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As we come towards the end of Term 1, I wish to thank all school leaders for your ongoing commitment, focus and energy in ensuring the wellbeing of your students and staff continues to be front and centre in all that you do.
This week NTPA facilitated an online event ‘Leading through Tough Times’ for school leaders in the central region with Kristen Douglas, National Manager Headspace Schools and Communities. Kristen spoke about the importance of using VUCA leadership skills (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambigious), and that we must put ourselves ‘up on the balcony’ using reflective practice tools. Participants were provided opportunities to engage in reflective practice using different tools to reflect, discuss and share.
Kristen used the battery metaphor to help us identify at what level our battery was at. It's a great visual to acknowledge that taking time to recharge is needed. She talked about paying close attention to your battery and what commitments you can make to recharge your battery as you go into the school break.
This is important as we know that when you are strong (fully charged) your school will thrive.
Enjoy a happy, safe and restful Easter
Robyn
Robyn Thorpe
President Email: ntpa.admin@education.nt.gov.au or ntpa.president@education.nt.gov.au
NTPA exec are excited to launch the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan.
Our Mission
- Support all school leaders in the NT through advocacy, partnerships, connection and professional growth
- Have a strong, collective and influential voice to advocate for educational leaders
- Commit to creating a healthy and thriving culture which supports and empowers school leaders
- Build collective capacity of our current and future school leaders through support, connection and professional learning
- Advocate for equity and excellence for all learners.
Our three priority areas are
- Advocacy
- Leadership
- Leader Wellbeing
The ACU Australian Principal Occupational, Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey 2022 full report was publicly released on March 20th. NTPA followed up with a media release which we have attached. Some highlights include:
- Threats of violence, bullying, gossiping and slander all increased in 2022.
- School principals are 11X more likely to be subjected to physical violence that the average Australian
- 5% of NT principals reported physical violence and/or threats from students
- 9% of NT principals reported physical violence and/or threats from parents,
- 4% of NT school leaders triggered "red flag" alerts
Principal Associations across Australia are concerned with the results that reveal the combined impact of heavy workloads, teacher shortages and increasing offensive behaviour by parents and students, is risking school leaders’ long-term health and even shortening their life expectancy.
NTPA will continue to advocate and work with governments to implement interventions to address these concerning statistics. Successive reports have chronicled the challenge of school leadership for over a decade.
NTPA met with the Educational Leadership Culture and Care ED Romane Abell and the new Director of Safety, Culture and Care Kylie Darley. As part of the work to implement a culture of safety and care they are:
- Establishment of SWAG (Safety Wellbeing Action Group) to be stood up in the event of an emergency.
- Piloting of the Principal Wellbeing Check-In Program for school leaders- designed to provide psychological safety and support for school leaders from a Trained Consultant Psychologist.
- A Work Health and Safety desktop audit to identify department policy and procedures gaps/ small schools and community safety and housing.
- Piloting of the new ACER Principal Performance Tool to investigate implementation.
- Establishment of the Occupational Violence and Aggression in Northern Territory Government Schools Governance Committee.
- Stay safe in schools’ public campaign to be released shortly.
Be an ‘appa’ on Monday, 20 March ... … connect with a colleague school leader
Thank you to all members who participated in the ‘Be an appa’ day, connecting with a colleague to make their day. This was a proactive strategy taken by the Australian Primary Principal Association (APPA) members to show support through connection.
Collegiality and connection are important benefits of being a member of the Association. Reach out and encourage a colleague including your Assistant Principals to join our Association.
NTPA is recognised as the collective voice for school leaders throughout the NT at both a Territory and National level. It is a key stakeholder and advisory body to the Department, the Chief Executive and Minister of Education, and influences through strong partnerships, advocacy and representation on committees and groups.
Recently NTPA executive had their first Face to Face meeting for the year and connected with Minister Eva Lawler, Chief Executive Karen Weston, Deputy CE’s and Executive Directors discussing and providing feedback on a range of topics which have come from our members.
Some of the issues that were raised included greater clarity in regards to the information provided about Whole school professional development days. We know that formal communication has been sent but we have also been provided the following feedback:
- Any pre-arranged Professional Learning Days for 2023 will be honoured.
- Use your usual communication methods to inform your school communities of Day 1 Term 2.
- Consult with your staff to gain consensus for the last day of term 4 (whether or not staff will use this as a PL day or a day taken in lieu. ‘After hours’ will be considered to be the time after students have left school. Contract principals can take the Friday as time in lieu if the ‘after hours’ option is used.
