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- Relieving President’s Report
- State Council Term 4.
- Principal Wellbeing – Geoff Scott & Wendy Buckley Principal Support Officers
- Professional Learning - Art of Leadership Dates
- In planning for 2019 with your PPC’s and your membership
- Lismore PPC Meeting
- Staffing Methodology Review
- Scripture and Ethics
- TeachMeet
- TIP Update
- Just some interesting things for you:
It’s the last week of Term 4 and we’ve made it!!! Hope you have all enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on the learning and achievements, successes and awards with students, staff and your communities through Presentation Days and Graduations of Year 6 students. This week, I encourage you to close the school gates and take a deep breath and acknowledge your accomplishment as the leading learner in you schools. Look back on the mountains you’ve climbed and the wonder of the everyday in your schools. Celebrate too the notion of the collective work you and your staff have done to achieve great learning outcomes for students.
It’s time for you to nourish your soul and your mind – rest, reset and re-energise throughout the holidays. Spend time with family and friends and be present. Get busy enjoying a well-deserved break!
Again, I thank you and acknowledge the amazing work you do in your schools each and every day.
I have loved the opportunity relieving for Phil in the role of President this term – the Executive team have been superb in their support and in their representation of you. I would like to thank you for your fabulous support this term and the opportunities I have had to speak with many of you individually about your contexts, your schools, your issues and your celebrations has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has been such a privilege.
Wishing you and your families and friends a fabulous Christmas and New Year – enjoy the celebration and take the time to stop and take notice of and engage in life that nourishes you both personally and professionally for 2019.
Take care of you and yours.
Catch up in 2019!
Cheers
Robyn
Your delegates will have shared with you the highlights of our Term State Council meeting. Here’s a recap of a really informative and important two days where we had the opportunity to hear about the successes and the planning for future.
Mark Grant, Executive Director, Leadership and High Performance
Mark Grant, Executive Director, Leadership and High Performance spoke regarding EV dates and how we will receive them in Week 10 this term. His clarity around the Teaching Principals support announcement and the inclusion of EEC’s in this support package. During 2019 this funding will be considered as we head into salaries agreements for 2020. Schools will be notified about their EV dates in Week 10 term 4 their EV process timeframes and we were! 124 TP1 and TP2 schools will also be included.
Anthony Manning, Chief Executive, School Infrastructure NSW
Anthony Manning, Chief Executive, School Infrastructure NSW spoke regarding increasing enrolments, rebuilds and new builds and annual maintenance priorities moving forward being at the discretion of individual schools. There are 75 projects currently under construction with a further 28 awaiting contract. Pop up schools have been established while the schools are built. The intent is to build communities of practice so infrastructure can respond to what we want. Our demountable fleet is a challenge and money has been put into additional demountables by reclaiming from the pop up schools. There is a need to work through a program of how to deal with the aging demountables. He spoke in detail about the Cooler Classrooms initiative. It is a complex project where $500 million is being spent and about 1,000 schools should benefit. Co2 levels can be measured and signals will be given to open a window etc. Commitment was for learning spaces and libraries. Funding will open again next year and schools are encouraged to apply. Importantly he spoke about maintenance and local contractors being an issue in rural areas. Tradies are coming from a long distance away and the local tradies are not being used. FM contract has to be used. Beginning to develop an “airtasker” type model to allow local tradies to respond.
Mark Scott, Secretary, Department of Education
Mark briefed us on the successes over the past twelve months including: - Strategic Plan based on wide consultation is making “progress”, commitment to continual improvement is seeing a lot of work implemented, Aspiring leaders program has received positive feedback – emphasised importance of proactive approach to leadership development, PPA’s DEL feedback has been studied in conjunction with Murat’s version, revamp of School Services continues – importance of schools feeling that they have strong support.
