Principals and Senior Executive teams should aim to build strong working relationships with teacher unions rather than seeing them as a threat to their authority. At the core of this relationship is reciprocal respect and mutual understanding of the various awards and determinations that dictate teachers' and support staff's basic entitlements. Apart from the legal requirement to follow awards, there are a range of other benefits to a productive relationship with the teachers unions.

Leaders and unions can work together to advocate for better funding, resourcing and policies. In doing so, the needs of leaders - taking into account all the accountability, departmental and legal requirements that they have to meet; and school teachers and support staff - taking into account competing demands and the realities of working at the coal face; can be taken into account. This creates policies and practices which reflect a broader understanding of the reality of schools at various levels.

Honouring the basic rights of teachers as outlined by awards and determinations, creates a culture where teachers feel respected, trust is built and workplaces are generally happier. Staff morale is important in ensuring people work well together, are happy to do extra-curriculum activities and are willing to put their hand up for leadership positions and participate in whole school teams. If teachers feel like they have unreasonable workloads, or feel that they are not being treated respectfully they will withhold their labour outside of the basic expectations.

Principals are under pressure to make funds stretch to meet a huge number of competing demands, and the temptation can be to just expect teachers to do more and more. At the same time, teacher burnout is a significant issue, with over 70% of teachers in a recent survey by Black Dog Institute reporting experiencing burnout. Working collaboratively with unions can ensure that teacher burnout can be minimised, reducing leave taken for mental health management and creating more stable staffing.

The same Black Dog Institute survey mentioned above indicates that nearly half of teachers are considering leaving the profession. Teacher retention in individual schools can also be an issue, and instability as a result of teacher retention issues can impact on student learning. Managing teacher workloads and expectations on staff is something that can be collaboratively managed with a productive relationship between Senior Executive and unions.

In short, both principals and unions should be focused on the wellbeing and health of teachers. Better care for teachers will result in better outcomes for students.

I have chosen to step away from my role as Deputy Principal until the end of 2025 to explore a range of passion projects and programs. In the past couple of weeks I have been reflecting on various leadership roles within schools and this is the first of a number of posts on the theme of leadership.

.One of the first lessons I was taught in my role was about the power of visible leadership. A visible leader is someone who has presence, is involved, is impactful, and guides the school. Visible leadership is not about a central figure getting attention or boosting their ego, It is about a person or small team being obvious leaders that motivate, engage and embody the culture of the school.

Here are a few practical ideas for visible leadership:

Regular communication
Senior leaders should know what is happening in their school and communicate with staff about key projects, initiatives, events and organisation regularly. There may be other staff members who provide the specific details, but the principal needs to be across what is happening and at least provide basic detail. Staff need to see that you know what's happening in your school and that there is some sort of overarching understanding of the school. This could be in the form of a regular email or post in the school software. If you don't know what is going on and can't communicate it clearly and succinctly,  you can't expect your staff to.

Attend whole school team meetings regularly
In most schools, whole school teams meetings are used to achieve the strategic directions of a school, by dividing up larger objectives into smaller achievable milestones. It is important that teams have clear objectives for the year and term and are not just meeting to report back on operational matters. Meetings between Senior Executive members and team leaders should happen early in the year to work develop goals and align them with the school plan.

Team meetings like whole school literacy, wellbeing, etc take up a lot of time for teachers involved. It is important that staff see leaders at some of these team meetings, not only to get guidance on the desired whole school direction that the Senior Executive wants a team to take, but also to demonstrate and model that the team is important and that school leaders value the activities enough to give up their time too. At the same time, it is important to provide some space for team leaders to ensure they have the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership of the team, have some autonomy and feel like they have your trust. It's a bit of a fine balance.

Open door policy
Principals and deputies are required to undertake some work related to very delicate and sensitive issues, and sometimes need to work on very detailed and important documents. That said, the period from 9-3 is not likely to be the right time to work on those things, if possible. Ideally the most intense, heavy thinking work should be done before or after school when there are less interruptions, and in the time when school is operating, you should be accessible for your staff. Expect many and varied interruptions for a whole range of reasons, be open to prioritising other peoples' needs, and understand that other people may not be able to do their work without your input. This is not always going to be possible. There will be times when you need to concentrate and work on things in isolation during school hours, and there are also times when you need to close the door to get a moment to yourself, This is fine, but the overall principle should be that you are there for your staff to support them in addressing their needs so they can do their work.