Structural Realignment –NTPA have advocated for central communication as this is imperative to ensure consistent, transparent messaging and to strengthen our connection with each division in the new structural alignment and how each division supports schools at the centre.
Finance - Backpay from school cost centres- clarification that backpay for salary increases would be reimbursed back to school funds so that school funding is not used to fund the back payments (apart from the $1000 plus on-costs accrued in 2022).
Naplan- Department will provide jurisdictional feedback to the Federal Dept on the impact of weather events in the NT during Term 1. Concern raised of impact on participation rates and issues with connectivity and the supply of future devices through the 1:10 program. NTPA have raised concern that the new levels of achievement and potential impact and pressure from parents whose children ‘requires additional support.’
Vaping Parliamentary Inquiry- we are pleased with the announcement of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Electronic Cigarettes and Personal Vaporisers (Vaping) and the current scale and trends of e-cigarette and personal vaporiser use in the Northern Territory, including amongst children and young people; NTPA have been advocating for strong actions to address this problem.
Teacher Shortages – schools are feeling the pressure to fill Term 2 teacher replacements. Teacher shortages in Alice Springs continue to be an ongoing additional stress, impacted by poor media attention and lack of subsidised housing. Teacher Recruitment and Attraction team have put a number of measures in place and a new campaign is about to be launched. The department is aligning their work to the National Teacher Workforce Strategy which all Education Ministers have agreed to implement. Educational Leadership Culture and Care Division are moving from an operational to a more strategic approach to address the Departments longer term Strategic Workforce Plan.
Government Employee Housing – the department arranged a briefing meeting between GEH staff and principals to address concerns with the implementation of the new GEH policy. Please continue to provide feedback, both positive and negative on how this is working.
Principal Job descriptions- evaluating the purpose of including in the Desirable Criteria Completion of Public Sector Management Program as this is unaffordable to most school-based leaders ($12,000) and raises an equity issue.
CHATGPT- AI –raised with our Minister who has not publicly banned this, however schools will require policies and practices to mitigate issues. Education Ministers from around Australia are investigating a joint response to the implementation of AI in schools.
National School Reform Agreement- NTPA have been advocating for equity to resource the needs of every student in the NT under the new NSRA. The Minister has been a strong advocate at Education Minister Meetings for an equitable funding agreement and is positioned well to get a positive outcome.
Inclusion and Engagement Services Consultation – NTPA met with the Executive Diretcor who shared progress of the implementation of the Student Wellbeing and Inclusion Programs and Services (SWIPS) structural and service changes.
Deloitte are currently finalising the Students with disability funding model and staged implementation of the funding model which is designed to be student needs based. This is only one part of the larger department Funding Reform work, which will also look at the implementation of the recommendations from the Effective Enrolment Review, the Secondary Review and the Preschool Review.
MAPA training has been replaced with a Safe Supportive De-escalation Program. It has been co-designed from a trauma informed and positive behaviour lens. It uses a train the trainer model- 5-hour self-paced online course or a two-day face to face course.
eService Portal- Engagement Services are seeking schools across the NT to pilot the new eService portal (mixture of portal, phone and email). Please email ntpa.admin@education.nt.gov.au if you are interested.
NTPA have contributed to the Department of Education’s Enrolment and Attendance Policy Suite, which is currently going through a major review, led by Student Engagement Programs and Services. Between September and October 2022, wide consultations were held, inviting feedback from NTPA, COGSO, NT Government school principals, corporate staff across all divisions of the agency, and the Student Systems team of the Department of Corporate and Digital Development.
Go1 by Education Changemakers– all members receive a free licence to access the GO1 EC platform. Jenna Smith and members have shared the way they use this platform to deliver professional learning with their teachers and staff, aligned to their ASIP and Professional Learning calendar:
Spotlight- Tracey Ezard
NTPA members have access to EC Premium, and a subscriber favourite continues to be Tracey Ezard and her Ferocious Warmth course, based on her brilliant book.
NTPA members have access to EC Premium, and a subscriber favourite continues to be Tracey Ezard and her Ferocious Warmth course, based on her brilliant book. Click here to listen to Tracey speak about what she would love for you take away from the course, and access the course HERE. If you’re interested in getting EC Premium for your school, contact jenna.smith@go1.com.
