Phase 3 - Re-testing

Re-testing phase - where the impact of the project is measured

As discussed in our last Newsletter there are 3 pilots being undertaken (Shellharbour PPC, Wollongong and Maitland PPC) and we have contracted Adam to deliver another four with locations determined by our last Principal Support survey. Executive will then make a call on extending the program in 2018 based on feedback from members.

Lyn Davis & her team at Umina Beach PS have done a fabulous job in organizing these events and will be using a new system CVent to organize as we can’t rely on MyPL. The Broken Hill group is well into the organization thanks to President Scott Sanford and fliers will soon come out for the other events.

We have welcomed New South Wales Teachers Health as a sponsor for our new four Flourish activities. They have provided $10, 000 to support the implementation - We are so thankful!

North Coast Combined Principals’ Conference

I recently attended this conference held in Coffs Harbour which was co-ordinated by the hard working Sue Mackay (Kororo PS) and her team. Entitled “Next Steps – Big Steps Our students, their futures” the focus was on our students and their future. Speakers such as Michael McQueen, Brian Annan & Mark Treadwell really made us reflect on what we are doing in our schools and how we are preparing our students for the future.

Michael McQueen (michaelmcqueen.net) discussed top trends we need to focus on:

• Need to build resilience
• Increase the communication capacity of our students
• Critical thinking – discernment “fake news”/ “the electric light didn’t come from continuous improvement of candles”
• Intrinsic motivation
• creativity

A well organized conference that thanked Sue Mackay and Jenni Griffiths particularly for their vision and hard work.

Survey on Educational Services

I just received this from ED Jane Simmons:

Leadership Development

Vice President Lyn Davis advises planning is well under way for the 2018 Art of Leadership courses. Venues are still to be decided, however we have decided on locations:

Stronger Smarter Institute – Leadership Training

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 29 August – 1 September and 2-3 November. Please contact Dyonne Anderson telephone 0437 421 341 or Michael 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. President Dennis Yarrington believes “it’s the best one yet”

I hope you can forward Connected Leader to your staff.

APPA - Annual Conference

We hope you enjoy this 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.

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