As we find ourselves on the cusp of another term break, after what will be a loooooong 11 week term, I’m mindful of the tremendous value these periods hold for our students (and for our teachers!). It’s a time for us to recharge our batteries, explore new interests, and perhaps even embark on a journey of self-discovery. But as with all things in life, balance is key.

Every teacher I know has their own unique approach to term breaks. Some dive headfirst into relaxation mode, while others use the time to pursue their passions with renewed vigour. For me, it’s a time to read fiction – I always aim to read at least a novel a week during term breaks (as I rarely get to do this during term-time). These holidays I’ve got Shankari Chandran’s Song of the Sun God at the top of my must-read pile. Regardless of the path chosen, there are a few strategies I always recommend to ensure term breaks are both enriching and enjoyable.

Firstly, I advocate for the importance of finding balance. Holidays are indeed a time to unwind and relax, but they also present an opportunity for personal growth and development. I encourage our students to strike a balance between leisure activities and productive pursuits, ensuring they make the most of their time off without feeling overwhelmed.

Next, I suggest creating a loose schedule to help structure their days. While spontaneity has its charm, having a rough plan in place can prevent days from slipping away in a blur of aimless activities – and mindless doom-scrolling on the socials! Allocate time for studying, hobbies, socialising, and of course, plenty of rest and relaxation.

Speaking of hobbies, I recommend that our students use the term break to pursue their passions wholeheartedly. Whether it’s playing a musical instrument, honing their artistic skills, or delving into a new area of intellectual interest, it is a valuable time to allow them to follow their interests, wherever they may lead.

Additionally, I believe holidays are an excellent opportunity for students to expand their horizons and learn something new. Whether it’s picking up a new language on Duolingo (my summer holidays saw my Hebrew language acquisition improve out of sight!), mastering a new recipe (I’m all about my new mushroom brekky frittata), or delving into a topic they’ve always been curious about, I encourage our students to embrace the spirit of lifelong learning, day in, day out – recognising that learning is not just possible in the classroom.

Lastly, I can’t overstate the importance of rest and rejuvenation. We must prioritise self-care during the holidays, whether it’s through getting plenty of sleep (I’m aiming for 9.30 pm every night), engaging in relaxation exercises (I’ll be aiming to consistently hit the gym five times each week), or spending quality time with loved ones.

School holidays are a precious time for our students (and our teachers) to unwind, explore, and grow. I hope we can all make the most of this time and return to school feeling refreshed and ready to tackle whatever new and exciting challenges come our way in Term 2.

Wishing you all a restful and rejuvenating break, when it arrives!

I recently addressed my School’s High School Assembly on the value of feedback. Specifically, I discussed the types of feedback that students receive at school, and why that feedback is important for them to pay attention to in their learning:

“This term is a big term for feedback. You will be getting feedback in a number of ways this term. Throughout the term, you’re likely to be getting feedback from your teachers on assessments that you’ve handed in. You’ll probably get a mark, or a grade, but also comments about what you’ve done, and what you could have done differently.

Over the next few weeks, many of you will have 3-Way Learning Conversations with your teachers and your parents, where you’ll receive feedback directly from your teachers, and you’ll be responsible for leading a discussion about your own approach to learning. Later this term, you’re all going to get your Semester 1 reports, where, again, you’ll see feedback from your teachers about your strengths and areas for improvement in each of your subjects, and comments from your Tutor about your involvement in extra-curricular activities and sport, your attendance, punctuality and how well you wear your uniform, and a comment from the Principal or another member of the School Executive about our recommendations for how you might make even more of your time as a student at our School.

You’re probably getting the idea from all of this that we think feedback is pretty important, and that we want you to pay attention to the feedback that we give you!

You might be wondering, what is feedback, and why does Emanuel think it is so crucial to your growth and development? Well, feedback is simply information about how we’re doing, whether it’s from a teacher, a peer, or even ourselves. It helps us understand what we’re doing well and what we can improve on. So, why is feedback so valuable?

Firstly, feedback helps us to identify our strengths and weaknesses. It’s easy to get caught up in our own perceptions of ourselves, but feedback gives us an objective perspective on our performance. The important thing is that we listen to the feedback and DO something with it.

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Professor Dumbledore (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

Feedback helps us make better choices by highlighting areas where we need to improve and where we can shine.

Secondly, feedback helps us to set goals and track our progress. When we receive feedback, we can use it to set specific, measurable goals for ourselves. By tracking our progress towards these goals, we can see how far we’ve come and what we still need to work on. I’d really recommend that you record your goals somewhere – be it one Edumate, or OneNote, or in the Notes on your phone or laptop – somewhere you can refer back to every now and then to keep a track on how you’re going in achieving them. Feedback helps us to appreciate the journey towards success, rather than just the end result.

Lastly, feedback helps us to build resilience and learn from our mistakes. When we receive constructive feedback, it can be tough to hear at first. But if we approach it with an open mind and a growth mindset, we can use it as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and improve. Feedback can help us become better learners, better people, and better equipped to handle the challenges that lie ahead.

So, remember these three key takeaways: feedback helps to identify our strengths and weaknesses, it gives us information from which to set goals and track our progress, and helps us build resilience and learn from our mistakes. As you move forward in your academic and personal lives this term, seek out feedback from those around you, and use it to become the best version of yourself.”

It is my hope that our families might be able to take some time during each week to discuss and reflect together on the ways in which the feedback offered to our students might be considered and implemented, as a means of continuous growth and improvement.

This article was first published in Leadership Ed, Issue 14, Term 1, 2021 under the title, Learning to listen: the importance of empathy in leadership. 

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In a busy school setting, having the ability and willingness to be present and listen, to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, can be a powerful tool in meeting that person’s needs, and also, shining in your role as a leader.

It seems reasonable to conclude that there are no two days in the life of the deputy principal which are quite the same. It is probably also true that there is no single day which ends up going quite as smoothly as the plans outlined on the optimistically jotted ‘to-do’ list on your desk.

Eighteenth century Scottish poet, Robert Burns, and, perhaps more famously, author John Steinbeck, who brought the well-worn phrase to the popular audience in his classic novel Of Mice and Men, both gave voice to the certainty that nothing is certain:

But Mouse, you are not alone,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes of mice and men

Go aft awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!

As senior leaders in schools, the complexity of our roles – as a result of the wide range of stakeholders with whom we connect in our work and the need to be responsive to the situations that come to our attention each day (all the while maintaining a proactive and strategic view towards the future) – makes it clear that the ability to be agile, to ‘pivot’ easily and quickly, to prioritise and re-prioritise, are essential in managing the tasks before us.

We have complex roles. We are busy. A while ago, I wrote a blog post that acknowledged the busyness we experience in schools:

“We’re all busy. Over the years, I’ve come to recognise that, as educators, we are all genuinely busy. I’ve also recognised that busy looks different for different people. Busy can’t be quantified. Busy is a state of mind. If you feel that you’re busy, you are busy. Even if your busy looks like a holiday to someone else, you are still busy. Your busy doesn’t necessarily equal my busy. Your busy doesn’t have to equal my busy in order to qualify as busy. It’s still busy.”

This term, the impact of busyness and the pressure caused by such busyness has been in keen focus for me.

Our senior leadership team ended our summer break with a two-day leadership retreat. Along with the incredibly valuable social connections that were strengthened during that time, and the opportunity we took to focus on the view of our school from the ‘balcony’ (and even from the ‘helicopter’), it was a pressure-free environment that enabled our team to bring the best of ourselves to our shared task of leading our school.

Part of our learning was enabled through the use of a tool that provides an assessment of our individual ‘thinking preferences’ and how, as a team, our differences can work together in a way that highlights how the sum of our strengths is greater than our individual parts.

A key insight for our growth as leaders during this retreat came through learning about how our ways of operating shift, for some us, when experiencing pressure.

Personally, I learnt how my natural preference for relational and future-focused thinking often shifts to a more practical and analytical approach in times of pressure. This has been something that has subsequently shown itself regularly in my day-to-day work.

It is through this lens of increased self-awareness that I have considered my communication style this year so far. As we go about our day, the rhythm of the day is constantly changing.

The urgency of one exchange can be in stark contrast to the relaxed beat and tempo of another. The way we communicate needs to adapt to the situation and to the individuals with whom we are working.

Initially, this article had been planned with a goal to outline specific strategies for the ways in which, as leaders, we can best work with different groups of stakeholders, with sections on working with parents, working with colleagues, working with students, leading other leaders, and so on.

What became apparent while working within that structure was that communication and leadership are both far more complex and far more straightforward than that, and the strategies for each were looking pretty identical!

There was one attribute which stood out as central to each of the key strategies for working with each of the groups of people connected to our schools: the need to exercise empathy. In working with others, we are often face-to-face with an irate parent, or a stressed staff member or an upset student.

We rarely get to choose the timing for this interaction, and we are rarely ‘free’ in that moment. More likely, we’ve been dropped in on whilst mid-task, working at our desk, or approached part-way across the playground en route to a scheduled meeting or a class in another part of the school.

That interaction, at that time, in that location, is unlikely to be the ideal context in which to engage meaningfully with the person, to listen to and attempt to address the real and genuine issue before you. It is potentially an inconvenient moment, in an unideal environment.

The temptation may be to hear, but not to listen, to react, but not truly respond in a way that meets the need of the person, and to move on to the next planned item on that to-do list.

There is no template for what works best in these situations. It is easy to get it wrong. We are human, and we are responding to other humans, with feelings, often at a time in which their emotions are high and their desire for a resolution to an issue is strong. Under this pressure, logic and rational thinking can easily give way to a reactive response.

