Value our school leaders!
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 124 No 3, 23 April 2019, page no. 10
The QTU’s message to the government, their employer, is that our school leaders are worth more! This EB, it’s time for the government to deliver - not just a 21st century classification structure for promotional positions, but salaries that demonstrate that value and worth.
The Promotional Positions Classification Review has affirmed that principals and heads of program are so much more than the bureaucratic formula that is used to measure their worth.
The value of a school leader is wrapped into a range of factors, including their instructional leadership (after all how can you lead teachers without having an implicit understanding of the role, the type of understanding that can only come from having been a teacher), the way they respond to the complexities of their school community, and the support they provide to students and staff.
They are the ones who ensure department priorities are addressed in the school, manage parents’ expectations and secure resources to support the learning needs of the students in their care. School leaders do all they can to provide a healthy and safe learning and teaching environment in the school.
And we mustn’t forget that principals and their schools are found all over Queensland in remote, rural, regional and metropolitan settings. Principals play an important role in all those communities, particularly during natural disasters, when schools become places of refuge for communities under threat.
These are some of the things that are not easily quantified but are intrinsic to the value of our school leaders.