NSW Primary Principals' Association
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Suite 1.05, 22-36 Mountain Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
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Email: admin@nswppa.org.au
Mobile: 0429 547 619 (NSWPPA phone)

President's Report:

President_pic.jpg

I presented this report as a summary of 2019 at Term 4 State Council. I’ve attempted to summarise what we have been involved in throughout the year under the 4 broad areas in our mission statement. We always remember the students are at the centre of everything we do.

“to lead, support, advocate for, and empower school leaders to enable student success”

Lead

In the leadership space in 2019 our Leadership Standing committee has offered capacity building Professional Development throughout the state. In 2019 we offered 7 x Art of Leadership courses (178 participants), 3 x Art of Leadership Master Class (66 participants) and Principal Credential based on AITSL’s Principal Standard (90 participants with 55 validated and several more awaiting validation).

We took the bold step mid-year to employ Margaret Charlton as our first permanent Professional Learning Officer. Margaret has surveyed the needs of our colleagues and is investigating and coordinating the development of additional PL much of which will be rolled out in 2020. PL being considered/ in development:

  • Taking the Challenge out of Challenging Conversations
  • Creating an Effective and Productive Team
  • Financial Management Best Practice
  • Effective Middle Leadership
  • Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Leading at the Speed of Trust

We were also involved in:

  • DoE’s Leadership initiative including the School Leadership Institute (SLI), with members on selection panels & as facilitators.
  • Deputy President Robyn Evans & I are members of the School Leadership Support Steering committee which over views the SLI
  • Leadership & High Performance Directorate’s work around capacity building, leadership modules, Principal Induction, HALT Conference, Newly Appointed & First Time School Leaders
  • The Review of PL Funding and determination of the Principal Role Statement.
  • Robyn Evans & I are on the PSL IAG (Principals School Leadership Implementation Advisory Group) and have worked to ease the pressure on PSLs with External Validation being spread over a longer timeline & ensuring they have time to provide that shoulder-to-shoulder support.
  • Conducted our Annual Conference with exemplary speakers including Peter Baines, Gill Hicks, Darren Hill, Mark Pesce, Julie Bishop and Dylan Alcott. 620+ registrations have led us to move venues in 2020.

Support:

The Principal Support Reference Group provides broad support to our members, and is supplemented by:

  • A triage system where the on-call Professional Officers, chair of Principal Support RG, chair of Legal Issues WP and President determine who best can mediate between principal and DoE senior officers
  • State Council has increased to 0.8 the time available for our two Professional Officers Wendy Buckley & Geoff Scott. (93 cases supported since 2017)
  • PPC structures where a designated Deputy President/ Welfare officer can provide local support
  • Budgeted 100 relief days designated for support when needed. Accessed via chair of the Principal Support RG/ President.

We have also been involved in:

  • The PSL IAG for Principal School Leadership (PSL) to provide shoulder to shoulder support
  • Co-ordinating Well-Being programs including the “Flourish” project
  • Regular meetings with Deputy Secretary Murat Dizdar of the Principal Well-Being Work Group focusing on the “pointy end” cases.
  • Made a submission to the EPAC review and Robyn Evans, Greg McLaren & Geoff Scott made presentations face to face with the leader of the review Mark Tedeschi AM QC searching for fairer processes and timelines. We have organised subsequent meetings to now determine implementation priorities and requested NSW PPA membership of the group working on the recommendations.
  • Robyn Evans is a member of the Principal Support WG led by SO&P Director Kathy Powzun/ Chris Charles focusing on developing support mechanisms for principals based on experiences in the field. Strategies to mitigate unwanted media, parent scenarios and social media issues are being developed to share.
  • Ensuring the $50m has continued for schools for principal support
  • Ensured the additional days for TP1 and TP2s has continued from 2019 to 2020.
  • Executive members have visited many PPC meetings & Regional Conferences (Illawarra South East, Riverina, Hunter, North Coast, Western) throughout the year.

Advocate

We have a variety of methods & situations to advocate for our members:

  • Executive meet formally with the Minister, Secretary & CEO of NESA each Term. This term’s Agenda for the Minister & Secretary included:
    - Enrolment procedures
    - Bushfires
    - Principal Classification
    - Well-Being – Staff and Student.
    - EPAC review & implementation of recommendations
    - School Targets
    - The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission)-
    - National Architecture (ACARA; AITSL; ESA)
    - In the Auditor-General’s Report on “Ensuring teaching quality in NSW public schools” there were several key findings relating to QTSS, Quality Teaching, and PDP process.
  • The Minister & Secretary present & respond to questions at each State Council meeting
  • Deputy Secretaries meet each Term with the Executive and often present & answer questions at State Council
  • Principal representatives on the Department’s many Project Control Groups and Working Parties
  • Executive Directors and Directors attend relevant Reference Groups (12) / Standing committee & Working Party (8) meetings to present & respond to issues raised.
  • PPCs submit issues and are followed up by the responsible Vice President.
  • Informal meetings with Senior Officers/ Ministry staff are held between the President/ Deputy Presidents as needed
  • Executive meet regularly face to face and via video conferencing.
  • Stood with the SPC and Teachers Federation to fight for “Fair Funding” for our students.
  • Worked collaboratively through APPA and AGPPA to ensure the needs of public school communities are foremost on the National Agenda.

Empower

We ensure every voice of the membership is heard to inform our decision making. This is achieved through:

  • 43 Area Councils – consultation, two-way communication, the raising of local issues and sharing
  • The 159 members of Reference Groups, Standing Committees and Working Parties and the contact people in the Area Councils.
  • Identification and sharing of ‘hot spots’ of innovation and expertise
  • A model of systemic and succinct communication to all members through integrated SchoolZine communication including: NSWPPA website, Szapp smartphone app, What’s Hot newsletter (with only 49% readership) and current reports from Reference Groups, Standing Committees and Working Parties.

The year has again been one of challenges, reaction, advances and lots of conversations. The services & support our Association offers our members is growing and will continue as we push the envelope to ensure the best conditions in our schools.

A huge thanks to our delegates and chairpersons for your awesome efforts during 2019. A special thanks to our Executive who have continued, even through lots of changes, to work together to be a strong voice for our principals. And to Mark Pritchard, Lisa Beare, Wendy Buckley, Geoff Scott & Marg Charlton – a sincere thank you for your commitment, advice and support.

Hang in there for those last couple of weeks which always prove to be challenging and exhausting and enjoy the Christmas/Summer break when you get there.

Phil Seymour
President