Federal President's Report 

In recent weeks there has been a dramatic shift in world politics and the conflict in the Middle East has been a challenging piece to understand and manage in our schools and the wider community. Principals play a significant community leadership role in supporting staff, students and families through these difficult times, dealing with natural disasters and significant events that impact everyone, in some way, in our schools.

Last week I attended the APF Victorian Branch AGM and professional learning day held in Melbourne. The opportunity to share the learning, reflect on my work and collegiately develop the all important leadership network were highlights of the day. The presenters and their learnings were of a high quality and challenged me to think about the work I do in my school and how this can be enhanced, supported and improved.

The support of the sponsors is invaluable and would ask all our members to consider and support these very generous business people who make these important days possible.

On a recent visit to Canberra I was joined by Phil O’Loughlin (CEO South Australian State School Leaders) , Tina King (Victorian APF President ) and Wendy Powson (Victorian APF Vice President) where we were able to meet Federal Education Minister Jason Clare to continue our ongoing dialogue around the work undertaken by our membership, raise the issues faced in our respective states and the work being done to support school leaders as they work to implement and support state and federal agendas.

The purpose of the meeting was to

• Connect to the Federal Minister and represent our members in this important space
• Understand and be aware of the Federal Education agenda and support of Minister Clare’s work
• Information sharing about work being done around Principal class workload across each of the states
• And consult around opportunities to become engaged in this work and support Federal agenda and represent our membership more broadly.

Key APF concerns

• Principal Class workload – across all sectors/ states and jurisdictions. 
  • Work is underway in all states around this issue
• Leadership challenges
  • Attraction and retention of school leaders in public education
  • Rural and hard to staff settings
  • High quality leadership development and investment
• Importance and value of Public Education
  • Across all sectors
  • Impact on student performance
  • Social equity and mobility

This meeting was made possible by the continued collaboration between our State executives, the work of SASSLA and the support of Chief Policy Adviser to the Minister Dan Skehan.

We will extend invitations for the Minister to meet with us more regularly and we look forward to more work being done in this space to support public sector leaders across the states.

L to R – Chris Chant (APF Federal President), Tina King (APF Vic Branch President), Jason Clare (Federal Minister for Education), Wendy Powson (APF Vic Branch Vice President), Phil O’Loughlin (CEP SASSLA)

Our membership numbers continue to reflect steady increases, but I would ask all APF members to contact newly appointed school leaders and invite them to consider taking out a very important membership.

Why would you ask them to join?

• Access to Legal advice and representation
• Support, advocacy and industrial protection exclusively for your individual needs as a Principal Class Employee in critical times (resulting in better outcomes). This support is provided with utter discretion and confidentiality.
• Expertise in pursuing the interest of the Principal Class collectively without fear or favour as a totally independent organisation, exclusively for the interest of the Principal Class.
• The APF is a powerful influence group and has a determination to change the direction of the government agenda on School Governance, Principal accountabilities, conditions of employment, contractual arrangements and protections.
• Regular e-newsletters with relevant information for you as a Principal Class Employee.
• Develop and extended professional and collegiate networks.