NSW Branch Messages

It’s here! The 2025 ACEL NSW and National Awards are now open for nominations . It’s time to start thinking about those leaders who you see making professional impact, either at our state level, or even more widely across the nation. For the last 50 years, ACEL has been the pre-eminent national professional association for leaders and emerging leaders, a reputation built on the shoulders of such giants as Frank Crowther, Partick Duignan, Michelle Bruniges, Martin Westwell, Ann McIntyre, Sandra Milligan, and John Cleary. In New South Wales, we have been enriched through the contribution of luminaries such as Joanne Jarvis, Murat Dizdar, Prof Br David Hall ...

Welcome to a new academic year. By now our Early Childhood, Primary, and Secondary colleagues are well into the swing of things. Tertiary colleagues will soon welcome back their students, although many have also toiled away with summer session units, too. Wherever you find yourself, I hope the year has started smoothly for you and your community. Welcome, too, to our new members; we’re glad you’re here and look forward to connecting with you more directly in due course. Before heading too far, though, spare a thought for colleagues in other places across the nation who face difficult starts to their year, either through flood, fire, or tragic loss. Each ...

Another year has hurtled along almost in the blink of an eye, it seems. Hopefully you’re in the process of wrapping up the year; some might already have done so. In the midst of this flurry, it’s good to stop and reflect on what 2024 has given you. Perhaps this has been the first year you’ve been part of ACEL, or re-engaged with ACEL through our activities and online resources. Thanks for being part of our community; we really appreciate your contribution to the profession’s leading voice. At a time when there seems plenty of naysayers about the future of education, we're glad you’re part of a community which sees possibility, opportunity, and hope. The ...

There’s been an eery silence from education policy commentators in the wake of the release of PISA 2022 creative thinking results It begs the question as to why. They are, after all, some good news within the PISA universe. After falling literacy and numeracy results for the past decade, along with attendant anguish and blame apportioning, the results for creative thinking place Australia as 4th best in the world! And yet many of the commentariat seem stunningly silent. The other PISA results were routinely dissected by all and sundry, with particular concern that Mathematics had fallen significantly in the rankings: Australia’s mean score is now equal ...

Dear colleagues, It’s back to school for NSW this week. Hopefully you’ve been able to enjoy some rest and time for reflection on Term 1. As the busyness of a term gets underway, the impact of the rest can quickly dissipate. Perhaps, though, you might find a new strategy to build into your routine, perhaps an extra ten minutes to spend quietly, perhaps an extra walk around the block to clear your head. As the challenges below highlight, sustaining ourselves for the task of leading is critical at the best of times, and perhaps feels even more so at the moment. The start of this term brings a welcome opportunity to pass on positive suggestions to principals’ ...

Farewell 2023 The anticipation of starting the 2023 academic year seems a long time ago, doesn’t it? Remember January when you were preparing for your new class, or new colleagues, or new processes, or curriculum? Remember stress around the explosion of ChatGPT, which coincidentally celebrated its much-publicised anniversary last week (although earlier and less profiled versions had already been around for a few years)? Remember hoping to have a year without COVID? Or staff shortages? Now that we find ourselves on the threshold of a break from the ebbs and flows of the year, take some time to reflect on how the year has been for you. What can ...

It’s just over a month since the ACEL 50th Annual Conference held in Brisbane, and the glow of the celebrations continue; if you haven’t seen the highlights video, you can do so here . It was great to see so many NSW educational leaders there. The richness of ACEL is its breadth and inclusivity, so to bring together over 600 educational leaders from early childhood to tertiary education, and from all three school sectors, was a wonderful testimony to what has been achieved in our first 50 years. As we were encouraged at the conference, let’s celebrate our heritage and use this to springboard us from the present and into our future. Sydney played host to the ...

A highlight each year is our NSW ACEL Leadership Awards. I would like to congratulate the 2023 awardees who were nominated by their colleagues and successfully awarded as part of a rigorous selection process- Murat Dizdar (Dr Paul Brock Medal), Professor Br David Hall (Dr Paul Brock Medal), Dr Jenna Price (Traditional and Social Media Award), Anna Dickinson (Leadership Award), Michael Egan (Leadership Award), Michele McDonald (Leadership Award), Dale Palmer (Leadership Award), Robyn Pemberton (Leadership Award), Denise Lofts (Leadership Award), Stuart Ryan (Leadership Award), Nicholas Saunders (Leadership Awards), The Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst Learning ...

A new term is underway, and it’s extraordinary to think we’re already halfway through this academic year! And what a year it is for education! It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen so much high-level activity and conversation covering just about the full scope of the profession: A Productivity Commission inquiry into Early Childhood Education; A review of Initial Teacher Education; A National Teacher Workforce Action Plan; A review of the National School Reform Agreement; A report into the University Accord. It’s exhausting keeping up with reading even just the Executive Summaries and media commentary. Their scope speaks to a keen interest ...