We are now into the second half of term 4 already !!

It’s been a fabulous term having had the opportunity to talk with many colleagues across the state celebrating their schools successes.

The School Spectacular weekend was simply brilliant – a showcase of what Public Education offers our students and our teachers. A huge thank you to Jane Simmons Executive Director School Services for her superb leadership in this area. Igniting opportunity for students across New South Wales in a world class performance. Two thousand, seven hundred individual student and group performance delighted the audience. THIS is an event you will return to year after year and one you will never forget. A huge congratulations to the Principals and teachers of the schools involved and an enormous applause for each and every student involved.

Thank you to the Principals who attended and enthusiastically engaged in the NSWPPA State Conference in Week 3 this term and wasn’t it absolutely sensational. ‘Believe It. Own It, Make It Happen’ was hosted by the inspirational Michael Crossland who was extraordinary. His story is truly inspirational and his ability to connect to the audience during the week was palpable. Inspirational speakers included: Turia Pitt, Eric Sheninger, Leigh Sales, Ann McIntyre, Professor Adrian Piccoli, Michael McQueen, Murat Dizdar, Ben Abbatangelo and Dr Nikki Stamp. I think everyone walked away filled with dose of positivity, a dash of new found inspiration and certainly with a whole lot of energy to see it through term 4! Credit and thanks to the Conference Committee led by Kylie Donovan and her team – what an achievement! We are very appreciative of the time and energy you all invested in producing the conference you collectively did. Looking forward to what’s ahead for 2019 !

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the State Executive past and present for their AMAZING support and work this term whilst Phil has been on leave. Everybody stepped up. What a fabulous experience it has been for me to see the Association through Phil’s eyes – what big shoes to fill tho ! We as the Executive sit in a very privileged position to represent each and every member of our Association. The work you do in your schools – in your context – each and every day matters – to your staff, to your community but most importantly to your students. You have much to be proud of.

With assessments being completed, reports to be signed, milestones to be finalised and classes and staffing to be done – not to mention budgets , Annual Reports and a w h o l e range of things I encourage you to prioritise your wellbeing each and every day – our job is so hard to describe and certainly no two days are ever the same so, make sure you do something for yourself each day – find the bright spots at school and a again at home – check in on a colleague … wellbeing matters – your families, friends, colleagues, teachers, students and communities are counting on you.

Enjoy the run home to the holidays !

Robyn Evans

Phil is recovering very well at home following his unexpected open-heart surgery. He is most appreciative of the well wishes via email, text and phone calls over the past few weeks. He will be returning in a part time capacity later this term. He will be back fulltime firing on all cylinders in Term 1. He is without doubt a remarkable human being to walk this journey with such positivity and gratefulness to those whom he put his life in their hands.

At the State Conference the new Executive team were announced! We look forward to representing you in forums and on matters of great relevance to your school’s operations and performance.

Our Reference Group/ Standing Committee and Working Party Chairpersons are also members of the extended Executive team.

Reference Groups

Standing Committees

Working Party

• Reference Groups

At the Term 1 State Council Meeting in 2019 Presidents will be attending and will have the opportunity to put forward their PPC contact’s names for consideration on Reference Groups. At your Term 4 PPC meeting take the time to express your interest or availability if required to be put forward at that meeting. Early Term 1 Chairpersons will advise me about regional vacancies and I will communicate such to the Presidents of your PPC’s. Being on a Reference Groups is a fabulous opportunity for you to contribute to our Association.

• Standing Committees

These positions are advertised as positions on these groups are not guided by Regional Areas – they are filled by those who express interest in sharing their expertise and contributing that for collective representation across the state. These positions are advertised throughout the year – there are a few coming up … look out for them.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Dubbo. Five year old Luke Vincent from Buninyong Public School stole the show when he stroked Prince Harry’s beard as he and Meghan arrived in the regional centre bringing with them the rain. Prince Harry commented ‘the best part about visiting country Australia is the people ‘ The footage was beamed across the world and without doubt the smile across the Ann Van Dartel’s face ( Principal Buninyong PS – Chairperson Principal Support ) simply spoke volumes as Prince Harry warmly greeted the attention bestowed upon him. What a memorable day for all !

- Secretary Jude Hayman

The NSW School Leadership Institute (SLI) has partnered with the University of Wollongong (UOW) to co-design and deliver the Aspiring Principals Leadership Program which will run, for each cohort, over a period of 12 months. Joanne Jarvis (Director of SLI) and Dr Kylie Lipscombe, Educational Leadership Coordinator from UOW have together with Ann McIntyre, designed a program that (in a nutshell) has a strong emphasis on leadership for learning through mindsets, evidence informed leadership behaviours and a leadership inquiry to support improvement and innovation.