It is these times when the need to understand the other person – to show empathy – is the key to meeting that person’s needs, and excelling in your role as a leader.

In the blog post on busyness mentioned earlier, I aimed to highlight the importance of understanding each other’s circumstances to truly have effective relationships with those with whom we work: “Let’s be kind to each other and offer support when people are under the pump. We’d want them to do the same for us”.

Empathy, the notion of walking that metaphorical mile in someone else’s shoes – to understand ‘where someone is coming from’ – is so important, and yet so easy to pass by as we seek to solve a problem, or wrap up a conversation, to get on with the busyness and complexity of our day.

We can exercise our empathy through genuine, active listening and attempting to place ourselves in the shoes of the other. Our capacity to connect with others undergoes its greatest test in moments of difficult, interpersonal interaction.

When our own defences are wont to be raised, if we choose to allow ourselves to be open and honest, to slow down, to be present and to listen, to be vulnerable, we can create an opportunity for that heated moment to dissipate.

We can create a moment in which we enable the other person to be our focus and for the matter that matters to them to be at the centre of that conversation.

We can take a step that enables our colleague, or that student, or that parent, to know that they have been heard and that their voice was valued. And, as they have been understood, they may be able to return that empathy towards us.

This article was first published in Leadership Ed, Issue 13, Term 4, 2020 under the title, Performance feedback: how school leaders can harness the challenge and opportunity. 

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As senior leaders in schools, we are often tasked with delivering feedback to our colleagues. More often than not, from the deputy’s desk, we are required to provide feedback to staff on aspects of their performance, either as a result of an observation of conduct or professional practice not being met, or stemming from a student or parent complaint that we have received. 

There is little joy in being the bearer of difficult news. 

It isn’t always about staff underperformance, of course. We also have the privilege of sharing the positive feedback we receive from members of our school community, about how impressed a parent is with the way in which a teacher managed a sensitive situation, or how a teacher went above and beyond in support of a student, or simply sharing a heartfelt expression of gratitude for the work that our teachers do each day.

It is likely to be less often that we are the recipients of feedback about our own performance from those with whom we work. However, given our place as the lead learners within our schools, there is significant power in actively inviting feedback from our students, our colleagues and our community. It is our willingness to embrace and act upon this feedback which keeps us moving forward on a path of ongoing personal and professional improvement.

In electronic music, feedback is defined rather differently than in learning and leadership. Feedback, in a musical context, is the “sudden… unpleasant noise produced by an amplifier when sound it produces is put back into it”. This might seem an unrelated concept, but for leaders engaging in ongoing professional growth it rings true; for feedback is a two-way street trafficked with the continuing hubbub of a stream of regular outputs and inputs. 

In an organisational context, feedback can be defined as “a process in which learners make sense of information about their performance and use it to enhance the quality of [their] work” (Henderson, et. al., 2018). Though Henderson’s report, Feedback for Learning: Closing the Assessment Loop, focuses on feedback for student learners, the insights are equally relevant for those leading the learning in our schools. In light of this definition of feedback in learning, how might we, as leaders, create opportunities to receive information about where we are doing well and where we are not to enhance the quality of our work performance?

Professor Geoff Southward OBE, in his foreword to The Leadership Challenge (2008), reinforces the role of leadership in contributing to “organisational learning”. The notion of the learning organisation has flourished in business and management circles for thirty years, since the work of Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline (1990). A learning organisation possesses a culture in which all members are “skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying [their] behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights” (Garvin, 2014). 

Garvin explains that these new insights may come from an array of sources, through both formal and informal means, both invited and unexpected. “Whatever their source”, Garvin writes, “these ideas are the trigger for organizational improvement. But they cannot by themselves create a learning organization. Without accompanying changes in the way that work gets done, only the potential for improvement exists”. It is the act of receiving and responding to these inputs which, according to Southward, influences the “core business of the school: that is teaching and learning”, and moves us from simply having the potential to improve towards realising that potential.

Southward explains that it is the practices of school leaders – how their leadership is “exercised and transacted” – that defines each leader’s success in their role. It stands to reason, then, that it is these practices on which we leaders should seek input from those who are best placed to provide that input, those with whom we interact each day.

Providing opportunities for feedback is an active endeavour. It requires acts of intentional vulnerability and interpersonal engagement with others, beyond the operational and transactional realms which can so often dominate the deputy’s day-to-day experience. It requires a continuing willingness to remain open to the insights of others, and to acknowledge that we can always be better. It also requires a commitment to move from one-off conversations and impersonal feedback surveys, towards having interactive, authentic feedback processes for leaders, embedded into the organisational fabric of the school.

Through modelling the level of receptivity to feedback that we also desire from our staff, we not only create an environment in which all members are partners in a shared, lifelong learning journey, but we also establish a culture in which we are accountable to each other for the quality of our professional and interpersonal practices.

