May 2023 Newsletter

• CaSPA has received the first release of data in the Australian Teacher Workforce Data (ATWD) Data Explorer. Please use this link to access the 2023 data: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data/data-explorer/
• CaSPA representative attended the Equity, Funding & Achievement Symposium at University of Melbourne.
• Australian Catholic University 2022 Principal Well-being Report was distributed to the State and Territory Secondary Principals Associations.
• Finalising guest speakers Jacinta Collins (NCEC) and David de Carvahlo for May Board Meeting in Sydney.
• Preparations for meeting with the ACSP (NSW) Executive at the May Board Meeting.
• Meeting in Melbourne with Athas Concepts to scope rebranding of the CaSPA website.
• Data Project for 2023 has been completed and infographics being developed by Athas Concepts.

NGS Super delivering value for members.

As a leading fund for the education and community sectors, NGS understands that everyone is unique and has different needs and financial goals. That’s why the things that matter to you when it comes to your super – low fees, quality products, strong performance and personal service - matter to NGS too.

At NGS Super, we’re taking care of tomorrow by creating a better future for our members today. When you join NGS this is what you can expect.

Value for money

We keep our costs low to help you maximise your super savings. NGS was recognised by Money magazine as the Best Value Balanced Fund at the 2023 Best of the Best Awards. This award, which was independently judged by Rainmaker Research, recognises that we offer members high-quality low-cost products.

Award-winning insurance

We offer affordable, quality insurance so you have financial support and peace of mind when you and your family need it most.

Personal service

Our Super Specialists and Financial Planners are here to help you make informed decisions about your super from the start of your career and at every stage right through to your retirement and beyond.

Taking care of tomorrow

NGS Super is committed to delivering a better future for members. Our strategy to have a carbon-neutral portfolio by 2030 shows we’re dedicated to delivering sustainable products, with competitive returns that also have a positive impact on the world.

Invest in your future!

Super is one of your biggest investments, so it pays to be with a fund that will take care of you today and tomorrow.

Find out more at www.ngssuper.com.au or call the NGS Super helpline on 1300 133 177 Monday to Friday, 8am–8pm (AEST/AEDT).

Name: Jane Egan

Current School: Emmaus College Jimboomba

Previous Position & School: Deputy Principal St. Peter Claver College

The hope for my current school is: I want to continue to build on the excellent and established foundations in Learning and Teaching at Emmaus College.

We must prepare our students for a digital age, so we need to be very aware as leaders of what that actually means. As a Principal my aim is to embrace and keep abreast of this in 2023.

The Joy of Principalship is: There simply is nothing more invigorating or humbling than to walk into school each day and be greeted by the students and staff.

There are few jobs in the world where every day you can have such an impact and influence on a person’s life.

I have a secondary background having spent my teaching career in in 7-12 schools. Emmaus being a P-12 school has added a whole new dimension to my life through the P-6 students. The sheer joy and love of learning these young students show and add the prep students into the experience this is the icing on my career.

A Book I would recommend: “Start with Why: How great leaders Inspire everyone to take Action” Simon Sinek

Fun Fact about me: I love skiing, I have skied all over the world - COVID put a hold on this however I am looking forward to getting back onto the slopes.

My valued Well-Being Strategy: Yoga and listening to audio books on the 45-minute drive to and from work.

Inspiring Leadership Quote: “when you can’t control what’s happening, challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening.”

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book: Leadership is about Nurturing and enhancing.

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Name:  Bruce McPhee

Current School:  St Peter Claver College

Previous Position & School:  Deputy Principal – Marist College Ashgrove

The hope for my current school is:  To continue to develop a culture where students are known and where staff are passionate about making an impact on student growth.

The Joy of Principalship is:  One term in, it would be the incidental conversations with students, staff and families.

A Book I would recommend:  Atomic Habits by James Clear

Fun Fact about me:  Every school I have taught in has been in a different system.

My valued Well-Being Strategy:  Regular meetings with my leadership coach.

Advice for an aspiring Principal:  Listen to those who have gone before.

Inspiring Leadership Quote:  (One that I always had in my classrooms…)  What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book:  I do not yet have the experience or expertise to even consider a TED Talk or a book.

 

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Current School: Guilford Young College

Previous Position & School: Deputy Principal, Guilford Young College

The hope for my current school is: To honour Archbishop Sir Guilford Young’s vision for an accessible, inclusive, Christ-centred senior secondary education for young Tasmanians.

The Joy of Principalship is: I am humbled to have been given this opportunity (albeit in an Acting capacity) to lead a community built on foundations of faith, love, inclusion, integrity and kindness.

A Book I would recommend: (how about two?) The Book Thief (Markus Zuzak), Turn the Ship Around (L. David Marquet)

Fun Fact about me: Over the years, our pets’ names (dogs and fish) have begun with ‘R’: Retro, Roxy, Ruby, Rita, Roy, Red, Renoir. And then there was Dougal…

My valued Well-Being Strategy: I live close to the College so after work, I take the long way home, turn up the volume and ‘sing it out’. I also love to cook for family and friends and try to remember to practise my ‘cello.

Advice for an aspiring Principal: Turn up, be present, work hard. Be kind and courageous, honest and humble. Embrace curiosity.

Inspiring Leadership Quote:

“The great leaders are not the strongest, they are the ones who are honest about their weaknesses. The great leaders are not the smartest; they are the ones who admit how much they don’t know. The great leaders can’t do everything; they are the ones who look to others to help them. Great leaders don’t see themselves as great; they see themselves as human”. (Simon Sinek)

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book:

“Close your devices and pay attention; the diminishing importance of non-verbal communication”.