Be a lifelong learner
School leaders that demonstrate that they are always seeking knowledge, updating their skills and taking risks in their learning, will develop a culture in their staff that values professional learning and sees its purpose in the school's progress. Principals can shape whole staff discussions and learning by integrating professional readings and latest research as part of normal practice, Personally leading aspects of whole staff learning rather than relying on other staff to do it, also demonstrates to staff that they still know how to teach after being out of the classroom for a while, and that they are involved in direction of staff training in a hands-on way. 

Event attendance
Senior Executive members should attend all school events (or as many as possible). If staff are expected to attend events, school leaders should be there, should do some of the leg work setting up and should help with lock up. Again, this is all about modelling expected behaviours to staff, ensuring they know that you understand  and appreciate their efforts and hard work, that you know about and are involved in the activities that are happening within the school, It is about modelling the culture that you want to see in your staff - don't expect others to do something you aren't willing to do. 

Walk around the playground at recess and lunch
At recess and lunch, get away from your computer and your desk and walk around to each playground. This seems like a low-order, repetitive, time-consuming task, but is really important. This means that every student will see you everyday. They will know who you are, they might have a conversation with you, and they will hear you talking to students about your expectations. They will know that at any time you could just walk by. This is not intended to be a disciplinarian walking around like a Sargeant Major, just an extra person out and about talking to students and teachers and being present. It builds students' familiarity with you, and helps staff feel supported.

Being in the playground allows you to have general, friendly conversations with members of staff on duty and get to know them better. Ask them about their weekend, their holiday plans, how their day is going....whatever. Ideally, the conversation should be non-work related - it is lunchtime afterall.  However, if teachers have had a difficult lesson, they might want to talk to you about it. You can give them ideas for classroom management, provide a bit of extra information about a student, talk through behaviour processes, or just listen.

This year saw the third year of implementing the Balmain Foreshore Project. In 2022 and 2023, the project was implemented with Year 10 students, and this year the project was expanded into Year 9. Again, it saw the Geography and Science teachers of an Enrichment class working together to provide an alternate, extension program. The Year 10 program involves a focus on mangroves and the intertidal zone to study the Environmental Change and Management topic in Geography, and the Chemistry topic in Science (mainly learnig about water testing). This year the Year 9 Science class was studying a topic called Ecosystems - a combination of a number of syllabus topics, and Biomes in Geography. This seemed like it was a pretty natural fit. 

For 2024, the decision was made to extend the project to Year 9 and to take a different but complementary approach to examining the foreshore by examining bushcare sites along the foreshore. A section of the school grounds, adjacent to the site where the Living Seawalls were installed the previous year, has a bushcare site maintained by volunteers. Less than a 2km walk away, is another bushcare site located at Callan Park. Students carried out a comparison study between the two sites.

The Balmain Foreshore Project allows students to undertake a set of tests, and fieldwork activities which address investigation and inquiry skills requirements in both Geography and Science. The similarities and connections between the Geographic Inquiry process and a Scientific Investigation was explained, and links between the Science and Geography content was discussed with students. Students were asked to develop a series of inquiry questions to guide their investigation into the two bush care sites. They were also asked to identify appropriate fieldwork they could undertake to carry out their investigation.

Students were introduced to the two bush cares sites - one on school grounds, and another a couple of kilometres away in a local park. Information was provided about soils, vegetation, fauna and comparable, nearby sites in close to their natural state.

Students undertook some basic fieldwork to become familiar with the two sites - an environmental perception form and field sketch. They also undertook abiotic testing of the two sites - air temperature, soil temperature, humidity, light intensity, wind speed and direction, soil texture, soil parent material, soil moisture/colour and leaf litter depth.

At each site, student choose three plants on which to undertake Specific plant studies. This included a small drawing to the tree shape, an estimation of the tree height, trunk circumference, the flower shape and colour, a drawing and description of the leaf shape and colour, a description of the bark texture and colour and drawing of a seed pod.

Students were required to take a series of photographs recording the types of trees and plants found at each location. These photos were then uploaded into a shared Google folder for identification.

A bird field guide and associated tally sheet were used to enable students to complete a bird biodiversity study.

Following the fieldwork activities, students were required to plan, write, film, narrate a video documentary to present their findings. In the process of completing their documentaries several groups of students also undertook filmed interviews with members of the public.

The project culminated in a class debate:
Urbanisation is a threat to sustainable biomes. Should there be limitations on urban land uses on the Iron Cove foreshore to prioritise environmental conservation?