How?

Developing & Supporting School Leaders at Every Level

 

Purpose:

To cultivate spiritual leadership principles grounded in sustainable leadership practices.

 

 

A key initiative to ensure ongoing leadership sustainability is the creation of our leadership institute, with the vision that all of our schools are continually led by highly effective, Christ-centred leadership teams.

The Leadership Institute will source and provide relevant, evidence-informed professional learning experiences for current, aspiring and emerging leaders based on the 70:20:10 model of learning and development. To accomplish this, the Leadership Institute will utilise expertise in the Adventist system and further build capacity by working with external providers. Each professional learning experience will align with individual reflection, capability, career stage and context to maximise leadership skills for the greatest impact. Transparent career pathways will be shared with all staff to encourage progression to and in school leadership. Potential leaders will be identified early in their careers to develop and nurture their leadership skills and will be given voice and agency. The Leadership Institute is the central focus or commitment by the system to leadership development. However, leadership development is everyone’s business.

The ASA Leadership Institute’s Growth & Support Model

The growth and support model demonstrates that when our leaders are supported through spiritual nurture, peer partnerships, expert connections, mentoring/coaching, and engagement in reflective practice, their leadership competencies increase. When each aspect works together, the result is flourishing leadership that leads to energised and thriving communities of faith and learning. The five interlocking systems of support work together to create a challenging yet supportive leadership development environment. Reflective practice is crucial to leadership growth. Support from expert connections, mentors/coaches and peer partnerships enable us to be supported and challenged in our practice. Our Adventist Identity permeates everything we do so the spiritual nurture of our leaders is vital to all facets of our leadership.

 

The Standard for Adventist School Leaders

In order to establish best practice in an Adventist Identity context, the Australian Professional Standard for Principals has been infused with requirements specific to the Adventist School leader. The primary purpose to be served is to ensure that Adventist School leaders are working toward the same set of standards and that these standards are a legitimate expression of leadership expectations in an Adventist community of faith and learning.

The Australian Professional Standard for Principals was developed to provide guidance on what you should know, understand and do to succeed as a school leader. It is designed for both current and emerging school leaders.

By using the Australian Professional Standard for Principals as our base standard, we can ensure that professional learning opportunities are clearly linked to the required standard.

The model illustrates that, whilst leadership practices and requirements need to be detailed separately, it is important to emphasise that they are always fully interdependent and integrated. The model depicts the leadership requirements and professional practices that the ASA Leadership Institute will foster, guide and support to emerging and existing leaders to grow the leadership in all our leaders.

The Leadership Requirements are central to the Principal Standard. To be an effective principal or school leader, there are three core requirements. The Leadership Requirements are tied to the Professional Practices, and should be integrated and used together.  We have added a 6th professional practice.