The Public Education Foundation's new campaign features Australian household names, like Kurt Fearnley, scroll down to find out more.

Principals supporting families, and families supporting principals

Hi everyone,

Earlier this month we celebrated National Principals Day - scroll down for our graphic - where we publicly recognised and appreciated the leadership and support our school principals provide. ACSSO staunchly advocates for our state school principals as community leaders.

Supportive principals are crucial to school staff, but perhaps even more crucial to other members of the school and local community. As leaders, principals are the school's public face – from presenting events or setting the vision and direction for the school, to resolving conflicts and managing emergencies.

The continued support principals provide for family engagement through school learning and external community development sets a clear course for a culture promoting a welcoming and respectful attitude.

Family engagement

Something we often discuss with school organisations is how they work with their principals. There is definitely a correlation between motivated and community-oriented principals and families who feel engaged in the school and student bodies that feel empowered.

I hear many stories of the fantastic outcomes and successful joint projects in school communities where there is clear and mutual support between the principal and families.

So to all the principals who work with their communities and build relationships to make their schools more than just a school, I thank you for that work – it is highly appreciated and you are a key part of the community.

Safe and respectful

Of course, it isn’t just the responsibility of principals to develop the engagement. Deep interactions within school communities come from a shared culture of meaningful growth.

A core element of family and community engagement is to improve relationships between members of both the school and local community. This brings many benefits like spreading realistic expectations of parents, students, staff and principals. Often our mutual expectations are not clear or realistic, and this can result in even poorer interactions, including frustrations and unacceptable behaviour.

A Federal Government strategy to address violence and bullying in the school environment is being currently developed to improve the safety of the school environment. 

I look forward to the outcomes of this strategy and for the acknowledgement that when family engagement is done well it creates positive learning outcomes. I hope it also captures the sometimes hidden benefits of quality family-school engagement, like reducing violence and bullying behaviours and providing a safe working and learning environment.

Pandemic-enhanced disadvantage

In current times, a mention of COVID-19 and related impacts is expected and typically a leading item. This month I wanted to focus on our school leadership communities first.

As we continue to hear about the pandemic's affect on schools across the nation, we are all still feeling the lack of information. Position statements from all forms of government and organisations have changed based on available advice.

There are plenty of organisations and people crying out for more information on what can be done to help our least fortunate students and families or whole school communities. The true effect on disadvantaged students and families will not be fully realised for many years to come.

One way ACSSO has built information was our targeted survey to discern challenges faced by our represented families. There is significant material there to contribute to a model of impact that extends on our initial summary. Where we can, this will be an ongoing focus for us and will allow more information to be gathered and analysed to help our most needy families. Watch this space!
 
As always, please look after yourself, and others in your community.

Andrew Bidwell
Chair
Australian Council of State School Organisations

August 2020

How we celebrated our principals

Read our Chair's message above for more about ACSSO's advocacy for principals as community leaders, highlighted this year on 7 August for the National Principals Day. You can click on the above #caughtyoubeinggreat image* to see a short video of Andrew Bidwell's celebration of principals too.

The image includes some of the leaders of principal groups that ACSSO works with for the benefit of all our state school communities. 

Below, our CEO Dianne Giblin, shares her story of a memorable principal from her life as a student, parent, advocate and employee.

*We love to hear your stories of schools and communities doing great things. 

Send your #caughtyoubeinggreat stories to comms@acsso.org.au and use the hashtag on Facebook to find other wonderful stories.

2020 campaign continues: Public Education Foundation

The Public Education Foundation’s amazing video campaign is continuing and provides some great insights for anyone with an interest in public education as the foundation of a civil society.

Including beautifully captured reflections of great Australians as they talk about their experience of public education, the campaign aims to shine a light on the core values enshrined in our state schools.

The core values - excellence, inclusion, diversity, fairness, equity, opportunity – will be featured over the course of the campaign. They are wonderful to share with children, teachers, families and any of your community stakeholders - make sure your local politicians get a chance to view!

If you’d like to load the videos directly to your school’s website or social media channels, head to this cloud storage link and take your pick. The videos feature Aussie icons such as Kurt Fearnley (featured at the top of our newsletter this month), Deborah Mailman and Juanita Phillips sharing how Australian #PublicEducation shaped their lives.

Protecting every child

ACSSO supports the #NoChildLeftBehind campaign in calling on the Federal government to ensure a basic safety net for children and young people seeking asylum. 

You can get involved by participating in a National Week of Solidarity, happening from September 6-12 2020, which is also National Child Protection Week. 

For more information, and details about upcoming information sessions, visit the website here.

ClimateClever school subscriptions

The ClimateClever Schools Program is featured in the new ABC TV series - Fight For Planet A: Our Climate Challenge, presented by TV personality Craig Reucassel (War on Waste).

To celebrate, the program is giving away 50 free subscriptions to our award-winning program to schools across Australia! Subscriptions are valued at up to $3,000 per school. 
 
