1. “Brain Waves of Change”
13TH BIENNIAL ICP Convention Cape Town, South Africa 22 – 25 September, 2017
“Brain Waves of Change”

2. Radical Leadership How radical can the Principal’s leadership become and yet still retain the core function of leading and managing a school? “Thinking and Leading Differently” Dr Sharon Parkes Principal Warners Bay High School NSW Australia

3. The Context – NSW Government Schools
The NSW Government Reform Agenda resulting in 75% of funding going directly to schools.
Needs based funding – Resource Allocation Model.
Principal’s having more funding and flexibility in staffing (within NSW Department of Education policies) to utilise funding and staffing in innovative ways to meet local need to improve student learning outcomes.

4. Needs Based Funding Targeted funding - Refugee Student Support
New Arrivals Program
Integration Funding Support
Equity Loadings –
Socio-economic Background
Aboriginal Background
English Language Proficiency
Low Level Adjustment for Disability

5. Needs Based Funding (continued)
Base School Allocation –
Base Staffing – (Entitlements; targeted staff; equity; staff; other)
Base Operational Funding
Initiative Funding – (Beginning Teacher Support; Professional Learning; Flexible Funding for Wellbeing services)
Location
Other – (urgent minor maintenance; site specific)
For Example: My school 2017 $11,701,712 ($10,181,916 – staffing;
$1,519,796 – other)
Within Department of Education guidelines this funding can be flexibly used.

6. But first, my context – Warners Bay High School
A large comprehensive Year 7– 12 government school in a large city on the shores of Lake Macquarie.
(165kms north from Sydney, NSW, Australia) catering for 1325 students.

7. The Principal as Educational leader? …. Or not?
In NSW Department of Education changes and government reforms have created an exponential increase in workload and workload intensification.
Principals and their leadership teams want to embrace the changes with integrity but the speed and intensity of the rollout of reforms is making implementation unmanageable.
Schools have been bombarded with unco-ordinated requests for immediate implementation.

8. The role of the Principal has become…..
Finance manager
Assets manager
Human resources / staffing manager
Maintenance manager
Complaints manager
Teacher Accreditation manager
And much more…..

9. Does the role of the Principal allow time for educational leadership?
Time to mentor, coach aspiring leaders?
Time to lead educational change?
Time for strategic review of data to collaborate and develop plans for improvement in student learning outcomes?
Time to be the Lead Learner?
Time to be visible in the playground?
Time to lead teacher professional development?

10. Does the role of the Principal allow time for educational leadership
Does the role of the Principal allow time for educational leadership? (continued)
Time to monitor student bookwork as evidence of student learning?
Time to deliver leadership programs for students?
Time to deliver leadership professional learning programs for staff?
Time to promote school achievements in the local community?
Time to visit classrooms?
Time to participate in Visual Learning Walkthroughs and provide feedback on pedagogy?
Time for a healthy work-life balance?

11. NO
Without a radical change in the Principal’s paradigm for leading and managing their schools, the role of the Principal, as educational leader, will be lost.

12. The solution?
Time to lead and think differently!

13. As a consequence of the unrelenting change and workload intensification for principals and school leaders (but still within a centralised system), Principals have sweeping new opportunities for “flexibility”.
Many principals have found new ways to “do business” to re-focus their role on teaching and learning and being the educational leader in their school.

14. The Changing Paradigm
No longer are we the “Jack of all Trades but master of none”
Here are some ideas that have been employed in my school and other government schools in NSW to keep our role as educational leaders.

15. What and why Business Manager
To manage finance and policy compliance to allow principals to focus on teaching and learning to be the lead learner in the school; principal as educational leader in lieu of manager.
Deputy Principals to be non-teaching, to mentor and coach teachers
To allow the DP’s to operate as Instructional Leaders to improve student learning across the school.
Increase Head Teacher allocation from 0.2 to 0.3, or 0.4 for larger faculties
For faculty Head Teachers to have more time to mentor, coach and lead faculty improvement
– lift the faculty, lift the school.
Employ a Professional Assistant (PA)
A trained PA to manage s, take minutes at meetings, filter phone class and meeting requests; to reduce principal’s workload to allow the principal to focus on instructional leadership.

16. What and why Site Manager
To manage all Work, Health & Safety; site management; asset management; strategic placement of assets; cleaning contractors; oversight General Assistant.
Employ a retired, credible Principal or Deputy Principal to facilitate professional learning across one school or a group of schools.
To action professional learning needs identified by the school or group of schools.
Employ an additional Deputy Principal
To assist with student wellbeing or curriculum.
Employ additional Head Teachers Stage 4 (Years 7 & 8),
Stage 5 (Years 9 & 10); and/or Stage 6 (Years 11 & 12).
With specific tasks and time to improve student learning; retention; engagement.

17. What and why Employ specialist teachers
To address specified areas of need/concern – learning and support. Aboriginal education, EAL/D.
Employ para-professionals, welfare workers
For pro-active wellbeing.
Employ tutors
For additional after-school support.
Develop a Retired Principals / Life Members dedicated website / contact list
For access to recently retired principals with their identified areas of expertise to contact and provide paid services e.g. curriculum support; program co-ordination; etc.

18. In Summary
The Principal delegates the operational tasks to managers / co-ordinators, and remains the strategic educational leader responsible and accountable for the educational outcomes of the school.
In conclusion:
High performing teams achieve great success when “specialists” (in individual fields) collaborate and work together to create outcomes that are greater than the sum of the teams’ individual parts.
The role of the Principal needs to re-focus to ensure Principals and their leadership teams remain the lead learners in their schools and not the operational “Jack of All Trades”.
Questions?

19. Thank you
“Principals as educational leaders” - a fight worth fighting