School leaders embrace future vision for student success

In today's ever-evolving educational landscape, school leaders are steering towards a visionary path focused on long-term outcomes for students to enable them to thrive in society as adults.

Often, this ‘thinking ahead’ also applies to students’ learning beyond the school years.

Victoria Triantafyllou, Assistant Principal at Richmond High School, recently shared insights from an inspiring Academy professional learning session presented by internationally recognised educational leader Valerie Hannon. The program challenged school leaders to think differently about success and the future of education.

Reflecting on the day, Victoria noted, ‘It prompted me to rethink what success means for our school and how we can better prepare students for the future.’

She explained, ‘This session provided valuable insights that helped me reframe some of the challenges we face at the school level, particularly those related to longstanding organisational difficulties.

She continued, ‘The session prompted me to reflect on what success in a school truly looks like, how we measure it, and how we can shift education to better serve young people today.’

One of the key themes that resonated with Victoria was the concept of creating future-fit social capital within a school setting.

‘Understanding that post-school success involves more than just skill and content acquisition, it made me question how effectively we are preparing our young people for the future.’

Principal of Rowville Secondary College, Julie Kennedy, echoed similar sentiments, sharing that she enjoyed the insights and signposts Valerie unpacked during the workshop.’

‘They affirmed my work as a school leader and supported me in leading the creation of a new narrative for my school that makes it clear what we value, prioritises equity and commits us to experimentation.’

She went on to explain that her focus had shifted from achievement to growth and how the language around ‘successes’ had shifted to more of an emphasis on students, staff and their ‘thriving’ community.

Valerie is presenting another workshop series with the Academy, titled Thinking Ahead: Future Focused Leadership. In this program busy leaders will be supported to see above the everyday demands and to rethink schooling in a future focused way.