DID YOU KNOW?

All Australian teachers have a special day, that is known as World Teachers' Day. It's celebrated on the last Friday in October and it doesn't coincide with actual World Teachers' Day.

International World Teachers Day was established by UNESCO on October 5, 1994 and since then it's annually celebrated on this day in many countries around the world.

However, many countries also have their National Teachers' Days or move World Day to another day, as it was made in Australia. The thing is that Australian schools go on a holiday at this time in October, that's why the holiday is celebrated on the last Friday in October.

We thank our Teachers because you....

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5 min read

Every school has its own culture, and this is often influenced by the school’s history, staff and physical environment.

However, while these cultures may be varied, they aren’t always necessarily effective in shaping the shared values of the school.

Research by associate professor, Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell, an expert in school policy and leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, shows how, through foresight, intentional action, and reflection, principals can achieve this.

Professor Bridwell-Mitchell told Harvard University’s Usable Knowledge that principals can use six areas of focus to help with sustaining or changing the culture in their schools.

Look in the mirror

According to Professor Bridwell-Mitchell, the leader is the main role model for an organisation.

“Everything a leader does – her statements and philosophy, reactions to key events, energy and interaction style – influences culture in a powerful way,” Professor Bridwell-Mitchell said.

“If you want a collaborative staff, ask colleagues for advice early and often. If you want teachers to hold students to high expectations, reaffirm your own belief not only in young people but also in your staff.”

Select staff wisely

“The teachers and administrators you hire will enter your school with their own beliefs about education and expectations about what it will be like to work at your school,” Professor Bridwell-Mitchell said.

“When hiring and mentoring, ask questions that help reveal whether those beliefs and expectations align with the ones you want your school community to hold. Those beliefs and norms will only grow stronger in a tight-knit community.”

Teach what you’d like to see

Professor Bridwell-Mitchell said that principals should create formal trainings and space for honest conversation about the attitudes, norms, and practices that are core to being a member of your school community.

“Use those trainings and other professional development to model the beliefs and behaviors you desire. Offer rewards [praise, written notes, community celebrations] for students and staff when they demonstrate those behaviors,” she said.

Broadcast your vision

“Every formal communication you have with your community should reflect and reinforce the culture,” Professor Bridwell-Mitchell said.

In every memo to staff, letter to parents, or address to students, make sure to:

highlight the future and what your school has the potential to achieve;
use data and facts to reduce ambiguity about your vision;
appeal to people’s emotions, values, and the deeper needs that motivate them;
stay positive, grateful, and idealistic, which is an important counterweight to any negative messages students or staff might receive;
use collective statements (“we are,” “we will”) to increase a feeling of belonging and collective identity.

Make your vision tangible

Professor Bridwell-Mitchell said mottos, symbolic objects, special traditions, and the design of physical space can all help reinforce your cultural vision, especially when the meaning of these tangible artifacts is consistently communicated.

“For example, regular celebrations of student and staff success is a reminder of what’s important. It also inspires continued commitment to shared values,” she said.

Restructure social networks

Culture is spread through connections, says Professor Bridwell-Mitchell.

“Figure out which people or groups are isolated from the community and figure out how to encourage greater interaction with others who are committed to the school culture,” she said.

“This way, everyone – not only you – helps your positive message spread more quickly and clearly.”

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2018 SURVEY - Have your say!

Last year ACPPA launched its first National Survey for Catholic Primary Principals.

We would like to thank and acknowledge all those who participated in the survey and the follow up Focus Groups held around the country.

The 2017 survey was extremely important as it allowed ACPPA to "get a snapshot" of your understanding and involvement with our Association which has been in operation since the early 1980's.

The results of that survey and the Focus Groups have given ACPPA a good sense of place, purpose and direction with many of the recommendations already acted upon this year under the following themes.

ADVOCACY COMMUNICATION CONNECTION

We encourage you to complete the 2018 survey when it arrives in your inbox.

The survey will take ONLY approximatley 5 minutes of your time, but the value to us all is immense.

Please assist your Association to keep improving and growing on your behalf.

Paul Colyer - ACPPA Executive Officer
Phone: 0478973767
Email: paul.colyer@acppa.catholic.edu.au

Website: www.pixevety.com

With 80% of Australians now saying they would never want organisations sharing ‘Photos of my kids/family’ with third parties – higher than any other type of data or information – isn’t it time we checked in with our schools to see how they manage photo consent?

I’ve had the privileged opportunity to speak with countless school Principals, school managers and administrators about the topics I’m passionate about, namely the protection of children in online environments, and privacy-forward alternatives to social media when schools are collecting, managing and sharing student photos.

I truly believe that students and their families have a right to know what is going to happen to their personal information collected at school – which, of course, includes their photographs – and I am thrilled to see others now joining in on this conversation about consent without restraint.

There will be times when it is entirely appropriate for a school to allow students (or their parent/guardian depending on age) to specify, by way of express consent or agreement, what can be done with their personal information. But don’t just take my word for it. You’ll find that Australian Federal and State privacy laws (as well as laws relating specifically to education, e.g. Queensland’s Education (General Provisions) Act 2006) are quite clear on this topic as well.

The various approaches used today

The issue of managing consent is a tense topic. Some schools see consent as a panacea and opt for the all-in bundled approach (“If we have consent for everything all on one form, we are covered”) or the coercive approach (“If consent isn’t provided, a student cannot enrol”). Others see it as a burden and apply a set-and-forget approach (“Let’s get consent once upon enrolment”) or copy from a template from a similar institution. There is also the under the radar approach (“Let’s not worry about it until someone complains”), the change-averse approach (“We’ve always done it this way…”), the risk-management approach (“What we have is probably good enough to keep the wolves at bay”) and, my favourite, the whoopsie (“Yikes! Better late than never…”).

More rarely have I seen a considered consent model deployed, where the situations requiring consent are clearly understood and the four hallmarks of a true consent are evident – these being that the consent is voluntary, informed, specific and current. This is particularly worrisome with respect to the use and disclosure of student photos and, more broadly, the responsibility of schools to tread carefully when dealing with student personal information in digital environments (such as publicly accessible school websites and various social media feeds).

I believe that a school’s approach to consent often reflects the balancing act they face – supporting the care and educational outcomes of students while tackling challenging business and administrative realities. However, it is important for schools to recognise the vital role of consent and to commit to best practice in this area.

7 ways schools can easily adopt ‘best practice’ photo consent

At the same time as speaking to schools across Australia, I’ve also been exploring the privacy law landscape with key government bodies and legal experts. Here is what I’ve learned.

In the context of using and disclosing student photos, schools should:

Be aware of the various reasons consent may need to be sought - such as publication of student photos on social media – and adhere to written administrative policies and procedures in this regard.
Treat consent as an active process – review/ update it often and do not rely on the silence of students to “imply” that they are okay with a particular activity.
Be clear about the activity the student is being asked to consent to. A blanket consent for the school to “use and disclose student photos” is not sufficient.
Do not bundle one consent (e.g. for the administering of Panadol in a medical circumstance) with another (e.g. the ability to post student photos on the school’s Facebook page). Bundled consent makes it difficult for a student to agree to one thing but not another.
Avoid forced consent where there is a suggestion that the student’s ability to attend school (or school activities such as sporting events, theatre productions or fundraising events) is contingent on the consent being provided. A forced consent is not consent.
Be clear that a parent/student can withdraw their consent at any time.
Provide an easy way for consent to be withdrawn by parents/students. This could be achieved by using the same medium for providing and withdrawing consent – such as access to an active parent-accessible online consent form where changes can be made in real time.

In a positive development, just last week the NSW Department of Education weighed in on the topic of consent by warning parents not to take photos of children on school grounds without explicit consent. I am not sure how this approach will be managed in practice; however, I look forward to the continuing discussion in this space.

If you too have concerns about how photo consent is managed at school, please share the above list with your school to help them make the necessary changes which will improve how child photos are handled in schools throughout Australia.

Colin Anson - Pixevety
Phone: 0438 344 966
Email: colin.anson@pixevety.com

File 20181022 105761 17f49es.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1 — It takes effort and imagination, but the benefits are many. from www.shutterstock.com

Tonia Gray, Western Sydney University

Contrary to the belief we Aussies are a nature-loving outdoor nation, research suggests we’re spending less and less time outdoors. This worrying trend is also becoming increasingly apparent in our educational settings.

I have devoted the majority of my teaching and academic career to examining the relationship of people and nature. In the last few decades, society has become estranged from the natural world, primarily due to urban densification and our love affair with technological devices (usually located in indoor built environments).

Contact with nature can enhance creativity, bolster mood, lower stress, improve mental acuity, well-being and productivity, cultivate social connectedness, and promote physical activity. It also has myriad educational benefits for teaching and learning.