Gerard Gieseken, Chief Financial Officer and Scott Thomson, Executive Director, Corporate Services
- Financial Management Optimisation Project
This will focus on processes and systems. DoE want to get a simplified financial system that will coordinate planning and budgeting. Streamlined process and procedures. More efficient and effective funding
More agile budgeting, forecasting and reporting. Resolution of the recurring underspend. Very important that we get on top of this. Wants to get as much as possible into the SBAR
Schools will be given clarity on what reports they should focus on. - One Finance Project
To give clear accountability to a centralised finance function. This will give clarity to schools to go to one point of contact. Taking on board the needs of schools which can be diverse. RACI Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. Intention is to return to the focus groups for validation. - Utilities Modelling
There was a utilities consultation group consulted and they identified that at times utilities costs are above allocation.
Mark Greentree, Director, Technology for Learning
Mark Greentree, Director, Technology for Learning spoke about STEMShare Outcomes including:-
- Raise awareness of effective use of technology to improve student learning
- Enable teachers to understand, experience and embed STEM technologies into teaching and learning
- Support student’s capability to use technology for learning and build digital resilience
- Create a sustainable STEM community of practice within the NSW Department of Education
Mark shared the notion that he’d employed outstanding educators from schools – now available to your school
Kits – book through OLIVER (library). The training – multi-faceted, online, face to face and demonstration of kits available for conferences
Any learning experience that is:
- Risky
- Impossible
- Dangerous
- Expensive
Can be covered in virtual reality.
STEMShare online community
- Yammer
Kits are shipped in Weeks 9 & 10 so they are available to schools/teachers to play with them in the vacation and start teaching with them day 1 of term.
The Hon. Rob Stokes MP, Minister for Education spoke about: -
Opportunity - providing for the present and the future to ensure schools are equipped with infrastructure that works $6 Billion over 4 years on over 170 projects for new schools and significant upgrades. He expressed his commitment to ensuring that the buildings say something about the importance of public education and the value of public education. There’s an investment of $¾ Billion over 4 years for catching up on day to day maintenance. Colossal investment to re-baseline. There will be air conditioning in schools. Current electricity grids are not built to cater for the loads. By providing energy onsite or through grid upgrades. Smart systems with Air quality monitors. More than 900 schools in the 1st round.
Funding - RAM allocation – stayed true to our commitments $50 Million in flex funding for administrative support. - Teaching Principals – strategic support for extra resources. Working with the PPA to ensure a recurrent allocation in the future - 10 year funding deal has been secured. Ensuring public education is not left as a poor cousin. Ensuring the rhetoric and actions are needs based and sector blind. Don’t believe federal approach is fair and had to publicly speak out about it. Fed government cloaking in the veneer of parent choice. 40% of catholic young people attend public schools. Separating and dividing can only weaken our society. All school communities are important, work together to secure shared advantage for students in NSW.
Administrative Burden - Administrative load has become frankly ridiculous so trying to relieve the burden. Asking for all tasks, ‘Why are you doing it? And how many hours/week will it add to the workload”. - Assets: Improving ability to make local decisions rather than an assets process, an ongoing piece of work to support principals to have more discretion. We are still asking questions: Passwords, mailboxes, school profiles, AZT.......etc. NESA is the next one we need to tackle. Ministers question:- Tell us how many hours this task will add to the workload of the principal?” is changing the culture over time.
Liana Downey, Executive Director, Delivery; Kelly Edmunds, Director, Strategic Projects, Delivery Unit; Melissa Clements, Director, Disability, Learning and Support; Jessica Ellis, Delivery Unit
Liana Downey spoke about the broad scope of work - disabilities – experience of families doesn’t necessarily match our experience of the system. - 4x times current rate of students coming into our system - enhanced tracking of outcomes for students with disabilities - what do Principals need to improve the outcomes for students with disabilities.
Joint assets and disabilities planning group – meet needs but also needs to delve into legislative requirements
Review access requests system – works well for parents, schools and state office – steps forward on earlier identification and clearer demonstration of learning outcomes.
Kelly Edmunds spoke about reducing the administrative burden on NSW Schools.
- Evident the amount of workload
- 40% of time being spent on administration
- 47% of teacher time spent on administration.
