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What Have You Dumped This Year?
Reflections on Leadership, Courage and Clearing the Way

Last week, a group of educational leaders rose early to join the ACEL WA executive team for a delicious breakfast overlooking the picturesque Mount Lawley golf course. It was not the food or the view that urged leaders to start the day much earlier than typical, but the opportunity to hear from our Minister for Education, The Honourable Sabine Winton, alongside system leaders Annette Morey (Executive Director, CEWA), Steve Watson (Deputy Director General – Schools, DoE) and Kris Stafford (Director Curriculum & Pedagogy, AISWA). While the coffee was hot and strong, the buzz of conversation in the room was even stronger as leaders gathered with the education minister for breakfast. Around the tables sat leaders from government, Catholic and independent schools, universities and various education-connected businesses, all united not by sector but by the shared weight of leading in increasingly complex times and the interest in doing their best job they can. The discussion was collegial, thoughtful and, at moments, confronting.

To set the scene for a rich conversation, three phrases were offered as a provocation and theme for the morning: clarity, courage, and collective responsibility. These words framed everything that followed in a panel conversation, marvellously led by our ACEL WA vice-president and founder of On Point Events, Gary Racey. Gary’s expert facilitation offered me the opportunity just to sit and take in the messages shared, all while frantically taking notes in the ‘old school’ style of putting pen to paper so I could share some thoughts forward. Whilst I have tried to capture the views shared as accurately as possible, I acknowledge that any creative license I have taken in expressing how the thoughts landed personally is all on me.

There was broad agreement that schools now sit at the centre of social change with legislative reform, disability reform, rising mental health needs, workforce shortages, and growing parental expectations all converging at the school gate. While these pressures are often discussed as separate policy challenges, they are experienced in schools as one intertwined reality. Workload, workforce, and wellbeing, as Minister Winton shared when she addressed the leaders in the room, cannot be disentangled.

“Teaching is the most noble of professions,” Minister Winton reflected, and few, if any, in the room would disagree. But leadership has never been more complex or more demanding. Administrative burden and risk management can easily crowd out what matters most (and the very reason most of us chose our roles in the first place); leading teaching and learning. The question posed was simple but profound: how do we shift the system so leaders can focus on educational leadership?

There was recognition that structural reform alone will not “shift the dial” as while policy matters, what ultimately drives change is human infrastructure. System change requires change within every person in the system as, in essence, we are the system. Professional learning was identified as a critical lever, not as episodic training but as sustained investment in capability. Minister Winton explained that, just like with students, it should not be a lottery where teachers and leaders end up, with the quality of leadership and support depending on their postcode or sector. Autonomy, while valued, was discussed with nuance. It was outlined that autonomy does not mean fragmentation, nor people doing their own thing, it means schools swimming in the same direction, perhaps with a slightly different stroke. Collective responsibility thus requires coherence, shared purpose, and alignment around the things that matter most - what best improves outcomes for students?

A particularly resonant moment came when the conversation turned to the experience of students with complex needs, something that has taken a lot of my own focus as we have started our year at school. There was a clear acknowledgment that the willingness to work for every child is not the issue in our schools. The big question instead is “how?” How do we organise ourselves so that the experience of schooling genuinely meets students where they are? How do we ensure we are not simply asking children to fit ‘the way we have always done’ school? This requires courage, particularly when parental expectations are strong and sometimes conflicting. Leaders need to know that they are backed when they make principled decisions, including when certain adjustments are simply not reasonable. Collective responsibility must be more than rhetoric; it must translate into tangible support.

Reform discussions inevitably surfaced, including future system initiatives such as numeracy checks. Yet beneath the policy specifics sat a sharper leadership discipline, with us being urged to always consider: is this going to make a difference for students on the ground? A distinction was also drawn between adopting and adapting. Adopting often means adding something new; adapting may require doing something fundamentally different. The more confronting insight, however, was that improvement cannot be achieved by continual addition, as you cannot keep adding without taking something away. The language of ‘de-implementation’ entered the conversation, not as a technical term but as a leadership necessity. In a profession adept at absorbing new initiatives, the harder work may be deciding what to stop. Minister Winton explained that her question to all school leaders this year was going to be, “what have you dumped this year?”

