Blueprint for Government Schools

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Flagship Strategy 3 - Building leadership capacity

Transforming the culture of professional development, innovation, partnerships and performance

teachers working on computer

 

The role and responsibilities of principals are critical in improving the educational outcomes of students in their schools. As educational leaders in their communities, principals have a major influence on:

  • the capacity of their teachers, and
  • the quality of the teaching-learning relationship. 

 Effective LeadersPrincipals and leaders in schools will be supported to develop the necessary skills and attributes to drive staff development and improve student outcomes. Principals will be able support a culture of high performance and continuous improvement in schools.

Building leadership capacity initiatives include:

The Developmental Learning Framework for School Leaders (PDF - 1.0Mb) informs the knowledge base, skills and capabilities required of leaders to effectively lead Victorian government schools.

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Principal Performance and Development

The Principal Class Performance and Development Process provides a framework that all Principal Class Officers will use in planning, reviewing and receiving feedback on school performance and leadership effectiveness. The process supports school leaders to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to lead sustainable school and system-wide improvement.

The process focuses on:

  • Enhancing school effectiveness and improving student outcomes
  • Strong alignment between school and individual planning processes
  • The use of multiple sources of feedback
  • Continuous professional learning and development
  • Regular professional interaction and dialogue
  • Reciprocal responsibility and support.

Further and current information is available on the School Leadership Development website.

 

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Principal Selection Process

To ensure we have the best leaders in our schools a rigorous process for selecting principals is needed. To ensure we recruit the best possible candidates as school principals, an improved principal selection process has been developed, the major elements of which will include:

  • modern recruitment practices rather than basing selection decisions largely on the results of interviews
  • principal representation on selection panels
  • tailoring of selection criteria to reflect the differing needs and characteristics of schools, including key goals and targets, and the expectations and requirements of the system
  • proactively encouraging applicants with the required profile to apply for principal positions
  • encouraging more contact between candidates and the employing school

A comprehensive training package to assist principal selection panels has been developed and is delivered by regional staff.

The revised selection arrangements apply to all positions advertised from 1 October 2006. Detailed information is available on the Human Resources website under Principal Selection 

Contact:

Schools Recruitment schools.recruitment@edumail.vic.gov.au

 

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Accelerated Development Program for High Potential Leaders

The Accelerated Development Program for High Potential Leaders is being delivered to 80 participants each year over three years through places in a Master in School Leadership course (two years part-time) and a Young Leaders Program.

Participants of the program attain an accredited qualification in school leadership and are provided with an opportunity to share professional learning with educators from all over Victoria. Young Leaders also participate in an international study tour and develop a school change project with a teacher from the United Kingdom.

The program is available to teachers, assistant principals and principals of small schools (Prin1) and aims to supply leaders for the future, improve succession planning and promote mobility and learning across the government school system.

The Master in School Leadership course is delivered by Monash University. Forty places are allocated to each University for each intake.

Expressions of interest are advertised on the Professional Learning - School Leadership website

 

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Mentoring for First Time Principals

The Mentoring for First Time Principals project provides the opportunity for first time principals to receive mentoring support and participate in a leadership development program. The program is delivered by Matthews Management Services in collaboration with the School Leadership Unit and regional offices.

There are four intakes per year.

Future programs will be delivered during 2008, 2009 and 2010.  Refer to key dates on the Mentoring for First Time Principals page. 

For further information access the Professional Learning - School Leadership website

 

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Coaching to Enhance the Capabilities of Experienced Principals

Professional support and guidance from qualified coaches is available to experienced principals through this initiative. The coaching offered in this program is designed to challenge principals to think of new ways to enhance their leadership capabilities and their role as an effective leader to improve student outcomes and for school improvement. It offers support and guidance from skilled professional coaches and provides an opportunity for principals to acquire an objective view of their leadership in action.

The service provider for the program is Silent Partners Learning Services.

The Coaching to Enhance the Capabilities of Experienced Principals program has been running since 2004, offering high quality coaching to principals.  Professional coaching continues to be offered to 100 experienced principals per year.

For further information access the Professional Learning - School Leadership website. 

 

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Development Program for High Performing Principals

The program aims to develop “system leaders” who have a commitment to and common understanding of the need for collaboration, empowerment, capacity building, inclusiveness and continuous learning.

School leaders are encouraged through the program to look beyond their own school and acknowledge the collective responsibility for transforming the system and the schools that are in it. The program will establish and promote the value of leaders as lifelong learners and the central role collegiate support plays in systemic reform.

The program will identify existing effective practice in school leadership in Victorian government schools and support all schools to achieve it, whilst providing outstanding leaders with incentives to remain in the government school system. This will be achieved through:-

  1. Identifying highly effective principals;
  2. Providing these principals with a range of development opportunities and tailored professional learning; and
  3. Recognising and utilising the expertise and best practice of these principals to develop and build capacity of the system through a range of activities including:-
  • mentoring
  • coaching
  • leading network change project

Applicants must demonstrate their effectiveness as principals and their preparedness to work collaboratively with other principals and their schools to guide system improvement.

For further information access the Professional Learning - School Leadership website.

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Local Administrative Bureaus

The concept of Local Administrative Bureaus is to reduce the administrative workload of small schools by enabling easy access to skilled administrative support staff. This allows them to better focus on their core responsibilities of improving student learning.

A LAB performs online, administrative tasks for a number of schools. These tasks might include:

  • Human Resource Management System transactions (eg. appointing new staff, implementing salary changes).
  • Physical Resource Management System transactions (eg. creating maintenance works orders, providing reports).
  • CASES or CASES21 administrative and financial transactions (eg. processing invoices, student enrolments and local payroll services).

Small schools often have to spend a disproportionate amount of time on administrative tasks. These tasks can be infrequent and often require procedures to be laboriously re-learnt. Some advantages of Bureau staff performing school administrative tasks include:

  • School principal and support staff can devote more time to educational priorities.
  • A high volume of transactions means Bureau staff can process transactions more efficiently.
  • More accurate and timely processing of transactions can eliminate time consuming rectification of errors.
  • Regular contact with experienced staff in a local Bureau can help build skills and confidence in school support staff, particularly in smaller schools where there is often only one part-time administrative support person.

Progress

  • A pilot LAB has been operating in the Grampians region based in Horsham since 2001. This currently services some 45 schools across the region and beyond.
  • Two new pilot LABs commenced operations in late 2005, based at Mooroolbark College and Orbost Secondary College . These LABs primarily service their local clusters of schools and aim to strengthen cooperative links within the cluster as well as provide administrative support.
  • Options for fee structures that best support the concept of administration support for small schools remain under consideration.  This will be balanced against the objective of making LABs self-supporting.