- 97% said Increase in administration over 5 years. Identifying opportunities to take things off our desk - Initial focus was principal workload. - Scope has increased to across the whole school including school admin staff. Some of the actions forward include: Single sign on - SAP on mobiles - Reducing blank reports - Integrate student attendance - Improve professional learning (MyPL) - Improve daily banking/cash discrepancy management. – Intranet speed and efficiency.
New strategic planning and budgeting process, new filter at the budgeting and planning end.
Ultimately we will have a yearly master schedule and have line of sight.
Ryan Thomson Director strategic HR
Ryan Thomson Director strategic HR spoke about Staffing - Review methodology for staffing - Workshop staffing methodology (PPA Executive included in consultation meeting). - Not doing it on their own, tapping into the work going on in other directorates. - Clearly show what will come of changes.
Key themes included: Flexibility and adequacy of resourcing - Ensure we have right mix and quality of staff - Create a meaningful implementation timeline.
Georgina Harrison, Deputy Secretary, Educational Services
Spoke about the Ed Services Review – four areas of focus. 16 projects within. Learning and Well Being the focus- tailored support to suit every school – we know this makes the greatest difference to student success - building new resources, including formative assessment. - prioritising teaching time – no requirement to take up PLAN2 next year - working on the Service Navigator – will operate on a mobile - leading our improvement journey - because as communities evolve, so do the needs of our schools - attracting people to work in the DoE. Being our own TAA. Enabling accreditation to higher levels.
Principal Wellbeing – Geoff Scott & Wendy Buckley Principal Support Officers
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.
Anne van Dartel | Chair Principal Support Reference group | 0400 330 252 0r 6884 9806 |
Anne will either handle the situation or discuss with our other two support options depending on the need. | ||
Geoff Scott | Professional Officer | 0427 451 359 |
Greg McLaren | chair Legal Services Standing Committee | 0408 815 210 |
Phil Seymour | President | 0412 673 378 |
Please remember we can only help if you let us know about it.
Professional Learning - Art of Leadership Dates
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 here.
Art of Leadership Rooty Hill commencing 9 September register here.
Art of Leadership Parramatta commencing 26/8 register here.
Art of leadership Masterclass Newcastle 16-18 September register here.
An additional Art of Leadership will be held in Sydney at Brighton Le Sands instead of the Bathurst venue. The dates are September 2-4 and November 4-6. The link to register is:
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.
In planning for 2019 with your PPC’s and your membership
A motion was carried at this terms State Council meeting that as at January 2019 NSWPPA Principals may only be a member on any one of the PPA reference groups, standing committees or working party. Discussion supportive- this provides equity amongst members and shares the workload.
I attended the Lismore PPC meeting last week. I applaud the membership not only for their attendance but their thorough engagement and responsiveness to their communities and their student’s needs. It was fabulous to be amongst such passionate and committed leaders who focus on looking out for each other, their staff and their communities. A strong sense of community support was felt and expressed by the guest speakers on the day. Thank you too for the candid response to the workshop task I ran, these responses assist us in taking forward local concerns and contextual issues arising. I would also like to extend my appreciation to Jackie Nilon- President and Shane Fletcher- Delegate for the excellent leadership they afford their PPC membership.
The Regional Executive Liaisons and President Phil Seymour will be further seeking the voice of all PPC groups on our visits during 2019.
As representatives of the NSWPPA Deputy President Di Robertson and Vice President Lyn Davis attended a staffing methodology review workshop at Parramatta on December 7. Principals attending came from a range of schools. Also attending were classroom teachers, SASS, P & C representatives. Directors Educational Leadership, Executive Directors HR staff and members of the Delivery team also sat around the tables. The workshop was designed to seek opinions from the 100 people present. Areas covered included staffing entitlements, staffing systems and staffing arrangements. At the end of the day people were asked to describe a vision of what things would look like if the staffing review was successful.
There has been consultation with principals and school staff over an extensive period of time and this will continue to occur during the future phases. There was a sense in the room that everything to do with staffing was on the table and genuine consultation was the goal. The group will reconvene in February and hopefully the findings from this initial consultation will be shared with the group so that further progress can be made.
