Australian Catholic Primary Principals' Association eNewsletter

Greetings Colleagues and Friends,

Welcome to our August eNewsletter

As you read this newsletter, you will see that these last few months have been extremely busy, as ACPPA is increasingly engaged with key stakeholders across the education sector. This is very important for us as we continue to establish our place as the peak national body for Catholic Primary School Principals across Australia.

The work we have been doing on your behalf, centres around ensuring that your voice is heard in the places where educational decisions are made and which affect your daily work. We are seeing a significant change in the narrative for educational reform. From a top down approach previously, these key bodies are now asking for opinion, comment and advice from Principals and schools. We have commended these groups on this initiative and believe this is the right process to advance education which is both needs based and sector blind and listens proactively to those who are doing the work.

We are excited about the progress we have achieved thus far and we encourage you to engage with us and keep abreast of developments going forward.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments and invite you to get in touch with us at any time.

Thanks for all you do in schools.

Brad Gaynor

ACPPA President

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ACPPA Board - Celebrating 35 Years

Back Row - Toni Kalat WA, Michael Ball NSW, Brad Gaynor President, Chris Golightly Qld, Karyn Prior Operations Manager, Jo Martorella NT, Matt Egan-Richards ACT, Paul Colyer Executive Officer.

Front Row - John O'Connor Qld, Helen Healy Vic, Fran Bonanno NSW, Clynton Scharvi Tas, Liz Keogh SA, Marcus Donnelly Tas, Peter Cutrona Vice President WA, Gez Mulvahil NT, Michael Gray Vic.

Absent- Ros Oates Vice President SA, Anne Staines ACT

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Following on from the AITSL School Leadership Roundtable held in Melbourne, ACPPA Board workshopped a series of questions which impact the future of school leadership.

The areas covered were:

Opportunity 1: Prioritising high-impact school leadership practices.
Opportunity 2: Supporting the development of structured career pathways for school leaders.
Opportunity 3: Increasing equity of access to high-quality leadership development and principal preparation experiences, particularly for leaders practicing in rural and remote schools.

The questions posed:

What is the idea? What activities should take place and what are the outputs?
What are the must have, should have and nice to have and who is involved, to support successful national implementation?
What are the barriers to be addressed when implementing this idea?
What is the impact you want to see as a result of implementing this idea?

Following on from these meetings we will now provide a summary response to AITSL as they collate information from all stakeholders and report back to us.

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At our meeting in Brisbane the Board did some further work to refine our discussion papers on the following themes:

NAPLAN MySchool
Initial Teacher Education
Principal Health and Wellbeing
NCDD Data

The next step in the process will be for our State and Territory reps to bring these papers to your Association meetings for input and comment.

ACPPA is always keen to hear your opinion about any educational matter that affects you in your school. Please share your thoughts with your local Association or contact Paul Colyer directly.

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

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As we move through our 35th year as a National Association there is much to be thankful for in the work and collegiality of this great group.

It is also timely to begin looking at our Association's future now that we have strengthened our position on the national scene.

With that in mind, the ACPPA Board is discussing and considering the possibility of a new look ACPPA logo and branding elements which will honour our past and lead us into the future as a modern and vibrant Association.

Stay tuned for further developments over the coming months.

Did you know our current logo's meaning?

The ACPPA Logo was unveiled at the Brisbane Conference in 1984. The map of Australia surrounds the initials of the proposed association. This was incorporated into the cross signifying clearly the Catholicity of the Association. As Principals ought to be a leading force in the schools, the Association should be a leading light in the field of Education in Australia. This is signified by the Christmas star.

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It was a great pleasure to welcome Carmel Nash and John O'Brien from Catholic School Parents Australia (CSPA) to our Brisbane meeting.

CSPA have been working for some time on the development of a Parent Engagement toolkit which is a comprehensive and practical kit for use by parents, principals and school staff.

Carmel presented information which highlighted the fundamentals to positive parent engagement and understanding in schools today.

‘The purpose of a school is to help the family educate the child’ The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium.

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Continuing on with our practice of inviting Diocesan Directors to our meetings, we were especially pleased to welcome the Executive Director of Toowoomba Diocese, Dr Pat Coughlan, to this week's meeting in Brisbane.

Pat spoke passionately and proudly of all schools in the Diocese, clearly articulating a strong vision for Toowoomba based on cultural change around academic success and making Jesus known.

Pat described some BOLD visions for the Diocese which allow them to strive for success with greater capacity and effectiveness over the next few years. Pat believes that nothing is unattainable with the right attitude, resources and support.

Pat finished his presentation by affirming the work of ACPPA and encouraging us to be strident advocates for school practitioners to allow their voice be heard to enable the right change and decisions to be made in education for the future.

Some great tips from Pat for our Association

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AITSL Projects

The National Teacher Workforce Strategy will articulate, at a national level, the shared challenges and opportunities inherent in developing a skilled, capable and sustainable quality teaching workforce that ultimately supports the best outcomes for students.

Phase 1 involves mapping and understanding the current state and territory workforce planning activities (including any current and future challenges each jurisdiction and sector is seeking to address) and obtaining thoughts about future needs and challenges and opportunities.

ACPPA have worked on the questions below and will present our findings to AITSL.

If you have anything to contribute please contact Paul Colyer

paul.colyer@acppa.catholic.edu.au

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We were pleased to be able to acknowledge the great work of Liz Keogh from South Australia at this meeting.

Liz has been an ACPPA representative since 2013, attending National meetings and bringing the perspective of South Australia to the national agenda, which she has done with great knowledge, commitment and enthusiasm.

We are very fortunate to have great thinkers and dedicated Principals on our Board and Liz also brought a strong collegiality and friendship to the group.

We wish Liz well as she continues her work as school leader in Catholic Education.

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ACPPA has been busy working on your behalf:

Shortlisted as a FINALIST in the National 'Turnaround' Association of the Year Award at Parliament House, Canberra
Attended the Associations Forum National Conference
Met with the David De Carvalho (ACARA CEO) to discuss NAPLAN, Australian Curriculum reform and Learning progressions.
Attended Associations Governance Summit in Sydney
Met with Mark Grant (AITSL CEO) to discuss our role in furthering discussion around leadership and learning.
Attended the AITSL School Leadership Roundtable to workshop ways to strengthen leadership development and Principal preparation
Wrote submissions for both the Melbourne Declaration and My School reviews
Attended the WA Catholic Primary Principals Conference in Perth
Continued meeting with Diocesan Directors including Mark MacLean from Wagga Wagga and Peter Hamill from Broken Bay
Spoke with Brisbane Catholic Primary Principals and hosted a social function for them (pictures below)

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