Outdoors and learning

The word “kindergarten” originated in the 1840s from the ideologies of German educator Friedrich Froebel and literally translates to “children garden”. Propelled by innate curiosity and wonder, a Froebelian approach to education is premised on the understanding students learn best when they undertake imaginative play and curious exploration.

Not only is outdoor play central to children’s enjoyment of childhood, it teaches critical life skills and enhances growth and development.

Contemporary research shows outdoor play-based learning can also help improve educational outcomes. A recent study found being outside stimulated learning and improved concentration and test scores.

Nature contact also plays a crucial role in brain development with one recent study finding cognitive development was promoted in association with outdoor green space, particularly with greenness at schools.

Contact with nature boosts brain development. from www.shutterstock.edu.au

Autonomy and freedom in the outdoors is both liberating and empowering for kids. Burning off excess energy outdoors makes children calmer and fosters pro-social behaviours.

Teaching and learning in natural environments encourages self-mastery through risk taking, physical fitness, resilience, self-regulation, and student-centred discovery. Imagination is also enhanced by free, unstructured play.

How to get kids outdoors more

Children need outdoor play, but we’re not giving them enough opportunity. Countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway spend up to half the school day outdoors (rain, hail or shine) exploring the real-world application of their classroom learning. Here’s what parents and teachers can do to get kids outside more.

Taking the classroom outside

Children learn better when they can experience learning, rather than hearing it read from a text book. A study in Chicago used brain scans to show students who took a hands-on approach to learning had experienced an activation in their sensory and motor-related parts of the brain. Later, their recall of concepts and information was shown to have greater clarity and accuracy.

Practical lessons outside will stick better in young brains than learning theory from a book. This may be why in 2017, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) included outdoor learning in the national curriculum.

Options for teachers include taking the class outside to write poetry about nature, measuring the height of trees for maths classes, or de-stressing using mindfulness and breathing techniques while sitting quietly in the shade of a tree.

An upcoming initiative Outdoor Classroom Day is happening in schools across Australia on November 1. This is a day where teachers are encouraged to take their classes outside. Alternatively, parents can make a special effort to take their child to the local park, river or beach.

Less time on screens

Conversations with parents and teachers show they’re increasingly concerned about technology’s broader impact on their children, in both dramatic and subtle ways.

In many ways our hunger for technology has overridden our desire for direct human interaction. Screens compete directly with authentic channels of communication such as face-to-face interaction. To combat this, parents can assign one hour on and one hour off screens.

Parents are role models and so we also need to monitor our own time on screens and spend quality time with children detached from our digital devices.

The sad reality is technology can become a pseudo-parenting device, a form of pacifier to keep the kids busy. Instead, we can encourage our kids to engage in simple, unstructured play experiences.

These could include creating an outdoor scavenger hunt where they collect items from nature, building forts or dens incorporating inexpensive materials such as branches and old sheets or blankets, climbing trees, or laying on the grass and looking upwards into the sky to watch the cloud formations.

Other methods include making mud pies or sandcastles at the beach or in a sandbox; encouraging the collection of feathers, petals, leaves, stones, driftwood, twigs or sticks to make creative artworks on large sheets of paper; planting a garden with vegetable seedlings or flowers with your child (let them decide what will be planted); putting on a jacket and gumboots when it rains and jump in puddles together; or making an outdoor swing or billycart.

Nature offers a never-ending playground of possibilities with all the resources and facilities needed. If stuck, search on the web for wild play or nature play groups nearby as they are growing in popularity and number. But most importantly, reinforce the message that getting wet, having dirt stains on their clothes and getting their hair messy is good and adds to the fun.

Tonia Gray, Associate Professor, Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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10 min read

We know from new research that children whose mothers are depressed may respond differently to stress, have altered immunity and be at greater risk of psychological disorders. This work adds to the body of research showing children can be affected in negative and long-term ways by their mothers’ mental ill-health.

But what about dads?

Men’s mental health is more on the societal radar these days – but less so in terms of fatherhood. This area has been relatively under-researched. So how important is a father’s mental health to the way thier child grows and develops? Very important, as it turns out.

Dads have a powerful impact on their kids

Fathers’ mental health and the quality of their co-parenting relationships have a powerful impact on child development. Evidence shows fathers who are sensitive and supportive have children who develop better social skills and language, regardless of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity.