The NSWPPA has been asked to remind principals of the following changes regarding Special Religious Education and Special Education in Ethics for new enrolments (only):
From 2019, the SRE and SEE participation letter requiring parent/carer signature will be used by schools for new enrolments. The letter assists parents/carers to make an informed choice and provides a one step process for schools. It is important that the wording and language used in this letter is adhered to by schools with local information added. The letter will replace the current enrolment process that uses the enrolment form and participation letters which can often be a three step process. The letter is not to be sent out to current students, only new enrolments and is optional for the remainder of 2018. Students continue in the same arrangement each year unless a parent/carer requests a change in writing.
Additional information will be available in SchoolBiz early in Term 1. Merry Christmas... no... wait.
On Wednesday 5th December the first TeachMeet was hosted by the DoE in Parramatta, with both Mark Scott and Murat Dizdar opening the event. The topic was “Every student known valued and cared for in our schools”. There were 8 teams of NSW principals and/or teachers selected to present initiatives from their schools that met this brief. They came from across the state and represented a cross section of school types. The presentations allowed educators to come together and collaborate and share practices in schools. The TeachMeet was attended by over 200 educators.
Thank you to our schools for sharing their practice-
- Goonellabah Public School
- Fairfield Primary School.
- Bridge Road School
- Campbelltown Performing Arts High School
- Coomealla High School
- Fort Street High School
- Concord High School
At last week’s executive meeting the PPA executive received an update on the Teacher Improvement Program from Mark Anderson who is the Director, Staff Efficiency and Conduct at EPAC. Colleagues who have teachers at their schools with performance issues can take heart, as the DoE is taking steps to support the process. In a nutshell:
- There has been a trial of Employee Performance and Development Advisors in the Ultimo and Tamworth Operational Directorates. These Advisors have worked closely with school teams to provide guidance and support in navigating the implementation and administration of what can be a complex process.
- This trial has been evaluated very positively both statistically and via principal survey.
- This support is slated to be rolled out statewide in Term 2, 2019.
- Schools are encouraged to identify executive staff to nominate for these positions.
- The Teacher Improvement Program guidelines have also been revamped / streamlined and are due to be released early in Term 1.
Just some interesting things for you:
Starting a Facebook page
Steps - Joining Facebook for schools
1. Get approval from your principal to start a Facebook page
2. Have three admins ready – this will eliminate problems with potential staff moving on and profile lockouts.
3. To get started you will need:
- Image of the school logo (2mb minimum)
- The name of the school
- A paragraph (100 words) about the school for the About Us section
- The three admins and their related email addresses linked to their Facebook profiles
4. Email the above details to the social media team at socialmedia@det.nsw.edu to set up the account.
Own a Schools Facebook Page and have not connected the Department of Education as admin
Steps - Adding the Department of Education as admin (NB: This is now mandatory in the Social Media Policy)
- Go to page settings
- On the left hand column, go to page roles
- Assign a new page role – entering communications@det.nsw.edu.au in the text box, this will drop down ‘Michelle Lau’ to add as an admin.
- Join ‘The NSW Schools Facebook Project’ Yammer group in the event of announcements.
Moving on from your Schools Facebook page.
If you’re moving schools and/or no longer involved in your Schools Facebook page, please email socialmedia@det.nsw.edu to tell the social media team who the alternate admins are, so they can ensure the page is active. If you have staff that moved on as Facebook admin, please remove them and inform the social media team so they can update the register.
Advertising
Under the Government Advertising Act 2011, all social media advertising requires a Compliance Certificate from the Secretary of the Department of Education, irrespective of budget or purpose. This expenditure is required, under law, to be reported to Department of Premier and Cabinet on a quarterly basis and will be published on relevant websites. Permission for social media advertising must be made explicitly to socialmedia@det.nsw.edu.au.
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. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and an outstanding break from school, where you rest & recuperate and look after yourself.
cheers
Robyn Evans
Rel PRESIDENT