T’is the Season

With School Development Days covered off, it is TIME. Time to take charge and prioritise yourself and YOUR wellbeing. YOU KNOW what you need to do to rejuvenate after the year that 2022 has been.

Colleagues, in the past three years you have been leading your schools prioritising the wellbeing of your staff, students and community as well as ensuring each and every student has had access to the highest quality teaching and learning through the AMAZING staff you have in your schools. Bushfires, floods and the pandemic have indeed taken their toll. YOU and your colleagues however have continued to rally and TOGETHER we have all weathered what has been called ‘unprecedent times.’

NEVER underestimate the key role you have played in sustaining the energy you’ve invested in leading your school community through three years where mother nature turned on bushfires and floods and the world changed forever with the COVID pandemic. COVID has taught us much. We are without doubt one of the most agile and resilient workforces. COVID remains in our communities and schools, we still had cohorts learning from home last week. The road to recovery for our bushfire and flood affected schools and communities continues – this road is long and harrowing. Lives have been changed forever.

Look back and see how far you have come and look forward with great hope and optimism. 2023 … what will it bring? Whatever it is, it will be harnessed and managed, and we WILL shine.

On a personal note, I’d like to extend my absolute gratitude to so many of you – thank you for your emails, phone calls, invitations into your schools, catch ups at PPC meetings and opportunities to spend sustained periods of time with you at conferences. It is THESE opportunities that have given me voice and clarity about the diverse issues and many of the same issues in our schools across the state. I look forward to more of these experiences. The State Executive and Chairpersons have been in every room and taken every opportunity to be the voice of the Principalship. We have had a number of significant wins and by wins I mean we achieve ‘what was the right thing to do’ we are collectively very proud.

Thankyou too to YOUR AMAZING staff – those who walk with you and invest in distributed leadership of your school. They have like you stood up and given their all – we often talk about what matters most – it lies in our people – the relationships we build, the trust that grows and the communication that grows. Leaning in on each other has made us the workforce we are. A workforce that has achieved more than could have ever been imagined!

NOW IS your time – rest, relax, recover and invest in the festive season and new year celebrations!!