Ten Principal Facilitators, both secondary and primary, were selected from an EOI process and gathered prior to the workshop to learn more about the program. The Facilitators’ in cohort one are Leonie Clarkson, Tanya Rose, Estelle Southall, Sue Roach, Mark Harris, Jude Hayman and secondary colleagues Leanne Larcombe, Jan Pattinson, Craig Brown and Mark Sneddon. The Facilitators are fortunate to have Karen Maraga and Chris Presland leading and supporting them through the journey.

Workshops will run over a period of 12 months with the aspiring leaders participating in an educationally tailored ‘360’ survey. With the feedback they will be creating an action plan with goals and tasks to achieve over the next 12 months. The first workshop was presented by the SLI team (Joanne, Kylie & Ann), Professor Emeritus Viviane Robinson and Professor Sue Bennett. Mark Scott and Murat Dizdar spoke about the importance of the SLI, aiming for it to be a world class program to ensure new Principals were prepared when they entered the job for the first time.

The aspiring leaders in cohort one were very impressive and most definitely ready to be leaders in our schools, participation in the SLI program will further strengthen their knowledge and definitely make their beginning years as Principals a lot smoother than many of ours would have been! Keep an eye out for the opportunity to apply for a Facilitator role in future cohorts and encourage those within your schools to apply to be a part of this excellent initiative.

When planning ahead for your PPC meetings next year, please consider booking our President Phil Seymour and/or the Executive members to join you and present the current state of play but also to allow us the opportunity to hear your local concerns and celebrate your successes. It’s these visits where we strengthen our action forward with senior DoE personnel. All requests for attendance are to go through President Phil Seymour. (If Presidents wish to make bookings/requests this term, please book through me for calendar dates and cc Phil Seymour in.)

There is a new flow chart up on the website for you. On your local PPC’s there’s a designated executive member to support you in the first instance and then there’s a series of supports we as an Association can offer. Download the flow chart and remember support is always available for you from your local colleague, President/Deputy President of your PPC, to phone a friend, contact your Regional Liaison on the NSWPPA Executive, our Legal or Principal Support Chairpersons, our Principal Support Officers and the President. We are here to support you.

Please remember we can only help if you let us know about it.

– Ian Reeson Vice President

The new SAP HR Payroll & Leave system is being implemented over four releases. Release 4 schools have gone live bringing all employees into the one payroll and leave system. Release 4 has been the most successful to date.

Your representatives from the NSWPPA Reference Groups and State Executive have consistently expressed our strongest belief that the SAP HR Payroll and Leave system, despite having clear potential to improve upon existing system and in many respects has, is not always a workable nor practical solution. Representations to this effect has been made to senior Departmental officers and to Minister Stokes and we were able to successfully delay the timeline and were instrumental in redesigning the face training and resource material.

Put simply, the defect is that HR SAP Finance does not automatically and seamlessly integrate with HR Payroll and Leave. We continue to work alongside SPC, SASSPA and PSA representatives to pressure for WSBIO to be remedied regardless of the time or cost involved.

The experiences of both teaching and non-teaching staff have been unacceptable both emotionally and industrially. The system that was promised to bring about reduced workload has in fact created the opposite result. The continuing list of frustrations and is testament to the failure to learn from the experiences of 229 and later LMBR initiatives. School personal selected with NSWPPA input from the full breadth of our membership can and must be incorporated from beginning to end for all initiatives. Especially where the program is so fundamental to the daily administration of our schools.

Feedback from Release 1 schools and corporate officers clearly indicated amongst other serious concerns, the inability to attach staffing costs to WBS/IO codes when in-putting casual staff was clearly a retrograde step on previous (eCPC) systems. Significant concerns abound in other areas including staff pay not being made accurately, higher duties and temporary engagements.

This was compounded with poorly constructed training materials and 100’s of pages of “Quick Reference Guides”! As you could imagine, the reported reduced staffing at EDConnect, who in many instances were unfamiliar with the new processes, meant support systems went into meltdown and resulted in complaints of poor if not inappropriate service to schools.

• Where to from here…

Our advice to schools is to continue to log every issue to EDConnect using the email / online option and retain your incident number as feedback from schools indicates many logged calls are remaining unresolved. Further members are requested to communicate concerns with Directors and Primary Principal Council Presidents and Delegates for collation and reporting to Admin & Finance Reference Group and State Executive.

The NSWPPA has agreed to continue working closely with the HR SAP team to address system flaws and improve the end user experience for our dedicated and stretched SAM’s and Principal colleagues. We acknowledge that DoE have taken Deputy Secretary Peter Riordan, Executive Director Geoff Pellizzer and Director Glen Patterson off line to work with the implementation of the tool. We have agreed to utilise our communication channels to enhance contact with Principals. We will continue to work with SASS, SASPPA, PSA, SPC and DoE officers to improve this initiative.