Our feedback culture must be a non-negotiable. The approach we take to feedback must be flexible to staff needs, but strong enough to provide a clear and firm line on the value we place on feedback within our organisational culture. Feedback should be a key pillar that supports who we are as an organisation.

As leaders, it is inevitable that providing feedback to others will always be a core part of our leadership role. As lead learners, though, it is essential that we view receiving feedback from others as equally fundamental. How willing are we to receive the difficult truths that may be uncovered when we create the space to invite feedback in? How willing are we to give ear to the sudden, unpleasant noise that the insights of others may provide?

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References

Garvin, David A. (1993). “Building a Learning Organization.” Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1993. hbr.org/1993/07/building-a-learning-organization. 

Henderson, M., Boud, D., Molloy, E., Dawson P., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Mahoney, P. (2018). Feedback for Learning: Closing the Assessment Loop – Final Report. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Education and Training. 

Mulford, Bill (2008). The Leadership Challenge: Improving Learning in Schools. Sydney: ACER. research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=aer. 

Senge, Peter M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday.

This article was first published in Leadership Ed, Issue 12, Term 3, 2020 under the title, Embracing the new normal.

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The months seem to have flown by since Australian schools were compelled by force majeure to find new ways to deliver teaching and learning to our almost four million school-aged students, essentially overnight.

The shift from face-to-face teaching with digital platforms as, largely, an adjunct to the ‘real business’ of teaching students in a physical classroom, to an environment in which online engagement provided the core means of connection between teachers and students occurred at a rate and scale that required educators to dive into the deep end, with eyes wide open, and (to extend the metaphor even further) to sink, or swim. Six months on, it appears that teaching is a remarkably buoyant profession.

The need to respond to unprecedented times has resulted in unprecedented acceleration of professional growth and development for Australian teachers, especially in terms of how we have embraced digital technologies as a core driver of student learning.

The period of remote learning forced us to accelerate our adoption of digital learning technologies as schools moved rapidly to provide an authentic means of connecting with our students and each other. Many schools achieved in a matter of weeks what might have taken many years to embed under the usual circumstances, against the usual competing priorities.

However, these were not the usual times, and, simply put, teachers didn’t have any other choice. 

Though we never would have wished for a year quite like 2020, it has been a time of substantial positive change for school education, as we have embraced digital transformation, shifted to on-demand models of professional learning, uncovered previously untapped resources within our staff teams, and demonstrated that we have the capacity to exercise considerable flexibility and adaptability in our practice as we reimagined how schools function and how learning happens for students and for teachers. 

Often, professional learning sessions designed to support teachers in implementing new technologies have been scattered throughout a school year, in hour-long blocks during start-of-term staff development days or in afternoon staff meetings. Such staff training may be led by passionate and committed IT leaders or volunteer teams of digital ‘early adopters’ keen to share the innovative approaches that have worked for them in their classrooms. When, though, such teacher training moments are not part of a continuum of professional learning, when they are not clearly linked to observable and legitimate educational needs, and when the human resources required to enable ongoing support to teachers as they grapple with new edu-tech are not readily available, the impact of such training is often diluted against the usual competing priorities of school life.

The adage that a burden shared is a burden halved rings true when reflecting on this time.

As schools settled into their model of remote learning, and as leaders adapted our available professional learning time to ensure that we focused on what was essential for teachers to learn so that they were immediately equipped to support the learning of their students, we benefited from the breadth of expertise within our school communities. Our staff meetings, no doubt delivered via video conferencing tool, were transformed into on-demand professional learning programs, with multiple simultaneous breakout rooms hosting teachers sharing their technology tips and tricks with other teachers.

Though there was much for us to learn, the responsibility for our learning was widely distributed. Our collective know-how was shared more freely than ever before, and we all grew in skill and confidence, knowing that, though we were each furiously paddling to stay afloat, we were not alone in the water. 

As many of Australia’s schools returned to a semblance of business as usual mid-year, education researcher and advisor, Simon Breakspear spoke of the need to avoid a ‘snapback’ to the way we have always operated. Considering our time navigating uncharted waters gives us an opportunity to not only reflect on the key takeaways this time has offered, but also to allow this shared learning moment to precipitate a process of renewal for teachers and educational leaders, both in the ways we teach and, importantly, in the ways we learn. 

There will always be a place for professional learning that addresses school-based and compliance-oriented priorities. However, the unique demands of this year have required us to pare back much of what we do in schools to what is truly essential and to reconsider how we spend the precious time that we have available.

Perhaps, in such a pared-back environment, we would prioritise an approach to professional learning that meets the immediate needs of our students and our teachers, in the moment.

Perhaps we would ensure that we continue to benefit from inviting the experience and expert voices of our colleagues around us to inform the professional learning conversation.

Perhaps student voice would also be captured, ensuring that our professional learning efforts also meet the students where they are at.

