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A Regular update from the
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No 3, 2005. Published 14th March, 2005 |
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The President writes . . . Well, interesting times indeed. The last month or so of wrangling at Ascham, an elite girls’ school at Edgecliffe, has seen that even within the ranks of very well heeled Eastern Suburbs parents there lurks the potential for divisiveness and emotionally charged meetings when it comes to having a say in how their child’s school is run. Principals already know the complexity of issues which can emerge within parent communities when strongly expressed, opposing; points of view are aired and shared. Principals also know just how difficult this can make the day to day running of the school, and of the emotional energy which is needed to keep things on an even keel. It always seems that, when the setting up of school and community committees or ‘councils’ is discussed and planned, the expectation is that everybody will behave in a totally reasonable and rational way, operating with a view of what is best overall rather than individual need. It is hoped that the circus surrounding the Ascham affair may prompt some thinking around this issue, and some acceptance of the difficulties which can arise when a range of people gather to share their opinions of what is the best educational context for their children based on the range of personal experiences and aspirations for their children. Somewhere within all of this is, of course, the Principal who has to ensure that when all is said and done, any outcomes are compatible with current policy and with the core values of equity and excellence which underpin our Public Education system. The PPA is currently setting up a meeting with the Federation of P&C’s with an agenda to include some discussion about the partnerships which exist between schools and their communities and the ways of ensuring that this is the best relationship possible. Principals know and appreciate the great things which can be achieved when schools and their communities work well together, but also know the extremely stressful situations which can be created by parents who are abusive, violent or unreasonably dogmatic in seeking an outcome which is disproportionate to the matter under dispute. Bullying The last few weeks have also seen the Daily Telegraph series of articles in relation to Bullying in schools. I’m sure that all Principals would agree that bullying is something which is abhorrent and something we all work hard at dealing with wherever it occurs. There is regular swapping of ideas and programs within the Principalship with regard to a number of issues, including bullying, and the Telegraph was able to highlight a number of programs which run extremely well. It is ironic, however, that there is such a public focus on bullying within a social context which actually highlights so many of the components of bullying. We regularly see television current affairs programs which demonstrate that the best way to get things done is to make the loudest noise and to use the threat of public embarrassment or humiliation to make a point. How often, for example, is the threat of formal complaint or a letter to the Minister, or media involvement, used as a means of trying to exert pressure on a Principal with regard to a decision within the management of our schools? Then, we have a whole series of other “reality TV entertainments” which rely on the forming of judgments by the masses about the popularity or otherwise of various contestants and the subsequent cold blooded “voting off” of these people. Common conversation topics during the seasons of these shows include character assessment or assassination as part of the process of generating sustained interest in the show. We are committed, as a professional Principals’ Association, to ensuring that our schools are happy and safe places for children. We are also committed to seeing genuine application of this principle to the workplace and to the removal of bullying from any of our power structures. Principals who feel that the manner in which policy decisions are implemented and communicated is not in keeping with the commitment we all share toward working together and collaboratively for the good of Public Education should be assured that the Primary Principals’ Association is very willing to provide support and advice for them, alongside the services available through the Principals’ Support service and Regional structures. Mobile Phones The PPA has expressed directly to the Premier our concern that there was no consultation prior to his announcement last week of measures aimed at minimising the potential for bullying via mobile phones. The PPA has a legitimate expectation that, as an organisation funded as a peak advisory body, we have proper input to the policy development process through a system of mutually respectful consultation and collaboration. Macquarie Fields I’m sure that Principals everywhere would have spared a few thoughts through the week for the people in our schools in the Macquarie Fields area. Despite all of the other background, the sheer exhaustion of the children every day, coming to school with little sleep from the noise of helicopters and other disturbances would have certainly created a range of issues. No doubt, as always, the staff and Principals within those schools have