Top End and Darwin Aspiring Leaders Program NTPA have partnered with BTS Sparks to deliver this workshop plus two online coaching sessions for school leaders in the top End and Darwin region. The cost of this program is $470 and will be held at Rydges Palmerston on Monday 22nd May.
NTPA is proudly affiliated with our National Associations and attends meetings to work collectively and collaboratively across jurisdictions. Our Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has attended both the ASPA and APPA meetings this term, addressing and listening to the issues facing principals. NTPA have been strong advocates for a more equitable funding approach to ensure every student in every school receives 100% of the SRS funding in the NT.
Australian Secondary Principals Association (ASPA)
EARLY REGISTRATION CLOSES 30 MAY 2023
For more information and Registraion follow THIS link
Australian Government Primary Principals Association (AGPPA)
Australian Special Education Principals Association (ASEPA
The QASEL Conference Organising Committee invite you to participate in Together Towards Tomorrow: QASEL and ASEPA Conference
from August 23 – 25 at the Brisbane Hilton by presenting a workshop for attendees.
This is an ideal opportunity for you to share the great work you do each and every day with our learners and as leaders of learning. We encourage submissions from all sectors and Departments of State Education. This workshop should be content that would appeal to special education leaders from Queensland and across the country, and accommodations should be made to make it accessible to all members.
Submissions are due via this survey by noon on Wednesday 3 May.
If you have any questions, click the link below or you are welcome to contact Nicole Rouen (nfinc4@eq.edu.au).
Occupational Health and Wellbeing Survey
Newspaper articles from around the country, which can be found on the APPA website at https://appa.asn.au/news/.
National School Reform Agreement
Early Childhood Education and Care National Vision
What reforms do you want to see in early childhood education and care?
National Cabinet has tasked Education and Early Years Ministers to develop a draft national long-term vision to drive future reform of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).
The draft national vision covers all forms of ECEC, including preschool and outside of school hours care.
You are invited to provide feedback on the draft national vision by completing an online survey or making a written submission.
Consultation closes 7 April.
Policy and Advisory Library (PAL)
The Policy and Advisory Library is the one-stop-shop for operational policy. The purpose-built library consists of two parts:
- All public facing policies published on the internet.
- All school and corporate policy and supporting documents published on eLearn. External documents are also accessible through eLearn.
What is happening now:
- Each division continues to review existing policies to update roles and responsibilities to align to the new department structure and make sure policies are on current NTG templates.
- Policy owners complete their reviews before they are published on the PAL.
- Policies are removed from the Document Centre.
Policies have not had any substantial change. Any new or substantially changed policies will continue to be communicated separately by their owners.
This work will be ongoing. Check the library to find the most up-to-date versions.
For support contact the Policy and Advisory team at pal.doe@education.nt.gov.au.
Student Engagement Programs and Services (SEPS) moving to eService
The department is implementing a new platform to provide a centralised and consistent way of offering services to staff via eService. Services will transition to eService in a staged approach, including replacing the current student engagement case management system – SEAT.
The move will provide the additional functionality for SEPS such as:
- online portal for schools and external parties to refer students with low attendance
- ability to track and manage emails received via generic mailboxes
- Initial Needs Identification Tool and Engagement Plans tracked and managed
- instant access to performance dashboards
- offline capability.
SEPS is working with the Department of Corporate and Digital Development and Enterprise Project Management Office on the transition. Users will be advised of the go-live date once it has been approved.
For further information, contact se.doe@education.nt.gov.au or
8999 5760.
Drugs in Schools policy amended to reference vaping
The department's Drugs in Schools policy and Management of drug related incidents in schools' guidelines have been amended to provide clarity to schools on vaping.
A definition for electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes, vapes, Electronic Nicotine Delivery systems (END), e-shisha, e-cigars, e-pipes, e-Hookas, hookah-pens, vape-pipes and e-cigs) is included.
The Tobacco Control Act 2002 applies to e-cigarettes as if they were tobacco products so the same Management of drug related incidents in schools guidelines apply when schools need to respond to vaping.
Resources, including a teacher professional learning video and classroom materials, are being developed for schools and will be available next term.
Remember memebrships are for a calendar year so now is is the time to renew or join for 2023. Click on this link to complete the form.
Since, our original Northern Territory Principals’ Association Facebook site was hacked by a video creator group we have been rebuilding.
We recommend you block this site: Old facebook site
Then follow this one: New NTPA facebook page
Thank you!