Perhaps we would design professional learning programs that draw on our teachers’ understanding of their individual learning needs, of where they need to help to grow and of how they best receive that help.

It is time for us to embrace such a transformation in teacher professional learning, and to move ahead with the many positives we have gained in this ‘new normal’.

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Breakspear, Simon. “Building Back Better”. Simon Breakspear, 29 May 2020. Webinar.

Our job is never just teaching our subject. It is always more than that.

Today, my Year 8 Music class, early on in a unit on the traditional music of Torres Strait Islander and Australian Aboriginal people, erupted into an energised debate amongst students on cultural appropriation.

Passionate views were voiced on what it is to cause someone offence and on the responsibility we assume when we realise that our words or actions have offended someone.

I extended a challenge to the three most vocal advocates for cultural sensitivity, incensed by the unwillingness of their peers to hear their viewpoint, to find an online resource they think would be the most effective in convincing someone of the need to reconsider their position on the appropriation of another’s culture.

Sharing the advice that it is easier to change someone’s mind with soft, woollen gloves than with a sledgehammer, they agreed, but remarked that the sledgehammer would be more fun…

As a Music teacher, my job is much more than teaching music.

This article was first published in Leadership Ed, Issue 10, Term 1, 2020 under the title, Designing for change.

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As educational leaders, we are likely to agree that we have a responsibility to prepare our students for their future place in the world, through the school education we provide. We might also agree that the world for which our students are being prepared is changing at a rapid pace. If we agree on that, we may be aligned further in a belief that such a rapid pace of change will mean that we are not truly able to predict what such a future world will really be like for our students. We may consider that we are not truly able to know how to prepare our students for a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous future, and we might also be unsure of the specific skills, knowledge and understanding that our students will need to thrive in this different and rapidly evolving world.

It is clear we are faced with a dilemma: if the world is changing rapidly, what specifically can we, as school leaders, do to keep pace? How do we position ourselves and our schools to adequately ready students for this changing world? 

We have a substantial challenge to meet. However, when it comes to considering these questions, we’re in good company. The recent Australian Learning Lecture report, Beyond ATAR: A Proposal for Change, and the interim report of the New South Wales Curriculum Review each speak to the role of schools in supporting students’ movement towards a future in which they are equipped to thrive. The Australian Learning Lecture report’s implication is that thriving is realised through building on students’ “unique interests, capabilities and aspirations” and providing opportunities to guide students in directions which will draw value from those attributes. The NSW Curriculum Review highlights the role of school curriculum to “help prepare [students] for a lifetime of learning, meaningful adult employment and effective future citizenship”. In its The Future of Education and Skills 2030 project, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is exploring on a global scale the question of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that today’s students will need to be able to shape and thrive in their own world. The OECD has considered how specific approaches to teaching and learning can develop these knowledge, skills, attitudes and values effectively. 

As senior leaders, what can we glean from these national and international explorations to inform how we might drive this agenda for change in our schools? What role might the Deputy Principal play in navigating such a journey for our students, our schools and the teachers within? 

The many voices driving the narrative on students’ preparedness for an unknowable future align on the important role of student agency in assisting young people to be ‘future-ready’. The OECD defines agency as the “sense of responsibility to participate in the world and, in so doing, to influence people, events and circumstances for the better”. These students are aware that their complex and changing world is highly networked, and that in order to establish one’s own place in the world and sense of personal wellbeing, one must also understand the needs and desires of others. Students who are permitted agency over their learning are being equipped with the skills needed to be change agents in their world. 

As leaders in schools, we must seek out ways to give students opportunities to lead change in their school, local and broader communities. We have a responsibility to provide our students with safe exposure to diverse perspectives and personalities, all the while supporting them to stay true to a set of uncompromisable core values.

In preparing our students for the future, we have to be clear on the attributes we wish to see our students develop. We then have to plan for the fostering of these attributes across all aspects of the school: through our classroom practice, the extra-curricular programs we offer, the ways in which we support our students’ wellbeing, the opportunities we offer to develop students’ leadership capabilities, the ways in which we encourage social action and awareness and, not the least, the ways we support our teachers to continuously improve and grow as professionals. 

Once we consider together the specific knowledge, understandings and ways of thinking we wish to enable in our learners, we have to intentionally design for that change. As senior leaders, we are likely to be in the position to have influence on many aspects of a student’s school experience. We have the opportunity to reinforce and support the change we wish to see through opportunities designed to build the attributes students need to thrive in the future.

We have to be specific and intentional about change and how we’re enabling it. The change we wish to see must be modelled, enculturated and embedded to have long-term impact. Guy Claxton writes passionately that pedagogical change initiatives cannot be ‘bolt-on’ programs layered on top of ‘business-as-usual’. He argues that a school “has to be an incubator that develops and strengthens the desired qualities of mind through everything it does”. As leaders, we need to engage our whole community as partners in the change. We are all learners together.