– Lyn Davis Vice President

This is one of the richest professional learning opportunities you and your leadership teams could undertake. In planning for 2019 please consider The Art of Leadership.

Art of Leadership Masterclass – Sydney January 17-19 register at http://www.cvent.com/d/qbqjl5

Art of Leadership Rooty Hill commencing 9 September register at http://www.cvent.com/d/qgqgjp

Art of leadership Bathurst commencing 2 September register at http://www.cvent.com/d/hgqgj0

Art of Leadership Parramatta commencing 26/8 register at 
http://www.cvent.com/d/xgqgj0

Art of leadership Masterclass Newcastle 16-18 September register at http://www.cvent.com/d/8gqgjp

Contact Vice President Lyn Davis if you would like further details.

The elements of this 6-day program are:

• A pre-workshop phase that prepares participants for the program through structured reflection
• Two x 3-day intensive workshops where the learning is practical, experimental and interactive
• A practicum phase between the intensive programs, where participants work in peer coaching groups
• Completing the 'Art of Leadership' workshop will contribute a total of 37 hours of QTC registered professional development addressing standards 3.1.4, 4.2.4, 4.3.4, 5.2.4, 6.2.4, 6.3.4, 7.1.4, and 7.2.4 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards achieving or maintaining LEAD teacher accreditation in NSW.

It is with deep sadness that we inform you that Peter Johnston, Principal of Bourke Street Public School passed away peacefully on the afternoon of Thursday 15 November, 2018. Peter was in hospital following surgery. His family was with him. Peter was a wonderful leader who led a school from 80 students to 500 students with the focus always being on the students at his school.

He was a terrific man and worked very closely with the NSWPPA when our Office was set up and operating at Bourke St PS. from 2005 to 2013. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. He will be missed by his many colleagues.

There has been some recent inquiries about changing PPCs. Executive have considered the big picture and made this determination:

The Area Council groupings have been established to serve the needs of the Association and these groupings remain despite changes in Departmental groupings.

• Area Council groupings are determined on the location of the school.
• Changing a designated PPC is only considered in exceptional circumstances.

Members wishing to change PPC groups are required to submit a request in writing to the State Executive after discussing the matter with their current PPC President and the President of the Area Council they wish to move to. This communication should outline in detail the reasons for the request.

President Phil Seymour represented the PPA at the recent centenary celebrations conducted by the NSW Teachers’ Federation. At both the launch of the historical display & the celebration dinner the history of struggling to gain decent conditions in schools & for staff was highlighted. An incredible story to get the industrial conditions we have today.

A/ Director Early Learning & Primary Education has asked to share this:

• After we had Geoff Masters attend Term 3 State Council to discuss the Curriculum Review he is conducting for the Minister, President Phil & Deputy President Robyn attended a DEL’s Workshop on the ramifications & possible directions of the Curriculum Review.

• As you are aware the President has an office on Level 5 Building 10 in UTS Broadway where Phil works from. The University is having some major re-shuffles and our office has been moved to the School of Education on Level 4, room 202 in the same Building 10. We will be able to have greater collaboration with the School of Education, so it is a big positive.

• The Term 4 APPA & AGPPA meetings were recently held in Sydney. Rob Walker attended the AGPPA meeting with Deputy President Robyn and Robyn attended the APPA meeting. A full report will be tabled at Term 3 State Council. Dennis Yarrington, (ex ACT PPA) attended his last APPA meeting as President after 4 years, and newly elected President Malcolm Elliott (Tas PA ) showed he is ready for the position. Our President Phil was elected un-opposed as Deputy President again.

• Whilst visiting the North Coast Combined PPC conference is was great to see ex Chair of our IT Reference Group and current T4L Director Mark Greentree & his team displaying the STEM trailer & gear. We had a chance to play with the array of wonderful gear. What a fabulous initiative by the DoE.

• The Minister has launched a Review to determine the place of mobile phones in schools & President Phil appeared on the Today show one morning extoling the virtues of technology as a support for learning. He discussed the behaviour of using phones & how that was how we would control the issue in primary schools.

• Presidents & delegates have been sent an Excel sheet to update the details of their Executive, their 10 representatives for merit selection panels and meeting dates & venues for 2019 following their AGMs. I need to stress how important it is to get this information to us asap as HR is often after principal reps for panels & we won’t approve anyone not on these lists.

On behalf the Executive, Phil Seymour, Di Robertson, Rob Walker, Lyn Davis, Ian Reeson, Bob Willetts, Michael Burgess, Jude Hayman, Michael Trist, Craig Redfern, Mark Pritchard, and myself thank you for your awesome efforts. We are here to support you and our contact details are on our website.

cheers

Robyn Evans
Rel PRESIDENT