Hosted by The Academy, the 2024 Government Schools Principals Conference was held on Monday 29 July and was attended by over 2,700 school and system leaders from across Victoria. The event brought together 1,330 principals, 977 assistant principals, and hundreds of Department of Education leaders and support staff under the theme: ‘Leading Together: Inspire, learn, network.’ 

Keynote addresses and speeches

Dr Jenny Donovan

Title: Using evidence on implementation and on practice: a powerful combination   

Abstract: Instructional leadership is a big and complex job. The first part of this keynote will describe evidence from the research literature about leading school-level change, as well as insights from AERO’s own work to apply these approaches in Australian schools. One insight is perhaps self-evident, but often overlooked: change efforts should focus on teaching practices that are most likely to deliver improved learning. The second part of this keynote will describe what we know about which practices these are. Combining evidence about implementation with evidence about what to implement offers a powerful pathway to maximising learning for every student.  

Biography

Dr Jenny Donovan is the inaugural CEO of the Australian Education Research Organisation. Prior to this role, she established and led the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) as Executive Director for 8 years.  

Dr Donovan began her career as a high school teacher in Sydney’s western suburbs. She has worked in a number of education roles in operational and policy areas, including some years as Deputy Director of a not-for-profit education assessment agency at the University of New South Wales.  

In 2024, she was a member of Professor Mark Scott’s Teacher Education Expert Panel which delivered recommendations for reform to Initial Teacher Education that were accepted by Australia’s education Ministers. As a result, an evidence-based core curriculum will be implemented in all initial teacher education.  

Jenny holds a Bachelor of Arts with a Diploma of Education from Macquarie University, an MA (Hons) from UNSW and a PhD in history from the University of Sydney.  

Keynote video - Using evidence on implementation and on practice: a powerful combination 
 

Dr Kirstin Ferguson AM

Biography

Dr Kirstin Ferguson is an internationally acclaimed leadership expert, author, columnist, and keynote speaker.

Ranked as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, Kirstin was also awarded the Thinkers50 Distinguished Leadership Award in 2023.

Kirstin began her career as an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and has held roles including chief executive officer of an international consulting firm and acting chair and deputy chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. During a fifteen-year career as a company director, Kirstin sat on a range of large publicly listed, private company and non-profit boards.

Kirstin has a PhD in leadership and culture and honours degrees in Law and History. She is an adjunct professor at the Queensland University of Technology Business School, where she was named Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 2020. In 2023, Kirstin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her significant service to business and gender equality. 

Since 2001, Kirstin has written a popular nationally syndicated weekly column in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, in which she answers readers' questions about work, leadership and careers.

More about Dr Kirstin Ferguson AM

Dr David Howes  

Deputy Secretary, Schools and Regional Services, Department of Education

Deputy Secretary, David Howes address

The Hon. Ben Carroll MP

Deputy Premier of Victoria, Minister for Education and Minister for Medical Research

The Hon. Ben Carroll MP official opening  

Workshop presentations

The conference included a range of excellent speakers and workshops, including a variety of guests.

Hannah Matus – A/Project Director and Nerida Mason - Manager Information Sharing Implementation, Victorian Child Information Sharing Division

• Working together to promote student wellbeing and safety through Child Link (PDF, 2.01 MB)
• Child Link

Jason Smallwood – Executive Director Curriculum and Leyna Buller - Senior Policy and Strategic Advisor F–10 Revision

• Introduction to the Victorian Curriculum F-10 Version 2 (PDF, 1.41 MB)
• Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2

Scott Widmer – Assistant Deputy Secretary, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Taskforce

• Expanding the definition of success at school (PDF, 3.33 MB)
• Senior Secondary Pathways Reform 

Kendra Parker – Director, Leadership Excellence Division, Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership and Simone Eirth – Principal in Residence, Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership

• Leading collaborative problem solving to drive school improvement (PDF, 3.25 MB)

We also had workshops from the following guest speakers:

• Elizabeth Branigan – Educational leadership expert, Philanthropy Australia ‘Deep Listening for Networking and Collaboration’
• Dr Richard Chambers – Clinical psychologist and leadership consultant: 'Enhancing collaboration through empathic communication, conflict resolution, and psychological safety'
• Dave Faulkner – CEO and Co-founder, Education Changemakers: ‘Dream Team: A practical guide to leading improvement as a team’
• Emina McLean – Lecturer, researcher and English leader, La Trobe University ‘Leveraging literacy leadership in schools and systems’
• Mel Neil – Founder and CEO, Mind Insurance ‘Positive Leadership - Creating the Conditions for Flourishing’
• Emily Unity – Youth mental health advocate, software engineer and creative designer ‘Consultation to Co-Design: Principles and Methods for Collaborative Leadership’

School presentations

The conference had a broad range of school presentation from across Victoria. 