Research also shows when fathers experience mental illness, their children are at higher risk of behavioural and emotional difficulties. The magnitude of this risk is similar to when mothers experience mental illness.

Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children show fathers who experience snowballing distress report being less consistent in setting and enforcing clear expectations and limits for their child’s behaviour, and show less warmth and greater hostility towards their children by the time the child is eight to nine years of age.

There is also emerging evidence to show supporting fathers’ mental health early in their parenting journey has positive effects on children.

Children can suffer when their father’s mental health is not addressed. www.shutterstock.com

We also know in order to thrive, develop well and sail relatively smoothly through to maturity, children need parents who feel confident, supported and equipped with the right skills to navigate the sometimes choppy waters of parenting.

It’s critically important we understand how both mothers and fathers are doing when it comes to mental health. For the sake of their own health and the well-being of their children.

New insights on Australian dads

Recent research conducted by the Parenting Research Centre sheds some new light on the mental health of Australian fathers. The research found one in five dads has experienced symptoms of depression and/or anxiety since having children. This includes nearly one in ten dads who report experiencing postnatal depression.

This may sound surprising, but it gives us reliable Australian data from the perspectives of a large and representative sample of fathers. It’s drawn from a new analysis of the Parenting Today in Victoria survey of 2,600 parents, 40% of whom were dads.

Fathers with poorer mental health told us they were less likely to feel effective as parents and were less confident in their own parenting. They were more critical of, less patient and less consistent in parenting behaviours with their children. They also spent less time with them, were less likely to be involved with their child’s school or early education service and less likely to feel confident about helping them with their school work.

The proportion of dads reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety in this survey is lower than for mums (one in three). But the dads surveyed were less likely than mums to identify someone they trusted they could turn to for advice.

The dads were generally more positive than mums about the amount of support they received from their partner. But the fact many fathers are likely to be struggling with no clear view of where to get help should sound alarm bells.

Research on the co-parenting relationship (including for separated parents) shows the level of support parents provide each other through sharing everyday parenting responsibilities impacts child outcomes.

So, what can be done?

It’s important to note the majority of dads surveyed were doing well. In general, there’s a very positive overall picture of fathering in Australia. This contradicts out-dated assumptions fathers are less involved or less effective than mothers when it comes to child health and development.

But we can’t ignore the relatively high numbers of dads who aren’t travelling so well. This research highlights three key areas that will reap rewards for children if we focus on them now:

make it routine to address fathers’ as well as mothers’ mental health in services for new parents – this isn’t currently happening in maternal, family and child health services
offer support to parents around co-parenting and what it means to support each other, particularly those who are co-parenting across different types of family living arrangements to help them get on the same parenting page
work on ways to better engage dads in two areas: in parenting support services to give them strategies for parenting confidently and in early education settings and schools, where having both parents involved results in benefits for the child.

Research shows involving both parents in parenting programs rather than just one is more beneficial to children. We should consider what we know about dads’ motivations for attending or not attending parenting programs or education sessions (such as lack of time or feeling uncomfortable asking for help) and tailor strategies specifically to dads that take these into account.

It’s important both parents feel involved and supported in co-parenting relationships. www.shutterstock.com

Fathers tend to look for information and advice about raising their children online, rather than consulting professionals or attending group sessions. Some 76% of the dads surveyed said they went online for parenting information or advice. But many (around 66%) said they used books. Dads need access to credible parenting information in formats they can explore on their own terms.

Five free resources for dads

The Australian government funded website raisingchildren.net.au has lots of evidence-based, dad-specific and general parenting information in the form of articles, videos and free webinars that can be viewed any time.

The University of Newcastle’s SMS4dads is a text messaging service which aims to check in with dads through their smartphone before and after the birth of their baby.

The Movember Foundation website has a section devoted specifically to mental health that encourages men to start a conversation about their own mental health and reach out for help and advice.

Beyondblue has a four-part web series called Dadvice, which follows four dads on their journey into fatherhood.

Health Direct, funded by the federal government and most Australian states, offers information on depression in men and where to seek help.

If you are a dad who needs to speak to someone immediately about a mental health issue, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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Website: https://acppa.catholic.edu.au/

ACPPA is excited to announce a joint initiative titled “ACPPA LINKS” with school digital communications leader Schoolzine.

Schoolzine has been a major supporter of the education sector for the past decade and now has schools using their platform in 19 countries around the world. Their platform enables school leaders with the digital tools required to successfully master communication and parent engagement demands for today – and into the future.

As part of Schoolzine’s corporate social responsibility program, they have now developed “ACPPA LINKS”.

Principals and school leaders are faced with mounting pressures of responsibility and keeping up with changes in technology for not only the workplace, but their students. ACPPA LINKS, is a way for Schoolzine to give back a percentage of revenue to their partner not-for-profit organisations

Paul Colyer, ACPPA Executive Officer says, “Schoolzine has been supporting our organisation for quite a while, and we have been using their comprehensive suite of communication solutions as part of our partnership, which has saved us time and money.

We are proud to be working with Schoolzine to give back to our Catholic education community and pursue better wellbeing for all Catholic Primary Principals in the years to come.”

ACPPA LINKS has been created to offer support for Catholic School Principals to access professional development and events which otherwise may be out of their reach. It is also a way for Schoolzine to give back a percentage of revenue to our organisation.

ACPPA LINKS is supported through your selection of Schoolzine as a communication solution for your school. Once you have selected the Schoolzine services that best suits your communication needs, Schoolzine will pledge a donation back to ACPPA.

We will then use the funds to develop our important ACPPA LINKS for our school leaders.

Please click on the link below or express an interest by visiting our webpage and go to the ACPPA LINKS button.

To request a demo, to go www.schoolzine.com.au/acppalinks

Proudly supported by

Paul Colyer
Phone: 0478 973 767
Email: paul.colyer@acppa.catholic.edu.au

Craig ‘CJ’ Josic
Phone: 0433 991 718
Email: cj@schoolzine.com

Great news...we have some starters for our ALUMNI.

Join a small but enthusiastic group who want to stay connected with ACPPA

Who knows what may happen!!

Were you involved with ACPPA in the past?

Did you hold an elected position in ACPPA?

Do you want to be on our mailing list to keep in touch?

If you are interested in being a part of our ACPPA Alumni please contact:-

Kevin Clancy
Email: kclancy@ozemail.com.au

10 minute read

The Learning Policy Institute's Linda Darling-Hammond shares lessons with state lawmakers on how to address teaching shortages and raise student achievement.

High standards for teacher preparation programs, expecting educators to become scholars of teaching and substantial time for collaboration with peers are a few of the elements that set the teaching profession in high-performing countries apart from that of the U.S., Linda Darling-Hammond, executive director of the Learning Policy Institute, told state lawmakers this week in Los Angeles.

Gathered for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) annual summit, legislators and educators who also serve in their state legislature listened to Darling-Hammond, based at Stanford University in California, describe what countries such as Finland, Singapore, China and some Canadian provinces do to ensure teacher quality as well as retention.

Toronto, Ontario, she said, now has a four-year induction program, and 98% of teachers are still in the classroom after four years. Teachers in Singapore have to pass performance tasks and tests and then work under the guidance of a mentor to determine if they have the right “disposition” for teaching. And those who want to teach in Finland work in “partner schools” connected to research universities, similar to a medical model.

“The implication of all that is they put a lot of energy on the front end, but then they don’t worry about evaluating people out of the profession,” said Darling-Hammond, who has also worked with NCSL’s International Education Study Group, which has examined other countries' education policies, including how to make teaching a respected profession, and is sharing that information with legislators across the country.

It’s widely known that teachers in some Asian countries spend more time collaborating with peers and conducting research on teaching than their counterparts in the U.S. They are able to do this because they have somewhat larger average class sizes than the U.S., as well as fewer non-instructional personnel in schools, Darling-Hammond said, adding that U.S. teachers spend 27 hours per week on average with students, compared to 19 internationally.

“That extra eight hours is what allows people to get really expert at their craft,” she said.

Linda Darling-Hammond (left) and Michelle Exstrom, director of the education program at NCSL

Credit: Linda Jacobson/Education Dive

Shanghai, she said, even has teaching competitions, in which teachers are scored and advance through the process based on 21st century teaching skills they want all schools to embrace.

“We have Iron Chef and Ninja Warrior," she said, "but we don’t have teaching competitions."

‘The same recipe’

Darling-Hammond responded to some of the issues lawmakers said they are experiencing in their states, such as beginning teachers leaving after a few years, a lack of reciprocity across state lines — which discourages teachers from staying in the profession — and the impact of poverty, divorce and other social issues outside of the classroom.

The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers, is one example of cross-state collaboration that removes barriers for teachers who want to work in another state, but more work in this area is needed, Darling-Hammond said.

