NSW Secondary Deputy Principals Association Inc.

The implementation of a national curriculum is a new concept for States and Territories. There is considerable anticipation in NSW as to how the Phase 1 K-10 curriculum has responded to consultation feedback.

The Board of Studies traditionally has responsibility for curriculum development and initial implementation support in NSW. What will that look like in the context of a nationally developed curriculum model? What will be the model for implementation? How will the Board work with school systems and sectors to ensure an effective program of professional support?

Ken Olah OAM: "National curriculum: opportunities and challenges"

Australia is finally developing a national curriculum. A consistent, quality curriculum for all Australian students ought to be a good thing.

How is this national curriculum shaping up? What challenges will it present for teachers in New South Wales? What support will there be? And why and how will Deputy Principals be critical to a successful outcome?

Ian Parnaby: "School Finance 101"

Finance 101" - a rundown on what DET finance looks like in the future: some ways of "making money for your school": investing - how is it done and what do I have to do to get good returns ?

If you can't save money after this session, or don't get a few tips to make money, then go and ask to get your money for this conference back !!

Miriam Wride: "Aligning assessment, higher order thinking and quality teaching"

The workshop will be practical and humorous. The workshop will focus on linking the explicit teaching of thinking to assessment tasks to deep understanding, extended writing and curriculum.

Workshop attendees will take away strategies for working with staff and change management. The approach used is explicit and useful for all levels in a schools hierarchy when Deputy Principals plan change in their school.

The workshop should assist in professional learning across the school and help the journey of developing professional leaning communities.

There will be lots of strategies to take back to school.

Wayne Freakley (Principal Legal Officer DET): "Legal Issues for Deputy Principals - How best to avoid trouble"

Workshop will be an interactive session in which information on the latest legal and quasi-legal issues impacting on schools and the role of the Deputy Principal will be discussed.

Ben Jones (Project Officer of Professional Learning and Curriculum Support for DERNSW): "Using technology for leadership and enabling teachers to connect, collaborate and create"

This will be a very practical and hands on workshop exploring a range of technologies that already exist in all schools. Bring a DERvice or school laptop to participate.

Some of the topics covered:

How to create a Digital TARs process that is more engaging for staff, model’s technology and improves accountability and record keeping
Using OneNote to facilitate effective meetings and enable in meeting collaboration
Creating Digital Forms to replace paper forms and processes

This workshop will be an open discussion and Deputies are welcome to discuss other issues and processes that they would like, and to explore technology as a way of streamlining administration to focus on leadership.

Jacqueline Lyons: "Dealing with challenging people in your workplace"

The work of Deputy Principals is often highly stressful and interpersonal conflicts in the workplace contribute to this. This workshop examines some different ways to look at challenging people in your workplace, and how to reduce anxiety and conflict.

The workshop is very interactive and looks at school cultures; the psychology of happiness; hints for conflict free conversations and some commonly faced scenarios. The scope of the workshop now includes both challenging staff and parents. An appendix of helpful resources will be given out with the workbooks.

Please come prepared to share your expertise and experience.

Rob Assar (Manager School Promotions DET): "Leaders - dealers in hope or no-hopers? Improving and changing perceptions of you and your school"

Benefits of improved and more professional communication range from increased enrolments, morale and sometime better results. In an increasingly competitive educational market educational leaders need to understand that message sent is not always message received.
The workshop will include discussion on the following;

Perceptions of public education
How we got to here
Quality communication – eliminating pedagogy and other non-translatable diseases
Twenty things you could do to improve the image of your school.

Page last updated July 2010