got on with the job of ensuring that the schools are one of the places where all children can feel safe and supported and able to access a caring education. Our thoughts are with all of you. Once again, however, it highlights the fact that the context in which a school operates will have significant impact on the ability the school has to provide opportunities for children to demonstrate the best outcomes possible. Rather than simply looking at socio-economic indicators, we need to look at the attitudinal context toward learning and the institutions which provide the environment in which learning can occur. Where children approach schools from an attitudinal stance which values the potential of learning to increase the horizon of possibility for every child, then the likelihood of greater achievement seems higher than for those who view schools as agents of oppression, with little value placed on outcomes, and very little willingness to accept that learning is something which requires them to be a learner, a person willing to engage with the process of learning. This attitude is not helped, of course, by the barrage of media commentary which seems intent on detailing at every turn just what it is that schools should teach, rather than making informed suggestions as to what it is that our children ought to place value on learning. Commonwealth ‘Investing in our Schools’ program Excerpt from DEST website: The $1 billion Investing in Our Schools Program was announced by the Prime Minister, the Hon John Howard MP, during the election campaign in 2004. The objective of the Investing in Our Schools Program is to deliver much needed school infrastructure projects through an injection of additional Australian Government funds. In the period 2005 to 2008, $700 million will be provided to State schools to help repair, replace or install new items critical to their school's overall needs. The focus will be on delivering projects which improve the infrastructure of schools in accordance with priorities identified by school communities – parents, friends, the teaching profession and students associated with the school. More information, including links to application forms and guidelines is available from the Federal Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) website at the URL below. http://www.dest.gov.au/schools/investinginschools/default.htm You will notice that · The first round of submissions for projects up to $50000 has a closing date of 31st May, 2005 · There are a number of issues related to the sign off of submissions The PPA has been involved in initial discussions in the last week about this program. Concern has been strongly expressed about the assumptions which are being made about the role of the Principal and the extent to which the submission process could be a serious impost on the Principals core business: that of being an educational leader within their school. A number of issues are currently under consideration and Principals are advised, in the first instance, to
Obviously the opportunity this program provides to access considerable funding is great, but we should not, as Principals, be pressured into operating as project managers or being accountable in areas which represent an unreasonable expectation on people who already demonstrate capability across five key domains, and who, in the case of our almost 600 Teaching Principals already carry significant other responsibilities on top of a full teaching load. Communication Review – Forwarded message from the Review team In order to take practical action to improve the Department’s communication with Principals, we really need hard evidence of what a statistically representative sample of Principals actually think about our current communication. So far only about 20 Principals of the 200 directly invited to do so have responded to the Principals survey which has been online since early February. It was also sent in PDF. The date for completion and return of the survey was 4 March. At this stage, with only 20 respondents, it looks like we will not have enough responses to derive evidence for any reallocation of resources for better two way communication. We know that this is one of the busiest times of the year for schools – but 20 or so minutes spent filling in this survey could make a real difference to how we keep you in the information loop. The Teachers Federation and the PPA support the survey and have had input into the questions. It is anonymous and confidential. We will feed back the results to the PPA. The survey will now stay online until after Easter- but we really need you to do it as soon as possible. Accessing the DET Intranet from home Did you know that you are able to access the DET intranet when you are not at school or on a site which is connected to the DET wide area network? This is possible via the Enterprise Portal which gives you access to a personalised ‘launch page’ which you can customise with your own favourites and links to sites of interest. This means that, if you are working from home after hours but want to access a part of the intranet, then you will be able to get access. To access the Enterprise Portal, visit the URL below http://portal.det.nsw.edu.au/DET_SSO/detlogin.jsp On this page you will be asked for your DET username and password. This is NOT your webmail username but is the same username you use when accessing the leave system etc. That is, it is in the format Firtsname.Lastname Your password is