She agreed that the U.S. does have increasing child poverty, homelessness and social issues that impede children’s ability to learn. She cited community schools and wraparound health and social services as an approach that can address some of these challenges, but also added, “the more training teachers get, the more they are able to deal with the variety of experiences kids bring.”

Darling-Hammond also highlighted a recently released Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report, which finds three common teacher-related policies that contribute to high student achievement — ideally a full year of clinical experience, a variety of tailored professional development opportunities and evaluation that is focused on continuous improvement.

Many states, she said, are already instituting programs and policies that mirror what the countries she has studied are doing. She noted, for example, the Denver Public Schools’ effort to give novice teachers less of a teaching load in their first year and more time observing and learning from teacher mentors. Several states, she said, are recruiting more young people into the profession through loan forgiveness and residency programs.

U.S. states with the highest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, have improved teaching quality through policies such as performance assessments for teachers, the elimination of “back door” or emergency credentials, mentoring and induction programs for beginning teachers and “widespread” professional development.

“It’s the same recipe,” she said, “whether you do it in the United States or you do it in other countries.”

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In his 1993 discussion paper, What Price ACPPA? former National President, John Willett, posed the question, “But what of the association, what does it do? ....... How do we achieve the aims of the association?”

When the original constitution for ACPPA was accepted at the inaugural AGM held during the first ACPPA Conference in 1984, it contained some very laudable and ambitious aims, including:

To promote the overall aims of Catholic education in all dioceses of Australia.
To promote the personal and professional development of Principals in Catholic Primary Schools.
To work actively for the continuous improvement of education, particularly primary education.
To promote an understanding of the role and significance of the Principal in Catholic education among Principals themselves; and among relevant ecclesiastical, educational, governmental, parent and other groups whose activities impinge on the role of the Principal;
To provide the means by which executive members, through their local Associations may confer, consult, negotiate or liaise with all or any bodies or individuals on matters which impinge upon the effective operations of Catholic Primary Schools throughout Australia.

Much of the work of the association was left in the hands of the Executive. The constitution fixed the Executive as the President, Secretary and Treasurer of the state primary principals’ association which was the host of that year’s conference. However in reality, due to many facts, but perhaps mainly that the full association met only once a year at the annual conference and that the Executive changed every year and they were isolated, not to say extremely busy, in their own schools, nothing much was happening.

It was obvious, that if ACPPA was to meet its potential, changes had to be made to this structure.

In 1993, Jim Green was President, having been elected at the AGM held during the 1993 conference in Perth because he was President of the WA Catholic Primary Principals’ Association. In preparation for the 1994 AGM at the Adelaide conference, he circulated a proposal that contained seven recommendations:

The Executive will be composed of nominated members from each State or Territory Catholic Principals’ Association.
All appointments will take effect in February of each year.
The term of the appointment to be for 2 years, with a right of reappointment.
When a new president is elected, that person’s state or Territory Association is to nominate another delegate from their association to represent them.
The President of the ACPPA appoints two other ACPPA members from his/her State or Territory Association, as Treasurer and Secretary, to join with the Vice President and the Immediate Past President to form a Secretariat that will carry out the day-to-day duties given to it by the Executive
The Executive shall have power to delegate such matters deemed appropriate to individuals or Member Associations for appropriate action.
The Executive elects the President and Vice President of ACPPA at the Executive meeting held prior to the AGM of the Association. The Vice President is to be a member of a State/Territory Association different from the one to which the President belongs.

The term for the President was to be two years, with the right of re-election for a further two years. The President was to meet with the Secretariat on a regular basis between conferences and maintain regular communication with the Executive. It also gave the Executive the power to form standing committees, ad hoc committees or working parties to address matters of importance to the association.

This proposal was presented and accepted with only minor amendments at the 1994 AGM.

And so for the first time ACPPA had an Executive, appointed by its member state and territory associations, from which a President was elected. ACPPA could now get moving on those aims, so hopefully written ten years earlier.

But that did not quite happen, as the tyranny of distance which isolated the Executive in spots all over the country, with still only one face-to-face meeting together each year. There was some fine-tuning, and perhaps some not-so-fine-tuning to do, so it was very much a work in progress.

Jim Green (centre), with John Walker, WA and Barry Hamberton, NZ and school photography sponsors Fotex Him and Fotex Her

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Kevin Clancy
Email: kclancy@ozemail.com.au