We began the card exercise with mental health and wellbeing and the importance of student voice and agency

Meaningful connections.

To close the gap we need lots of consultation before, during and after the process

Lots of frustration with the system pushing back and lack of trust. Many often feel they don’t have the agency to act

Lots of discrepancies between what schools want and what government wants

Shifting attendance to engagement.

A true sense of achievement, learner agency

Sense of authenticity over their learning.

Importance Drawing upon the alumni. Connection to pride and culture.

Meaningful community

Conversations with politicians and policy makers has changed. More openness. Needs to lead to more action

Not always simple

Could leaders act, will they? Possibly not.

Some teachers don’t respond as they are more comfortable to keep things the way they are.

Over the course of 10 years of education have only experienced 1 teacher who has listened and acted.

Leadership changes can impact on what is ok and can be changed in a school.

Lack of choice about coming to school and being there - it’s important to listen to students.

Appropriate challenge. Learning is designed so that everyone is challenged and extended, (ZPD). Is this too difficult to do in the ways that classes are organised?

It’s possible,give students autonomy,

Conversations (dialogic learning) are important for both learning and relationships.

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Students believe they can meet their potential.

Teachers encourage and believe and give opportunities.

Hard to access support, not enough space or people

Having schools that can cater to specialisation is good but all schools need to invest in accessibility

Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We need to be the bridge

Need a System that values the expertise of leaders to act in the the interest of students in the local context

Activate a neighbourhood of leadership that supports, sustains and even protects colleagues to do what is good, not what is easy.

What are the frameworks that would support leaders to act in new ways

Communication and awareness are essential. Two way feedback.

Understand and leap over policy obstacles- knowing what is Big P and little p policy and operate within this to benefit kids.

Engaging parent and community in new thinking

Engage a mindset of birth to death with every year level and age viewed as capable and confident and ensure transitions reflect this.

Student references that agency will hopefully increase as they move into the next stages of learning.

Academic achievement is just one aspect of how we need to measure student successes. Soft skills, empathy, communication that is beyond the digital habitat, perseverance …

In an uncertain world and times students engage in project based learning underpinned by the achievement standards; knowing and understanding them. Student learner is the agent of the learning ? Is this dependent on student dispositions??

We need to be aware of ALL student cohorts. Cultural safety and identity are important components of flourishing. Curriculum is not meeting needs of students.

An endpoint of flourishing at school is - self confidence, being engaged, thinking critically - not NAPLAN or ATAR.

There is a divide between what we are trying to do in schools and the imposed systems - this detracts from principal agency.

The concept of Flourishing IN vs Flourishing OUT of school. Flourishing isn’t an outcome after school, should be a process/experience of school.

Innovators bear the emotional labour. Real innovation comes from grass roots. This is exhausting but necessary.

What if we had agency over our curriculum what would it be like? As educators and educational leaders we need to check our own values and the ways in which we define education - makes changes management challenging to navigate traditional models.

WE NEED TO LISTEN TO STUDENTS - they have been telling us what they want for a long time…

VET is a really great pathway but also still seen as an add on and schools will refer to it to new students engaged. It is still a bolt on solution.

flourish is a personal perspective

Schools should provide a set of conditions that offer students the opportunity to be their best self

Flourishing is supported through the development of knowledge, dispositions and capabilities - using developmental progressions.

It is broader than academic achievement - it is the learning journey.

Media narratives can influence the perceived and enacted agency of school leaders. The role media plays in influencing community perceptions and the ability of schools and systems to respond to priority areas in the face of "back-to-basics" and "declining standards' rhetoric.

Leader agency - What would it take for systems to trust school leaders to make decisions appropriate to their context?

Problem inquiry first? Co- design of policy supporting localised creativity for strategies and a feedback loop to assess effectiveness of policy setting

If we ask kids - how to ensure respectful listening and responses from policy leads

Role for school leaders to be activists in shaping and reforming policy that directly affects the education space.

Have us there from the beginning - not to only review the established policy

Takes bravery!

We need to get on with it!

Remove politics from education!

Develop own capability proactively and carving out the role

The role of associations and coalitions in supporting purpose and ‘kindly resistance’ ie resistance for good

Policy should demonstrate trust in the profession and allow for contextualisation at school level (or classroom). Nobody knows students and their needs like the teachers do. If you have a rigid approach policy will likely not have any real impact on the school, student, or learning outcomes.

Policies shouldn't be about gathering data to then hold against schools or students but to help them.

How to develop this?

Experience, Mentorship, Courage

The system needs to create opportunities for success

Candy mountain as a metaphor for persuasion to do something and getting an unexpected outcome

·      Principals need a voice in the operationalising of policies

What would genuine co-design between school leaders and policymakers look like in practice?

·      Early consultation via Principals advisory groups, associations, etc.

·      Policies usually gets written when something goes wrong, we need to flip that.

·      Policy and executive writers need to be working principals

What capabilities do school leaders need to contribute effectively to system reform?

·      Autonomy and trust from powers that be

How do we collectively ensure current working conditions do not become the accepted norm?

·      The system is too risk averse

Principal agency

Building successful partnership between academics and principals.

Autonomy frustration.

ACTPA reflective supervision model - to support principal capacity and wellbeing

Dispositions of teachers and pricipals?

Are there Principals at the table with AITSL reviewing Principals standards?

Misalignment between system expectations/policy and procedure and principal autonomy and decision making

Compassion

Empathy

Strategic

Saying no

Servant leadership

Trauma informed

Cultural safety

Collaboration

High expectations and work that achieves it.

Joyful - sense of humour

If leaders were able to do what they love the tedious things might be more bearable.

Initiatives start from schools, principals need to make choices within frameworks. Tight and flexible.

Your school foci is up to you… you can be told what to do but not how.

Importance for principals of have confidence and experience to exercise agency.

Principal agency, need different levels of support and trust depending on their capabilities needs etc … data is material for self reflection.

Principals need to influence adults to change.

Agency requires time and space.

2. Co design does involve everyone. Research, principals. SOE. Things are initiated by principals and associations. If initiated by centre, involve us early. what opportunities are there for principals to shape change? Principals need to meet.

Leaders can’t be passive receivers

Reactionary policies are unhelpful

Leaders should be involved in consultation process prior to codesign

What is the pathway for leaders to inform required policy changes?

Opportunities like today for deep discussion with others providing input to policy makers

Principals need autonomy and agency to respond to their contexts. The table was excited by the WA Independent Schools model shared. Change needs to be managed carefully and appropriately, and not tied to partisan politics.

Ensuring current working conditions do not become the norm:

- Acknowledge the complexity of the role without normalising mission creep.

• Recognising principals who are not experiencing concerns about wellbeing/workload and identifying key factors enabling this. We should then work to replicate these factors for all principals

• Embed and fund administrative support roles across all schools

• Peer support networks and supervision

• Implement advertising/campaigns to ensure clarity of community messages about expectations for parent and community conduct

• Ensuring principals have the ability to respond to offensive conduct with meaningful consequences - this happens through department policies with “teeth” or real and escalating consequences

Agreement and clarification on what constitutes contextual approach and the standardised approaches.

Need to be clear on the categories and how they all work together.

Strong advocacy

Background should not determine destiny.

Equity of funding for equality of outcomes

Defining what equity looks like in relation to educational funding

Development of opportunity to learn standards (an equity idea)

Wrap around supports for students

Equity reform takes 10-20 years not a 3 year election cycle-feature a bipartisan commitment instead.

Every students needs met

The defining features are:

Needs to be greater connection points to build holistic understanding

Change must be context sensitive and create bespoke opportunities for learning

Public money needs to have public accountability

The internationally competitive piece colours the question and is not necessary

Taking experiences from overseas and researching their relevance for application in Australia. Some experiences are worth adopting/adapting.

Complexity is a crucial element to any change in Australian education and this is further reinforced by our federated system.

Who and how is excellence measured? Diverse and inclusive quality metrics are required to be created

Being aware of centralised, low variance education policy and control is crucial to delivering excellence, creativity and equity in Australian education

Education needs to be separated from politics.

Media influence needs to be changed. Until media outlets change the manner in which they portray education bodies, it will be difficult to create an equitable system

Our education system needs to be culturally responsive including policies etc

Needs to be responsive and agile enough to meet the needs of ALL students. What is our long-term aspirational view for the citizens that we are creating. It is exhausting to meet the needs of every single student because the system is not set up for that. How do we prepare our kids for their futures not our pasts. What kind of dispositions do we need to cultivate?

We need a more sophisticated plan and remove simplistic ideas like including NAPLAN data in school plans.

ASPA considering smarter ways to include principal voice in decision-making. Politicians and principals have different ways to define consultation - well-meaning and effective politicians truly believe that they have consulted if they have a quick conversation.

We need to look at different ways to measure success - we need to be more strategic and measure things like engagement. Need a more sophisticated relationship between principals and academics and how we present and advocate.

Individual state and territory associations working independently - could be more strategic and stronger together and be more coordinated.

SA very innovative.

For an education system to work, the responsibilities given to that education system needs to be attainable

In the context of leadership, workload of principals needs to be acknowledged as part of any change agenda

Acknowledgement of context and uniqueness is required to enable schools to best address the needs of a school’s students

Equity is a term that applies to all, we should look broadly when identifying disadvantage. Needs don’t always equate to disadvantage

We need to be able to describe what an education system designed for equity actually looks like

We don’t have the detail, so we are unsure as to what the purpose.

Priority must be given to governance and functionality

This process needs to be given time to achieve the creation of the new commission, speed is not our friend in this space

A National Teaching and Learning Commission is a chance to finally get everyone on the same page. It can cut through the overlap, reduce siloed work, and bring curriculum, assessment, and professional learning into better alignment. It should lift the voice of teachers and make sure funding backs the priorities that matter. The risk is it becomes just another layer, so it has to stay focused on supporting schools and building trust through genuine partnership.

If we are serious about equity, we have to stop adding things on and start changing how the system works. That means being honest about who is not being served well, putting support where it is needed most, and making sure teaching and school structures actually adapt to learners. It also means working closely with families, giving schools the time and staffing to do this properly, and trusting system leaders to set the direction and stick with it.