This is where courage becomes practical. Leaders were challenged to consider what they had deliberately let go of so far this year. If the teachers in our classrooms are the most significant in-school influence on student learning, then leadership must focus on clearing the way for them to do what they do best. Protecting our workforce is not a peripheral concern; it is central to student success as, when the workforce thrives, everything else has a greater chance of thriving. The familiar oxygen mask metaphor surfaced as a reminder that leaders must also protect their own capacity to serve others well. Connectedness to the profession (something that ACEL is a perfect vehicle for!), meaningful engagement with staff, and a disciplined focus on what genuinely improves teaching and learning are not optional extras; they are protective strategies.

Perhaps the most affirming message of the morning was the call to assume teacher capability. Leading from the viewpoint that teachers are capable professionals shifts the tone of reform from compliance to trust. The work of leadership, then, is not to layer complexity but to create coherence. It is to bring clarity about what matters most, to exercise courage in removing what does not add value, and to foster collective responsibility so that no school or leader is carrying the burden alone.

Although the setting for this discussion was Western Australia, the themes extend well beyond our state. Across Australia and internationally, educational leaders are navigating workforce sustainability, reform fatigue, rising expectations, and increasingly complex learner needs. The temptation in such times is to respond with more; more initiatives, more checks, more reporting. Yet perhaps the deeper more vital work of leadership is restraint, and leading with clarity about purpose, the courage to let go, and with collective responsibility across systems. The lingering question from the breakfast remains both simple and challenging: what have you dumped this year, and what might become possible if you did?

SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss our first ‘Leading Innovation in Education Network’ meet-up for 2026. Once a term, we invite educational leaders from across the different sectors together to informally share case studies of leading innovation in our educational settings. Our first event will take place on Thursday 26^th March from 4:30pm-6:30pm at Newman Siena Centre in Doubleview. Booking link and speaker list to come. Watch out on our socials for this!

Our regular ACEL WA Book Club will take place on Thursday 17^th April from 10am-12pm, with venue to be confirmed. This time we are reading ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable’ by Patrick M. Lencioni, which is available as an audiobook on Spotify for those who like to listen to their books! Booking link and location details will be forthcoming, but you can get a start on reading now!

New ACEL WA Members

This month we welcome a number of both new and reinstated members to the ACEL WA collective. It is exciting, as always, to see our membership growing, and we look forward to connecting with our new members at an event in 2026 – hopefully at our upcoming Innovation Network meet-up or the April Book Club…

  

• Keren Caple, Thirdstory

• Catherine de Thierry, Calista Primary School

• Craig Thomas, St Stephen's School

• Sandra Dusz, Department of Justice

• Nicola Resta, St Stephen's School

• Russell Gilchrist, St Stephen's School

• Sarah Thomason, Department of Education WA

• Lea-anne Frossos, Leeming Primary School

• Abby Kerr, Victoria Park Primary School

• Nicole Roberts, School of Isolated and Distance Education

• Mandy Nayton, DSF Literacy and Clinical Services

• Maxine Berman, Ellen Stirling Primary School

• Filipa Belo, Emmanuel Catholic College

• Marie-dominique O'Connell, Corpus Christi College

• Emma Salomon, Ellen Stirling Primary School

• Paul Fuller, Ellen Stirling Primary School

• Cameron Allan, Department of Education WA

• Brenton Mizen, Penrhos College

• Penelope Houghton, Swan Valley Anglican Community School

• Michael Brook, Emmanuel Catholic College

• Craig Bourne, Department of Education WA

• Naomi West, ThirdStory

• Rachel Cusack, Statewide Services - Leadership Institute

I hope the remainder of Term 1 treats you well, wherever you lead and learn!

I am reachable by email if you have any questions, comments or just want to connect.

Rachael Lehr
ACEL WA Branch President