The ClimateClever Schools Program is evidence-based and underpinned by innovative, engaging online tools that help students to measure, manage and reduce their school’s carbon footprint and become leaders in sustainability and climate action.

The program has opportunities to integrate STEM, digital technologies and sustainability throughout the curriculum. You might even end up saving money on utility bills! 
  
The free subscriptions are available to public schools all over Australia, with a focus on schools in lower to medium socio-economic areas. Schools who would like to join the Fight for Planet A and receive a year's free subscription can fill out a short application form. 

The purposes of education

In this new ACARA web series, ACARA’s CEO, David de Carvalho, reflects on the purposes of education and the fundamental things that make education important.
 
“Fanning the flames of wonder” is now available as part of the series. Visit the ACARA blog to watch.

Read the latest issue of the ACARA Update for more.

The learner's journey

Every young Australian, regardless of where they live or what school they attend should be recognised through a learning system that helps them thrive.

Learning Creates is a growing alliance of people and organisations who are committed to lifting Australia through a new era of learning. Their mission is to find innovative, practical solutions to deeply entrenched and systemic educational problems.

The alliance's first project, The Learner's Journey, explores how we might redefine learning success by establishing ways of recognising and valuing learning that are trusted and understood by the community, and that have social and economic currency.

You can join the upcoming Shaping The Learner’s Journey LabX and help set the direction for the Social Lab in two online sessions on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 August, 12.30 - 4.30pm (AEST).

The first five years last forever!

High quality early childhood education, delivered by professional educators, gives children lifelong advantages and has enormous benefits for the effectiveness of schools from Foundation to Year 12, too. 

PISA Science tests show that 15 year old students who experienced a quality early childhood program had improved results that could not be isolated to any other socio-economic or educational effect!

Thank an early childhood educator this year on 2 September - you could start by sharing the below video in your school news or social media.

Growing Up Digital Australia survey

Provided by the Gonski Institute of Education. 

Are you a parent, carer or grandparent of children aged 5 to 17?
 
Do you wonder how digital media and technologies that they live with might affect their wellbeing, health and learning?
 
If your answer to these questions is ‘yes’, we would invite you to share your views with us here!
 
We at the Gonski Institute of Education at the University of NSW are working on a ground-breaking research project called Growing Up Digital Australia. This international research project that we partner with Harvard Medical School, the University of Alberta and Alberta Teachers Association seeks to understand the health, wellbeing and learning impacts of growing up in a digital world on our young people.

A number of Australian organisations are supporting this project, including Departments of Education, parent organisations and teacher associations. This longitudinal study will reframe issues surrounding children’s consumption of media and digital technologies moving into an evidence-based solutions to parents, educators and young people to live healthier, safer and happier lives here in Australia.
 
 The Growing Up Digital project Phase 1 saw us work with almost 2,000 educators from around the country and find out what is happening in classrooms through the eyes of teachers and principals. Now with this Phase 2 survey, it is your turn as parents and grandparents to have your say.
 
 This project has Ethics approval, and poses no risk to you. Participation is voluntary and you will never be identified at any stage. By completing the survey, you have the chance to be entered into the draw for one of four $100 Coles Myer gift cards.
 
 This Phase 2 survey will be open until 11 October, 2020. If you are a parent, carer or grandparent of any child aged 5-17, please complete the survey here. You may also share this invitation to take part in this research with others by sharing the link to the questionnaire. If you are a parent, we would be delighted if you would invite one of your child’s grandparents to take part in this survey.
 
To find out more about our project, and the results from Phase 1, visit us here. 

Walk safely to school 

The landmark national event Walk Safely To School Day is a beautiful way to herald the warmer weather on its way.

This year WSTSD occurs on 11 September. Read all about it in ACSSO's media release, here and for newsletter and promotional material - even a school assembly powerpoint kit - head to the website here.

Help young people face the future

In the future, young people will enter a world of work unique in history.

It will demand new skills, bring forth new industries and occupations, and feature advanced technologies that alter how we work, among other changes.

There may be challenges, but there will also be new opportunities brought by these shifts.

Career influencers like parents and teachers can find helpful content from a range of sources on this topic. View myfuture’s Future of Work feature page.

Are you north of Capricorn?

If your school is located north of the Tropic of Capricorn you might want to step up and register for the Great Northern Clean Up.

The northern sibling of Australia’s largest environmental day of action, Clean Up Australia Day, The Great Northern Clean Up has been an annual event since 2009.

The winter date gives communities north of the Tropic of Capricorn the flexibility to participate in clean up events after the peak tourist period and prior to the cyclone season.

Register a northern Clean Up here or search for a site near you on the map here.

Save the date

With continuing uncertainty around in-person gatherings we recommend subscribing to any information emails that conference organisers might be issuing or following the links below for advice.

• P&Cs Qld – AGM 11 September. The State Conference has been cancelled, new date 10-11 September 2021.
• TASSO AGM - 16 September 
• Parents Victoria – Friend not Foe – virtual conference 19 October
• ACSSO AGM online – 31 October