In a previous contribution to this publication, I wrote about the role of the Principal as lead learner in a school community, accepting the responsibility to be a model for others. As Deputy Principals, we share that mantle. Our actions and interactions with others shape the discourse and the culture within our schools and it is our students who are the ultimate recipients of this. According to Claxton, school students are in a “protracted social apprenticeship” in which they absorb, through “the minutiae of daily interactions with teachers and older students”, the values and attributes of the dominant culture. 

What does the ‘way we do things around here’ say to your student learners about what is valuable and worth learning in your school context?

This leads to an important provocation: what does the ‘way we do things around here’ say to your student learners about what is valuable and worth learning in your school context? Beyond that challenging question, though, as leaders we must also be considering what the ‘way we do things around here’ says to our teachers. To enable our teachers to drive authentic change, we must ensure that we are offering real, structural support for that change. The interim report from the NSW Curriculum Review outlines that such educational reforms as it proposes, and as discussed here, are “more likely to be realised in practice if teachers are given time… for appropriate professional learning; time to collaborate with colleagues… and time to identify and address the specific learning needs of individual students.” 

Within our schools, as leaders we must endeavour to build amongst our staff a shared commitment to and understanding of the case for change. If we wish to see authentic engagement from staff for whole-school change initiatives, we need to have staff involved in not only the eventual implementation of the initiative, but involved as valued participants throughout the entire process that led to the case for change being articulated in the first place. The OECD report highlights that we must embrace “a shared responsibility to seize opportunities and find solutions”. It is certain that inviting such a collaborative approach to working towards a shared understanding will be more complex, more time-consuming and more likely to follow a circuitous path. However, it is also likely to uncover a more diverse range of perspectives, enable richer conversation and discussion, and be more able to engender a rich sense of staff ownership of the outcome.

As leaders, we should look to embrace grassroots support for change. While ‘at-the-coalface’ initiatives may be messier and less easily quantifiable, a staff comprising many individual teachers passionately committed to driving single, small changes within their classrooms will have a far more significant effect on shifting school learning culture than a single top-down directive for pedagogical change.

Consider another provocation: in the development of the roadmap which guides the direction of your school’s priorities and programs, is strategic direction decided upon and handed down from above, or are the teachers who will ultimately be responsible for rolling out the changes in their classroom practice engaged as key contributors throughout the process? 

The need to ensure that our schools are adequately equipped to prepare students to thrive in a complex, changing future relies heavily on the investment we, as leaders, make in our teachers to engage with and take ownership of the case for change for our schools.

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References

Bridger, Eleanor. “Beyond ATAR: a Proposal for Change.” Australian Learning Lecture, 1 Oct. 2019, http://www.all-learning.org.au/programs/beyond-atar-proposal-change.

Claxton, Guy. “A Life of Tests Is No Preparation for the Tests of Life – Guy Claxton: Aeon Essays.” Aeon, Aeon, 2012, aeon.co/essays/a-life-of-tests-is-no-preparation-for-the-tests-of-life.

Masters, Geoff. “Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion: Designs for a Future School Curriculum.” NSW Curriculum Review, NSW Education Standards Authority, 2019, http://www.nswcurriculumreview.nesa.nsw.edu.au/pdfs/interimreport/chapters/NSW-Curriculum-Review-Interim-Report.pdf. 

Schleicher, Andreas. “The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030.” Organisation of Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2018, http://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf.

This article was first published in Leadership Ed, Issue 11, Term 2, 2020 under the title, Plumbing the depths of resilience: how school leaders have navigated the unthinkable.

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The past months have been unlike any other time we’ve known as school leaders.

The strategic pivot has become the norm as we have guided our schools through rapid and regular changes to the way we do things. Fundamental shifts of practice have occurred at a pace and scale we would never before have considered feasible. Changes to school policy and practice which would usually be rolled out carefully over an extended timeframe, after pilot programs and wide-reaching consultation, have been implemented, in some instances, overnight.

This seismic shift in the nature of schooling has had to be navigated with urgency, by all schools and for all students, yet all the while with the diverse needs of each school community in mind. Every school leadership team has had to chart their own course during this time.

In the face of the global impact of COVID-19, these past months have required schools to embrace a new normal. It has been a remarkable period for schools in which time has seemed to stand still, yet also rush headlong towards what has seemed an unpredictable future. What has been achieved at pace this year is quite extraordinary. The writer behind Twitter handle @LeBearGirdle put the experience of school leaders during the final weeks of Term 1 succinctly in his twist on the old rhyme:

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November;

All the rest have thirty-one

Except March, which has 8000.

@LeBearGirdle

Only last term, I wrote of the need for schools to prepare our students for a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous future. Little could we have known how essential that preparation would be, as students around the world have been required to adapt to a new learning environment, and to do so with limited notice and little choice. The skills and dispositions that we predicted would be necessary for our students to thrive in an unknowable future have been needed instead to survive in our present, and not only for our students, but for our whole learning community.