Below are 30 insightful presentations from principals and school leadership teams who have courageously shared their experiences, challenges, opportunities, and school improvement journeys. These workshops provided an authentic glimpse into the leadership that shapes our schools and represent the voice of a profession committed to education. 

By sharing these stories, we aim to highlight the powerful impact of our principals’ leadership on school communities. 

Auburn South Primary School & Alpine-Towong Network

• Embedded wellbeing inquiry (PDF, 4.86 MB) 

  

Banyule Nillumbik Network Primary Secondary maths CoP

• Improving mathematics teaching through collaboration across schools (PDF, 1.36 MB)

Barwon North Central

• Leading networks for impact (PDF, 2.1 MB)

Bendigo Education Plan

• Collaborative leadership of the Bendigo Education Plan shared goals and strategic plan (PDF, 1.13 MB)

Bruthen Primary School - Embedding student agency in classroom practice

• This presentation will be provided shortly.

Central Highlands schools 

• Leading and supporting the vision of Marrung (PDF, 7.1 MB)

Central Highlands South Network

• Our journey to a highly valued, collaborative and focused network (PDF, 1.91 MB)

Chelsea Heights Primary School & Chelsea Primary School

• Coaching and explicit teaching in clusters of schools in Kingston (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Churchill Primary School

• Instructional leadership: embedding low variance across the school to achieve high performance (PDF, 4.51 MB)

Echuca Transition Project: Strengthening transition – A leadership project highlighting collaboration across a cluster of schools

• This presentation will be provided shortly.

Euroa Primary School

• Strategic School Improvement: Building Leadership Capacity (PDF, 1.02 MB)

Greater Shepparton Secondary College, Rowville Secondary College

• Senior Secondary Reform beyond curriculum change (PDF, 4.08 MB)

Knox Network Boutique Schools and Lilydale District and Upper Yarra Education Plan

• Strong collaboration leading to improved outcomes (PDF, 8.4 MB)

Labertouche Primary School

• Small schools and social and emotional learning (PDF, 6.41 MB)

Lal Lal, Bungaree, Warrenheip & Mt Egerton Primary Schools

• Small schools making a big difference together (PDF, 8.33 MB)

Lilydale Heights Secondary College

• A numeracy improvement journey (PDF, 3.59 MB)

Macedon Ranges Network

• Activating middle leadership - a Network approach (PDF, 2.19 MB)

Mount Waverley North Primary School - Zero Tolerance to Racism: a whole school commitment

• This presentation will be provided shortly.

North Central Cluster - 

• Supporting pathways in rural areas (PDF, 7.14 MB)

P-12 Alliance and Country Education Partnership - 

• Together We Thrive: P-12 principals united (PDF, 928 KB)

Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College

• Embedding the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework (PDF, 3.12 MB) - to positively impact school culture through evidence-based practices

Rolling Hills and Mooroolbark College

• Working together on 6-7 transition with a focus on improving Mathematics (PDF, 7.19 MB)

South Melbourne Primary School

• Literature rich, knowledge-based curriculum (PDF, 8.04 MB)

Sunbury Heights Primary School

• Student, staff collaboration across Network schools in STEM programs and competitions (PDF, 3 MB)

Teaching Innovation Fellowship – Mount Rowan Secondary College Teaching Innovation project showcase

• Improving Koorie cultural connections, agency and self-determination by applying responsive pedagogies (PDF, 1.92 MB)

Upper Plenty Primary School

• Strengthening cognitive pathways to support student learning (PDF, 3.42 MB)

Western Heights College

• Strengthening cultural safety for Koorie students (PDF, 7.08 MB)

Whittington Primary School

• Trauma informed teaching and learning success (PDF, 1.85 MB)

Wimmera South West Schools

• Establishing Learning Communities to support leaders of schools with Numeracy and Literacy Improvement (PDF, 2.65 MB)

Wodonga South Primary School

• School Improvement practices that enable effective team performance (PDF, 4.24 MB)