President's Message

Greetings to all our Principals,

I hope the school year has started well for you and the staff are settling into their roles. From personal experience the year starts with an analysis of the Higher School Certificate Learning Gain and acknowledging the great work that staff have put into enabling our students to achieve this growth. Whilst the examination results are cause for celebration the question that always comes to mind for me is what result should each student have received. That is where the learning gain analysis comes into its own. The dialogue that ensues between staff KLA Leaders, teachers and senior leadership brings a richness to learning and a desire to do better.

With new staff inductions and Leadership Team Meetings happening it is a time of excitement and anticipation as we welcome back our students. The employment environment still remains extremely competitive. With these challenges that we all face it is even more important to keep our networks strong and support each other.  One way of doing this is attending quality professional learning.

We hope to see you all at our biennial Conference in Perth, Western Australia from July 14-16 at the Crown. We have also extended an invitation to our Primary Principals across the country and hope to see this opportunity as the start of a greater connection with our Primary Associations, especially with a number of schools moving to a K-12 model. For all communications, please refer to our CaSPA Website or communicate with your State/Territory Director.

The CaSPA Board has already been approached by the Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living to participate in a public hearing for its current inquiry on Thursday, 1 February in Brisbane. We all know of families who are struggling to pay school fees and associated costs so this will be a good opportunity to have a voice in this domain. Ann Rebgetz will represent CaSPA at the Senate Select Committee.

We have also appointed a new Executive Officer to succeed Phil Lewis who will retire at the end of July this year. I am pleased to announce that Michael Egan will be the new Executive Officer. Michael comes with a wealth of experience as a Principal Leader as well as numerous connections across Principal Representative bodies. We will start the handover process at our first meeting in Canberra. Thank you to Michael Lee OAM and Ann Rebgetz for joining me on the panel and conducting the relevant Referee checks.

Have a successful year.

Dr Stephen Kennaugh
CaSPA President