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Happy Education Week
Term 3 has started and we are no closer to a COVID-19 solution but we are soldiering on to provide the best for our students in these tough times. Whilst we have had several schools become non-operational following a positive result in the schools, I have spoken to each of the principals to see how they are going. Without exception, all report great support from the Department with DELs, Executive Directors, and media being at the school, as well as a team of supporters and cleaners. Executive Director Sylvia Corish gave Executive a run-down of the process and her experiences at our Executive meeting last week.
We certainly are conscious of the impact on communities and the lead role our principals play in calming their communities. Border school communities are doing it particularly tough at present with rules changing often, but we are here if you need any support.
Education Week has kicked off in a different way in these COVID-19 times. A great live stream pulled in some of the fabulous experiences that occur in our Public Schools and was the highlight of the week. This week gives us a chance to highlight the great things that are happening in our schools, we have a few hurdles to get over (no non-essential visitors) but the Education Week website certainly provides advice, activities each day this week and resources to help.
There have been lots of things bubbling away that you need to be updated on:
Friday August 7 is the APPA (Australian Primary Principal Association) day to celebrate the amazing work of our principals across Australia. All state Associations across all sectors are encouraging school communities to honour, reflect on and show appreciation for the incredible efforts of their primary principals. The job has never been harder with the impact of COVID, drought, floods, bushfires and political pressure on us pushing us to our limits… so its time that your wonderful efforts, commitment and emotional energy is recognised.
On behalf of your State Executive thank you for your outstanding efforts & actions to provide the very best education for the students in your care. Thank you for your long hours, compassion and leadership we are all in your debt. Hope you get some wonderful feedback.
Adam Fraser says: “Take a bow Principals, Fantastic News!!!!”
NSW Principals doing the Flourish program online sparked research that has shown an incredible upswing in positive parent attitudes following the Learning From Home period.
The results indicate a massive boost in the confidence in public education led by principals.
Every Principal went to extraordinary lengths to manage their context and meet the needs of their staff, students and community; covering everything from extensive online learning to hand delivering work packs to students.
A huge thanks to Dr Adam Fraser and Dr John Molineux for conducting their research. Check out the results!
Following the COVID -19 shut down, a survey of over 1000 parents of children in our primary schools in NSW. Parents were from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The survey was translated into 6 languages (English, Arabic, Dari, Assyrian, Indonesian, Chinese).
Respect
91% of parent reported that they had a greater level of respect for teachers following the COVID-19 lockdown.
Communication
98.5% of parents reported that they were satisfied with the communication they received from the school during that period.
Performance of teachers
99.7% of parents said they were satisfied with the work of their child’s teacher. Only .3 of percent said they were unhappy with their teacher’s performance over that time.
How supported did they feel
96.6% of parents reported that they felt supported by the school during the COVID-19 home schooling.
How engaged the children were in remote schooling
86.8% of parents reported that their child was with moderately to highly engaged in learning during the COVID-19 home schooling.
The results of the research show how capable principals are in a crisis. They were not only agile and response in their ability to move to home schooling in a matter of days but they also emotionally supported people and focused on improving the relationship they had with the school community. We hope that all parents keep this respect and connection with their schools going forward.
Here is a link to the report:
You would have all received an email from your local PPC President and probably a call discussing the issue from a retired principal. The SPC, Federation and PPA needed to raise your awareness of possibilities related to what we are hearing & seeing.
The Latham Manifesto “Measurement & Outcomes Based Funding in NSW Schools” was the first hint:
- Recommendation 13: That the Government acknowledge that financial incentives have an important role to play in lifting school performance; and that under the Resource Allocation Model (RAM) funding principles, the best way of meeting school needs is through improved outcomes
- Recommendation 25: That the Government place school principals on performance-based contracts with significantly increased salaries. Performance measures should be based on the effective use of evidence and data, and achievement of high-level school results (measured primarily by value adding). Successful principals would receive performance bonuses; failing principals the termination of their contracts. The new system should also be used to meet Minister Mitchell’s goal of giving “incentives to our best principals to take up jobs in our most challenging schools”.
- Recommendation 56: That the Government establish a trial program for the recruitment of school principals from outside the teaching profession: leaders with a track record of workplace success and strategic insight. Under this program, employment would be through performance-based contracts, with financial bonuses for improved school results (and obvious sanctions for failure).
In the Government’s response to Prof Geoff Masters’ Review of the NSW Curriculum “Nurturing Wonder & Igniting Passion” there was a section on strengthening the quality of our school leaders p24 “New principal performance management approaches will be piloted this year, drawing from international best practice to link evidence that supports improved assessment and management of performance.”
Our aim has been to highlight that there are discussions happening in this space and we need to be vigilant and prepared for action.
Our Student Well-Being Reference Group chaired by Helen Craigie has long been involved in discussions with this draft policy which will soon be out there for feedback. You may have heard some media rumblings this week about suspensions following the un-official release of the DoE instigated review by the Telethon Kids Institute. Entitled “Strengthening school and system capacity to implement effective interventions to support student behaviour and wellbeing in NSW public schools: An evidence review” it is the basis of much of the changes in the policy.
Director Karen Hodge and team have addressed the Executive and presented some of the key guiding principles and asked for comment.
We have had further conversations with the Secretary and the Group Deputy Secretary George Harrisson around the Org chart and some of the machinations and “odd names” ( Chief Operating Officer; Chief People Officer ..) and were re-assured that schools were still the main focus. The re-organisation followed the Mercer Review into the “span of control” of senior officers among other things. Our DoE Cluster has two Ministers ( Sarah Mitchell & Geoff Lee) and its focus is on life-long learning from Early Childhood right through to “skills”.