We have needed the agility to adapt our practices to rapidly changing circumstances and the flexibility to pivot at short notice when those circumstances continued to change before us. As school leaders, we have needed to be proactive, yet grounded, in our approach to the global pandemic. We have needed to provide stability and certainty for our communities, to give reassurance that the learning and wellbeing of our students and staff is in hand. We have also had to remain nimble-footed enough to respond rapidly to changes thrust upon us, often without much notice, executing strategic pivot after strategic pirouette, each new direction possibly contrasting with that most recently communicated with our school community.

To do this, we have needed to plumb the depths of our personal resilience. Decisions of such substance as those made by our leadership teams at this time were never likely to please all stakeholders. We have needed to digest the full breadth of community opinion, to be able to cut out the noise, and then to make the decision when to adapt our stance and when to hold firm. We have needed to act quickly, when we would normally take the time to sit back and reflect.

At the heart of our role has been the need to communicate, clearly and calmly, not too often, nor too infrequently, not in too much detail, nor with too little, to keep our community informed about the shifting steps without overwhelming or causing worry. And, as school leaders, we have done this.

We have navigated rapid and changing shifts in policy with an agility which has served to highlight the professionalism and capacity of the teaching fraternity to focus on what is most important: the learning and wellbeing of our students and our staff.

Beyond tiredness, much has come from the experience of guiding our schools from learning on campus to learning at home, and back again. As schools return to the stability of learning on campus, we have an opportunity to draw on our newly proven agility, and to take some of the changes forward with us, rather than settling into the comfort of the familiar.

It is worth considering how the questions we grappled with as school leaders during the peak of this global crisis will change the way we think about schooling post-pandemic.

We may have asked ourselves what learning really looks like. Over these past months, school education has been on the tongues of teachers, students, parents and caregivers, journalists, politicians and policymakers alike as never before. From school closures, home schooling, learning at home and learning from home, to online, remote and continuous learning, and transitions to and from on-campus learning, observing the language around school education at this time has been eye-opening.

More significant though, are the inevitable discussions of what constitutes learning and where (and how) it takes place. Traditional perspectives on the teacher-centred classroom and more ‘modern’ views of a learning environment guided by student voice and agency have each been examined and challenged, as what goes on for our student learners and what our teachers manage each day is made more visible with schooling shifted from the classroom to the kitchen table.

Indeed, many editorial inches in the past months have been devoted to the challenges faced by parents navigating the complexity of supporting student learning at home.

Complexity has certainly been a characteristic of the times for teachers, too. We may have been unsure of what approaches to learning we should implement in our newly remote classrooms. Indeed, some may have wrestled with where to begin, as we sought to cater for the complexity of students learning from home (some with access to technology and some without), while others were learning at school (some with access to their regular teachers and some without).

Teachers have sought to balance synchronous and asynchronous modes of lesson delivery, which for many has meant seeking a balance between the known and comfortable, and the new and unfamiliar. In its guidelines for online learning, teaching and education continuity planning for schools, the International Baccalaureate notes that “while it is not recommended to experiment in emergency situations, innovation, creativity and resilience are required to make things work.

Most schools will discover they need to be adaptive and fast-thinking in order to ensure that learning continues in a healthy way”. As leaders guiding our teams during this time, the need to offer support for, and reiterate our confidence in, the expertise and professionalism of our teachers as they experiment with new ideas has never been more important. Trust has been our most valued commodity.

For many school leaders, it has been the strength of professional networks that has provided much-needed inspiration and support during these challenging times. In particular, the role of crowdsourcing, through such online platforms as Twitter, has provided opportunities to remain connected to (and to expand our network of) colleagues, to share our learning across a global community and to draw from tried and tested examples of best practice when curating approaches to teaching and learning for our own schools.

Back in 2012, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) highlighted the important role of “the wisdom of crowds … [in] enabling people with similar interests to collaborate…, help others, learn something, and gain recognition”, with such collective problem-solving made more efficient and effective through “the widespread availability of the internet and social media”. Never has this been more true than over the past months.

As school leaders, we and our teams have, by necessity, expanded our skillsets beyond that which we had previously exercised. We have become video editors, infographics designers, and dexterous webinar hosts. Adoption of technology-based teaching and learning solutions has seen self-professed troglodytes surprise even themselves in their capacity to implement, and even enjoy, the use of digital learning technologies.

We have developed a healthy appreciation for minimalism and decluttering, as we pare back our calendars and closely monitor how we use our teachers’ and students’ time. We have used online collaboration tools like never before as we embraced new ways of connecting with our parents, students and colleagues.

We have firmly positioned ourselves as teachers and leaders in the role of guide on the side, rather than sage on the stage, and we have given our students agency in guiding their learning, with a flexibility that our on-campus learning environment may previously have been unable to offer.

