For 8 years ACPPA held extremely successful annual conferences, usually immediately prior to the APPA Conference and at the same venue. The 1993 conference was scheduled for Western Australia. The WA planning team had been meeting for some time and raised some concerns with this arrangement. They identified three areas that needed to be addressed.

1. As many of the ACPPA delegates also attended the APPA Conference it meant a full week out of school.
2. The cost of presenting a conference with national and international speakers was significant.
3. The only way to reduce registration costs was to be able to attract a high level of sponsorship. As both conferences called on the same core group of sponsors this was a big ask.

Both the Government School Principals and the Catholic School Principals were well into initial planning for the 1993 Conference and it became blindingly obvious that to engage the speakers they wished the cost for each conference was quite staggering.  After some lateral thinking by members of the two associations it was agreed that serious discussion should take place in regard to making it a combined conference. 1993 would celebrate 150 years of Catholic Education, and the planned title for the ACPPA conference was Catholic Education – A National Treasure, while 1993 was also 100 years of Government School Education in WA, with the APPA Conference to be titled The Magic of Primary Education. With this in mind it was an easy decision to make it a combined conference with the amended title of Primary Education – Something to Celebrate. It was also decided to invite the Independent sector’s Junior School Heads Association to have representative on the planning committee and become involved in the conference.

Now that a more realistic financial base was established it was possible for the planning committee to invite Michael Fullan, Dean of Education at the University of Ontario, to be the lead speaker, along with Professor Hedley Beare, from the University of Melbourne, Dr Patrice Cooke from the Institute of Human Development and Dr John Hattie from University of WA. As the APPA Conference had always included business sessions that were focused on the issues of most concern to the Government School Sector, it was further decided that there would be some sessions where the sectors could meet separately. To this end Sr Jan Gray RSM from the University of Notre Dame and John Goodfellow from Mt Lillydale Mercy College in Victoria would lead sessions specifically of interest to the Catholic School Principals.

A statement from the ACPPA Executive in support of the Combined Conference said, “The decision to join with APPA in hosting the first combined national conference in Perth later this year is a sure indication of the strong relations which exist in Western Australia between principals in government and non-government schools. Such co-operation and unity is something we should all be proud of and thankful for as it is likely to lead to more effective representation of issues which are of importance to all principals.”

How true that prediction was to be!

The 1994 ACPPA Executive who were elected at the 1993 ACPPA AGM in Perth: Jim Green, President; Greg Wyss, Treasurer; John Last, Secretary, all from WA.

Pictured at the 1993 APPA/ACPPA Conference: Frank Hennessy, Retiring President; Michael Fullan, Keynote Speaker; Sir Francis Burt, Governor of WA who officially opened the conference; Keith Davies, Principal WA.