As part of the restructure we have the roles of corporate EDs and Directors being re-written and there will be jockeying for positions right through until September and its very concerning.
SPC President Craig Petersen & I met the new A/Dep Sec David Withey who comes to us from Treasury. He is keen to get out into schools, so we will arrange it.
Mark Pritchard, our Returning Officer, has asked that the following information be included in today's newsletter about our elections. The terms of office for all of our current Executive will expire at the conclusion of our Annual Conference in Week 3, Term 4. All positions will be vacant so elections are called for. As an aside, having completed two terms (4 years) as President I will not be re-contesting the position.
Executive Election Timeline:
- Week 5 Monday 17th August Nominations will open.
- Week 7 Monday 31 August Nominations will close.
- Week 8 Wednesday 9th September Ballot opens.
- Week 10 Wednesday 23rd September Ballot closes.
- Week 10 Thursday 24th September Election declared and results distributed to all members.
The election is open to all financial members of NSWPPA.
There is a significant time commitment away from school or your normal workplace.
Any member considering nomination is advised to discuss this with Phil or Mark.
Any member who is nominated will be advised by the Returning Officer to discuss with those who have nominated or seconded him or her before identifying them in their Policy Statement or any campaigning material.
Good luck to everyone.
Art of Leadership / Masterclass
The NSWPPA continues to monitor the changing coronavirus situation. We are following the advice of the Department of Education with regard to professional learning activities. These restrictions will continue to impact the delivery of our Art of Leadership program. All remaining Art of Leadership and Masterclass programs will be postponed. Priority will be given to rescheduling the Phase 2 delivery of programs in 2020, DoE restrictions permitting. As soon as rescheduling is allowed, we will advise new dates for the Phase 2 programs, giving you as much notice as possible.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
All programs for this year are fully subscribed.
Leading at the Speed of Trust
There are spaces in Programs 6 and 7. For this year.
Both programs have been extremely successful, with evaluations indicating they are providing quality professional learning for school leaders across NSW.
State Council for Term 3 will again be an online version using Zoom with chairpersons and delegates zooming in on Thursday August 3 and Friday August 4. As we get closer we will contact with timings for the meetings.
Sadly we are discussing options for this year’s Annual Conference. Current DoE guidelines mean we are unable to have our usual conference and we are in deep conversations on how we can best provide a great experience and complete our requirements i.e. AGM, Awards ceremony. We will be back to you soon.
Just a reminder about our “Adopt a School” initiative. I’m sure that COVID has added to the issues confronting our school communities and those schools would love to hear from their buddy schools. Could you also let me know if you have any activities so I can share with colleagues.
Executive Director Kathy Powzun updated me on some of her activities related to the Bushfire Strategy.
- 226 schools and 50,000 students impacted by the fires
- Kathy has visited 75 schools gathering information & offering support
- Identified 12 key areas/levers : communication: counselling support for students; leadership support, well-being support for staff; educational continuity; clearer policies 7 processes; technical improvements; financial support& donations; community trauma; safety; school infrastructure support; inter agency collaboration.
- Staffing moratorium..any extensions?
- Emergency communications platform is being investigated
- Preparations under way for the next fire season. With these key issues Plan & Prepare; Respond and Recover the DoE is setting in place plans (23 projects involved in this)
- Kathy has been involved in gathering feedback from broad consultation. Key issue The schools most impacted are located in rural and remote locations, have the least amount of resources and support and are the most vulnerable
- Some statistics: >45% of schools has less than 100 enrolments; >59% of principals have less than 5 years experience; > 95% of schools impacted are outside Sydney.
- The Bushfire Relief Strategy 2020 – 2023+ is in 3 phases:
- Respond, Recover & Prepare
- Respond, Review & Strengthen
- Respond, Improve & Transition
Students with Anxious Behaviours
In the last Newsletter I discussed the findings of APPA research on the increasing incidence of anxious behaviour in our students across the nation. Since then Executive have been working with psychologist Michael Hawton in developing a pilot Professional Learning activity. Vice Presidents Rob Walker and Trish Peters have worked extensively with Michael to develop this pilot which aims at giving a good background in anxious behaviours and importantly some practical approaches leaders and teachers can utilise in working with children.
The pilot is based on Michael’s popular “No Scaredy Cats” Parent Program, but modified to ensure it gives leaders & teachers practical methods of dealing with anxious behaviours.
We are now seeking sponsorship for the pilot and will again contact our Minister for support. We have an up-coming meeting with the Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women Bronnie Taylor seeking support as well.
Film By
The Film by Festival showcases the visual literacy and film making talents of students and teachers in NSW public schools. The aim of the Film by Festival is to promote the teaching of visual literacy and film making through the creation of high quality, entertaining, informative short films that use the NSW English, Creative Arts and PDHPE Syllabuses as the foundation for collaborative and creative work. The focus of the Film by Festival Series is on student learning and engagement to produce films of a high quality that show technical knowledge and understanding of film making.
Film By Project Officer Glen Carter (glen.carter@det.nsw.edu.au) has been a keen supporter of this project. One of the Films “Vanishing” from Tweed Heads South PS was a highlight of this week’s Education Week :
Please see the attached flier for some professional Learning being offered by Adam Fraser.
And finally…..
Let’s hope in the following weeks life settles and schools continue to provide extraordinary learning opportunities and a feeling of warmth, security and safety for our students and staff. We are here to support you. Look after yourselves.
Best wishes
Phil Seymour
On behalf of the NSWPPA Executive, Robyn Evans, Ian Reeson, Lyn Davis, Bob Willetts, Michael Burgess, Jude Hayman, Michael Trist, Stuart Wylie, Trish Peters, Rob Walker and Mark Pritchard.