Smarter school national partnerships

School Leadership and Governance (Independent sector)

Principal Leadership and Aspiring Principals

School leadership teams from five schools participated in professional learning funded by AISSA from Smarter Schools National Partnerships funding. This year the learning has particularly focused on leadership and school improvement. These conferences included the ACER conference on school improvement, the ACEL Inspire Leadership program and the Emerging Leaders program. Additionally, school leaders participated in the AISSA Leadership program. The program assisted school principals and leaders to build the organisational capacity of their schools to deliver high quality education.

The program was shaped by the needs of leaders in the sector, with principals keen to learn more about building their school's capacity to manage change especially in relation to the Australian Curriculum and the AITSL standards and to further develop the skills required for effective, contemporary leadership.


“We are changing the way we teach and operate in the Middle school. We will be moving towards collaborative team teaching for core subjects next year”.

CMaD NP School Leadership team

School leaders from one school who attended the ACER conference facilitated a workshop with middle school teachers. The leaders described the meeting to their colleagues as one which would ‘change the way we teach and operate in the Middle School. We will be moving towards collaborative team teaching for core subjects next year. Exciting times!’

In October 2012 principals and leaders from the five schools were funded to attend the ACEL conference, An Inquiry Mindset: Unleashing New Ideas for the Conceptual Age. This conference targeted those who will play a role in shaping the future of their organisations, schools and the wider community. High quality international and national keynote speakers included Daniel Pink, Reverend Tim Costello, and Lee Crockett. In addition a post-conference professional learning resource was made available to these schools. The resource is a tool based on the evolving themes of the conference that participating principals and leaders can use in the context of their own schools for their own professional learning, and use with teachers, parents and governing bodies.

Feedback from schools described the conference as both inspiring and very practical. One school highlighted the IT workshops as very relevant and in particular the workshop which covered the importance of every school having a “respectful communication policy”.

The impact of pedagogical practices on their knowledge and understanding included the importance of questioning, streaming and differentiation in classrooms. Tim Costello’s keynote address on global education was praised as a high quality presentation which significantly impacted on those attending. The interactive nature of the workshops was much appreciated and the message that this is how their classrooms should also operate, was not lost on those attending.

School Governance

Schools described participating in an ongoing governance development journey. In one school the processes included:

a survey of parents, students and staff

twenty two presentations from senior staff clarifying their roles within the school

creating school values using evidence from the above

subsequently designing a student ‘Wellbeing Plan’ and ‘Behaviour Management Plan’ around the values

designing the school’s Strategic Plan around the values.

As part of this process the school also developed a 10 year financial plan and a strong strategic planning approach. Professional learning has been provided for the Board so that they could be more effectively involved in planning and developing strategic directions for the school.

High Performing Principals and Teachers

Leadership teams in CMaD NP schools in the independent sector received funding to access programs provided through the ITQ NP. The extensive AISSA leadership program included new approaches to leadership, a focus on teacher development and improved student learning as a means to build school capacity. (See pages 36-37 for further information about this program).

Participation in the AISSA Leadership programs empowered leaders from CMaD NP schools to re-envision their role and purpose in their school and local community and to build Personal Learning Networks.
In 2012, principals from six CMaD schools were funded to participate in the AISSA leadership development program including one-to-one mentoring and coaching, and post-graduate study. As well as providing opportunities to debate and discuss contemporary issues impacting on schools, the program provided these school leaders with current thinking and research findings. In addition, their participation provided opportunities to enhance their leadership knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively lead curriculum change, particularly local implementation of the Australian Curriculum.

The program featured presentations and workshops by leading educational scholars and practitioners, including D. Trinidad Hunt on conflict resolution and team building skills, Dr Carol Dweck, Stanford University, on mindsets and differentiation and psychologist Martyn Newmann on Emotional Intelligence. The multiple workshop series are focused on various topics such as: Building Personal Leadership Capacity, a three workshop series for leaders keen to better understand the AITSL Teacher and Principal Standards; and Building a Performance and Development Culture in Schools, a six workshop program to assist in the creation of a performance and development culture in schools.

This series of programs empowered leaders to re-envision their role and purpose in their school and local community and to build Personal Learning Networks. In this way it supported and linked current educational knowledge and research to the development of their school strategic and improvement plans.

Early intervention

In response to the needs of member schools to support young children in early education, the AISSA developed an early intervention project for three schools. The aims of this project are to provide Early Childhood staff with the early intervention skills and strategies which support young children’s speech and language development and enable them to reach their potential. This project is supported by a specialist speech and language pathologist.

The project includes two days of professional learning to implement the Hanen Program. Hanen is an internationally acclaimed program which provides early childhood educators with the knowledge and skills needed to support young children’s language development. This includes children with (or at risk of) language delays and those with developmental challenges. An experienced Speech and Language Pathologist who has been trained in delivering the Hanen Program, presented the Hanen program to nominated early childhood educators/ teachers from the Early Learning Centre (ELC) and reception classes from each school.

In addition to the professional learning, a speech pathologist with early childhood experience is supporting each school’s Early Learning Centre and Reception class to implement the Hanen principles and support planning and programming for the development of oral language and play skills. This support consists of six hours of support per term for four terms.

Engagement with the community and the provision of in-school support (Independent sector)

Specialist services including an Occupational Therapist, five Speech Pathologists, four Psychologists and a Behaviour consultant provided in-school support during 2012. This specialist support continues to assist principals, teachers, students and parents to meet the needs of vulnerable learners with an ongoing focus on building the capacity of classroom teachers and schools to provide enhanced learning opportunities for these students. Consultation with, and the involvement of parents and carers, is integral to the partnership approach adopted in the delivery of these services.

In-School Specialists work with schools and families in the following ways to:

develop and assist in the implementation of a range of programs for students identified as ‘at risk’ by schools

provide professional learning programs for schools with a focus on the development of strategies and skills in the identification, monitoring, management and referral of students at risk

provide advice and support in the development of a positive and supportive environment for students at risk in their learning

work collaboratively with parents to improve the learning outcomes of their child

establish and maintain links with relevant community support agencies when appropriate to work as part of a trans-disciplinary AISSA Special Learning Needs Team.

Overall 40 classroom teachers, special education teachers and school leaders, and 10 School Support Officers participated in this program from the seven CMaD NP schools.

Again schools were supported to utilise other facilities in the community to enhance service delivery to students.

School Support Officers from CMaD schools were funded to gain a Certificate III in Education Support through TAFE SA and other School Support Officers have been accepted into the Certificate IV in Education Support.

AISSA continued to support country schools in particular, to develop community and parent engagement strategies. The community engagement playgroup project which was started in late 2011 in one CMaD school has grown steadily in numbers and developed over 2012. Funding has been provided for further resources including books to enrich literacy development. The venue had to be changed to the school hall due to the growing numbers of families involved. The playgroup continues to provide parent education on a range of topics including nutrition, reading to babies and toddlers and positive play. A number of Indigenous families are involved including one parent who has a leadership role at the playgroup.

The AISSA has a commitment to improving educational outcomes for all students and young people, within the values and underpinning ethos of each school.