We have needed to meet daily, often at night and during the weekend, making significant decisions overnight in some instances. We have needed to draw on the collective wisdom of the team, enabling each leader to play to his or her strengths. We have each needed to maintain our sense of humour, and to approach the challenge of the situation with positivity. We have been made more aware of the power of our words. The messages we give our community set the tone for how they respond, so we have endeavoured to highlight the most desired responses to the circumstances (“We have seen great resilience and stamina from our students given the curve ball thrown their way”) and to acknowledge the gravity of the situation without overdramatising it.

Amongst all this, we have also worked tirelessly to ensure that our students and staff remain safe and supported, and, despite the challenges of the remote learning environment, that the wellbeing of our community remains our paramount consideration.

This year has presented a series of almost inconceivable challenges for school leaders, as we have adapted swiftly to the impact of the novel coronavirus on our schools. The fast pivot that leadership teams have had to facilitate over the past couple of months has highlighted the tenacity, adaptability and resilience of educators and educational leaders.

It has been truly inspiring and deserving of great acclaim. Hopefully, from the shifting sands of the current educational environment, a greater understanding of the important work our educators do and the role our profession plays in providing stability, safety and connection for our communities will have bloomed.

More than a week has passed since my most recent scheduled tourist day. Global pandemic aside, my fortnightly day of long service leave still saw me with the day off, eight days ago.

Little did I know that 48 hours later my school would transition to a predominantly learning-at-home, working-from-home environment, and that the need to remain indoors and to maintain ‘social distancing’ would go from a wise idea to an essential (though temporary, let’s hope) way of being.

Already well and truly on the side of science, and thus well aware of the need to maintain my 1.5 metre radius of personal space, my fourth ‘tourist in my own city’ outing was an outdoor affair, and a brief one.

Camp Cove is one of Sydney’s gems.

A sheltered harbour beach, its calm waters and usually small number of beachgoers makes it perfect for a relaxing swim. That Friday didn’t disappoint, with beautiful warm weather and plenty of space combining for the ideal swim and relax, all with appropriate social distance still very possible.

It was the following day that Sydney hit the world news’ front pages, with a crowded Bondi Beach highlighting the disregard that many Australians were showing for the need to take caution and to maintain appropriate physical distance from others in this time of increasing community virus transmission.

Flash forward yet another day and our eastern beaches were officially closed to all visitors. That evening’s Twitter-feed, though, featured images of a cordoned-off Camp Cove, jam-packed, extraordinarily, stupidly, with swimmers and sun bakers defying the warning to avoid such close contact. People weren’t crowding Bondi, but they had moved north, squished into this usually quiet enclave. I’m glad I got my swim in while such activities were still permitted.

Things have changed significantly for Sydneysiders in the past week.

Other than grocery shopping and a daily walk with my dog, it’s been at-home only this week. My Tourist In My Own City blog posts are likely to take a much more limited geographical scope over the coming months, as my working-from-home and my days-off locations exist within the same 203 square metre perimeter.

Tourist time will probably be spent devouring books, playing my too-dusty piano, planning concert spectaculars for when performance venues open again, finishing house-tasks long left undone (or, let’s be honest, unstarted), TV binge-viewing and audiobook listening. These at-home pleasures might be the focus for a while.

Honestly, I think that sounds lovely.

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The rain cleared this morning for my fortnightly hometown excursion, this time a short outing to the Museum of Sydney.

It might have been the most beautiful city in the world. But instead of being planned it just happened.

Arnold Haskell, 1940

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With Sydney Living Museums member gold card in hand, it is free entry to the museum, on the site of Sydney’s original Government House, the footprint of which is traced out in the forecourt.

MoS is small, with a couple of temporary exhibition spaces interspersed with permanent displays capturing aspects of historical Sydney: the ships of the First Fleet, life before the British, and the contribution of Seidler and Utzon to the architectural face of the city.

Not every aspect of the museum is a Sydney love-fest. The exhibitions are honest about the flaws of British land-grabbing expansionism, though I feel they don’t pack anywhere near the emotional punch of the new Hyde Park Barracks displays.

Aside from the stories of Sydney, the museum currently hosts a temporary exhibition of Gollings’ architectural photography. It alone is worth the visit, with awe-inspiring images capturing some of Australia and the world’s most remarkable buildings, large and small.

It’s a site that need not take a huge chunk out of the day, though I needed at least double the hour that I had today to explore more fully.

There’s plenty to soak in; in particular, the museum’s two screening rooms, one playing a selection of documentaries about Sydney life over the past century and the other telling the eye-opening story of Windradyne, the Wiradjuri warrior, and the Suttors, a pastoralist family who, through their 17-year old son who learned the local language, forged a seemingly respectful relationship with the Wiradjuri people. It’s a tale I’ve never heard before.

For those films, I’ll definitely be back.

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