 

CaSPA Beginning Principal Profile

Name: Elizabeth Illingworth

Current School: St Patrick’s College, Prospect, Tasmania

Previous Position & School: Principal St Finn Barr’s Catholic Primary School 2017-2022; Deputy Principal Sacred Heart Launceston 2014-2016;

The hope for my current school is: To continue to improve in creating a sense of belonging and community for all students.

The Joy of Principalship is: The opportunity for developing relationships with so many young people.

A Book I would recommend: ‘The Happiest Man on Earth’  - Eddie Jaku

My valued Well-Being Strategy: Walking my dog with my husband each evening.

Advice for an aspiring Principal:  Always remember why you chose to become a teacher.

Inspiring Leadership Quote: “Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.”  Brene Brown

What Title would you give to your TED Talk or Book: ‘A Day in the life of a School Principal”

By EducationHQ News Team
Published April 20, 2023

Australia’s private schools should be fully publicly funded and free, with the condition they include all students, an ambitious new proposal seeking to bring ‘choice and fairness’ to the education system has argued.

Researchers Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor have called for a ‘common framework’ to restore equity to the school system – one they note is now among the most inequitable across the OECD. 

Fully funding private schools would go a long way towards addressing the socially segregated system we have at the moment, Greenwell told EducationHQ. 

And while the proposal might be controversial on Australian terms, it’s ‘perfectly normal’ in other secular countries, he said. 

“I think it's important to remember that in lots of comparable countries like New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands and Scotland, this already happens. 

“The great advantage for us from trying to learn from those examples is it could help create a more inclusive school system … we could address the social segregation that is at the heart of our educational problems at the moment.” 

The duo contend that the hybrid public/private framework schools operate within at the moment is not fit for purpose and an outlier on the global stage. 

For more than two decades we’ve seen a widening gap between the achievement in low socio-economic schools compared to students who live in better off postcodes, while our PISA results chart a significant decline in achievement across the board, the report noted. 

Greenwell said the new framework would alleviate the worsening social stratification between schools.

“The problem facing Australian schools is, overwhelmingly, the concentration of disadvantaged students into the same schools. 

“Going right back to the Gonski Review, an abundance of research has shown us that concentrating disadvantaged students together significantly harms learning outcomes.”

Poor education policies were driving the inequity across the sector, he added. 

“We have essentially, very largely publicly funded non-government schools, which are able to charge fees as they please, as high as the market will bear, and pick and choose students. 

“So that’s pushing disadvantaged students away from those schools. And then we have taxpayer-fuelled resource advantages, which enable some schools (to showcase themselves) when it comes to open night, or the glossy brochures where they can feature really wonderful facilities – and that pulls students in. 

“And so, we're bunching the advantaged and high achieving in some schools, and the really disadvantaged students in other schools,” Greenwell said. 

The funding shift would add a $2 billion annual cost to all governments, but the price of not taking action would be far more damaging when factoring in the consequences for social cohesion, social mobility and our nation’s productivity, the report said. 

Greenwell said another ‘big advantage’ of fully finding the private sector was that it would change the nature of competition between schools. 

“At the moment, what schools do is they really compete to cherry pick the most able and affluent students.

“And of course, once you enrol a bunch of really advantaged students, you'll have great results and you'll be able to advertise that on your website. 

“It's a virtuous circle as far as a particular school is concerned…”

Under the proposal, independent and faith-based schools that continue to charge fees or reject an inclusive enrolment policy would not receive any public funding. 

“If you create a level playing field, a common framework, what's really going to differentiate schools is what they do with the students that they enrol. 

“It's not about cherry picking the students. It's about taking whatever students you have, and ensuring that they realise their full potential. You're shifting the locus of competition,” Greenwell said. 

It’s not just disadvantaged students who miss out in our current hybrid system, the researcher noted. 

“We've got another problem, which is that high achieving and advantaged students have actually been declining in their achievement when compared with their international counterparts, for over a decade. And this has been documented by research.”

‘Cruiser schools’ – a term coined by Professor John Hattie – are behind this, Greenwell warned. 

“[It describes] the kind of school that successfully enrols lots of advantaged and already high achieving students, but effectively rests on its laurels.”

Many cruiser schools fail to recognise their predicament because what they do “feels like it’s working”, the researcher said.

“You've got lots of bright young students, and you're turning them into even brighter and more competent young adults. 

“And that feels like it's working. But the reality is, those students are not being extended in the way that they are in comparable countries.”

Greenwell said he and Bonnor were trying to start a badly-needed conversation, the goal being to to reach community consensus on what school funding should look like in Australia.  

"There's been lots of feedback. And I tell you one bit that really interested me, was the comment from the Victorian Catholic Education Commission, which was that ‘any proposal like this needs to be considered seriously’. 

"[Their response] didn't shut the door. And I think there's a temptation on all sides of this schools debate to make assumptions about where the other side will come from, and to dismiss the possibility of conversation. 

“And what I'm hearing is that actually, there is an openness to conversation.” 

But some are not convinced the proposal as it stands will be feasible.

Writing for The Conversation, Paul Kidson from Australian Catholic University noted the complexity of governance across all three school systems would pose a practical challenge to the implementation of a common framework. 

“At the simplest level, education remains a state/territory constitutional responsibility that seems unlikely to be collectively ceded back to the Federal Government any time soon,” the senior lecturer in educational leadership wrote.