the one which was supplied for accessing the leave system etc and was typically a fruit when first issued. Once into the portal, you will be greeted with a portal page which has links to a whole range of sites etc. You can customise these links to suit yourself. If you scroll down, you will find the link to the TaLE site and this will provide a host of other information, including Professional Learning activities and a range of ways to get involved in online communities and to access resources. Excursions, Risk Assessments and OH&S Once on the DET Intranet, it is also possible to access the updated information about Excursions. Many Principals will recall that the PPA assisted the development last year of a listing of common excursion venues for the purposes of developing online, downloadable Risk Assessments. This resource bank is steadily growing and can be accessed at the link below. (Please remember that this is an intranet site and, if you are accessing from home, you will need to use the enterprise portal login which is described above, and then select the link to the DET Intranet.) https://detwww.portal.det.nsw.edu.au/adminandmanage/ohands/excursions/index.htm This site includes copies of the Excursions Policy and Risk Management Guidelines as well as a list of clickable links to the online Risk Assessments which have already been completed. If you have used any of these, and would like to comment, please use our feedback page below to let us know how useful it has been. Principals are reminded that, for their own protection, they need to ensure that Excursions are being planned and conducted in line with the current policy. Technology 4 Learning As the T4L rollout gathers pace, more of you are encountering the DET Standard Operating Environment (SOE) installed on PCs and Macs during the commissioning process. The SOE is managed by the DET ITD "infrastructure group", and its development is undertaken by ITD staff. The management group is keen to ensure that the SOE develops in line with requirements from administrators and end users in schools, TAFE and State Offices. We would like "feedback" (that is: love it, hate it, wish it did this or that) and "change requests" (that is: formal requests to consider specific changes to the SOE for future releases). The website at: http://nsi.tafensw.edu.au/ictstandards provides you with an opportunity to give feedback on the SOE and to suggest improvements. Please feel free to direct any comment to that website. Institute of Teachers briefings You would have received information at school about the implementation of processes for “new scheme” teachers. To assist this implementation, a series of briefing sessions is being conducted around the state involving personnel from the Institute of Teachers and the Human Resources portfolio of DET. Our Deputy President, Sue Ingram, has also been involved in discussions with SECU about this implementation phase. Please use all avenues available to raise issues and ideas about these new processes, as there is a commitment toward developing systems which work well. Look out for the briefing sessions in your Region, and use them as a chance for a two way information flow. State Council Term One State Council is coming up immediately after Easter, on 31st March and 1st April. State Council is the main governing body of the NSW Primary Principals’ Association and is made up of delegates from each of our 43 local Area Councils as well as the elected State Executive. Also attending State Council and providing valuable input are our Chairpersons of our Reference Groups and representatives for a number of special interest groups and statutory bodies. A feature of the Term One State Council is the attendance of Area Council Presidents as well as Delegates, bringing the total attendance figure up over one hundred Principals. The Term One Council will consider a range of business as well as convening a Special General Meeting for the purpose of considering any constitutional changes. The Minister has indicated that she will visit and speak and we also expect to have input from the DDG Schools and other Senior Officers. Expression of Interest – Website Manager We have a vacancy for a Website Manager for the NSW Primary Principals’ Association. Expressions of Interest were invited in the last edition of What’s Hot. Please note the that closing date for Expressions of Interest has been extended to next Friday, 18th March If you would like to take on this role, it is best that you have some experience in web-based publishing using a WYSIWYG editor. FrontPage experience is preferred, as this allows the use of FrontPage extensions to develop online SCANs and surveys and to maintain the remote management of the site. A vision for future development, especially into Open Source Content Management Systems or other applications which enhance collaboration would be well regarded. The PPA website is hosted by a commercial provider and the Website Manager also acts as administrator and moderator for a number of online email lists. For more information, email Roger at roger@nswppa.org.au You can use the Feedback link below to submit Expressions of Interest up to close of business on 18.3.2005 Feedback Please remember that you can use the feedback link below to provide feedback about any aspect of this What’s Hot.
[Please click here to use the feedback form] Past web based editions of What's Hot
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