School leaders play a vital role in delivering the department's vision as well as providing education leadership for the benefit of improving student outcomes.
These leadership roles include:
- Head of Curriculum (HOC)
- Head of Department (HOD)
- Head of Special Education (HOSE).
Capability and leadership frameworks
The
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) and
Australian Professional Standard for Principals (APSP) outline what teachers and school leaders are expected to know, understand and do to achieve their work.
The
Leadership Competencies for Queensland describes what highly effective, everyday leadership looks like in the public sector. In simple, action-oriented language, it provides a common understanding of the foundations for success across all of our roles within the Department of Education.
The APST, APSP and Leadership Competencies for Queensland collectively provide the holistic picture of the leadership capability required for our staff.
Teaching and learning audits
In 2010, the Queensland Government introduced comprehensive audit requirements for state schools in the area of teaching and learning. That year, all Queensland state schools were audited against eight domains covered in the Audit Instrument.
The Audit Instrument was developed by the
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) under contract to the department using international research.
The instrument is also informed by:
In 2011, the department continued to audit Queensland state schools in line with each school's quadrennial school review, in the term after a new permanent principal is appointed or at the request of the principal. Schools will not be audited more than once in any 12 month period.
As a school leader, you will use the information gained from the audit to design strategies and initiatives that promote school improvement.
Induction
The induction process ensures that new employees are equipped with the knowledge to do their job effectively and have an understanding of how their role contributes to the school's educational objectives.
It is appropriate for a comprehensive local induction to take several months, but priority must be given to the mandatory induction relevant to the role. All employees are required to complete the mandatory induction program in either a face-to-face or online environment, and revisit the relevant mandatory components annually. See the
appropriate induction planner for details of mandatory induction requirements for a role.
Guidelines and resources are available to help you deliver effective mandatory and local inductions.
Leading the performance and development processes
The performance and development processes and great leadership practice are connected. They share a focus on relationships, understanding your people, teams and the workplace. The
positive performance management (PPM) (Directive 15/20) is a framework that allows managers/leaders to work with their people to develop and recognise performance, achievements and opportunities. Leaders and managers incorporate PPM into management and leadership practice by working with their people to:
- set clear expectations
- provide regular and constructive feedback
- communicate and document any gaps
- identify relevant development opportunities.
The
employee performance and development policy applies to all our people in the department and outlines the manager and leader requirements for leading performance and development.
You will find many of the capabilities required for leading performance and development conversations may also apply to other leadership situations.
Performance leadership/management
As a leader, you are responsible for managing the work performance of your team members, ensuring everyone is performing their duties to the best of their abilities and contributing effectively to the objectives in the school plan.
All managers and leaders are expected to embed performance management into their practice. This involves regular and consistent conversations with employees regarding performance and responding promptly and effectively if poor performance or unacceptable behaviours arise.
Occasionally, you may need to address unsatisfactory performance or behaviours that impact adversely on other team members or student outcomes – this can be challenging. Developing trusting and respectful relationships with and between employees is essential to enable performance issues to be managed before they become discipline issues.
Guidance is available in the managing unsatisfactory performance suite of procedures.
Code of school behaviour
You will be expected to model the behaviours expected of staff within your school as outlined in the school’s
Student Code of Conduct.
These expectations align with your responsibilities under the
Code of Conduct, the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Management Framework and the legislative requirements of the
Information Privacy Act 2009. You may need to discuss these expectations with other school staff as part of your role.
Aspiring to promotional positions
Many career-advancing opportunities are available for high performing teachers. Refer to the career opportunities information at
Teach Queensland.
Professional learning opportunities
Your own professional learning may include: