One of the key takeaways for me was how I facilitate professional learning within the team. Before we would meet as a team and maybe talk about the students, their wellbeing, our wellbeing. And it was not a narrow focus. We would just check in with each other. But after Dr Miller’s work around professional learning teams, I took that on.

And now our focus is really data-driven and student-focused with that mindset. And because of his work and what I took on, I ensure that our team meetings start with a shared vision, something that wasn’t. It was done before, but it wasn’t done at every single meeting. And having that at the forefront of my mind that yes, we have our team norms, we have our shared vision and making sure that we keep ourselves accountable so that our meetings.

are really, really productive. Something that I do differently as a result of MLDP is being more intentional in the way that I lead my team. I think MLDP taught me the influence that middle leaders have, and the power in the influence that we have. We lead so many different teams within the school, not just our stage teams.

And I’ve come to realise that you can’t lead one way in each of those teams. You need to be flexible in the way that we lead. And MLDP taught me all the different ways to lead within those teams. But I think the biggest shift for me was actually in how I see myself as a leader. I could lead a team.

I saw myself as, you know, a leader in the classroom, leading my own class, and I saw myself as a leader of the team. And I think a shift after MLDP was I no longer just saw myself as a a leader in the classroom, a grade leader or a stage leader. But I started to see myself more as a school leader and in turn, a bit of a system leader.

And I think the biggest shift was the lens of no longer looking at everything you do and turning up every day as, oh, this is what I’m doing for these students, or this is what I’m doing for this group of staff, but this is what I’m doing for a system. This is what I’m doing to not just make this school better, but to make system and in turn, public education in a way.

The way I’ve got a stronger I've developed a stronger sense of confidence in how we analyse the data, and how to use that data with intent for student outcomes. So it’s not about school outcomes or stage outcomes. It’s student focused. So it’s really let me circle back to why we do this. How to do it and what outcome to get.

The longer term impact is again goes back to leading with intention and purpose. Listening to understand. I’ve developed a different confidence in terms of not observing but asking questions, asking questions and just thinking, not having the answers. I don’t want to have the answers. We don’t all have the answers. The coaching conversations as well have stayed with me.

The way we look at data will always. It's become like my new hobby. I’m doing it because there’s an endpoint the student outcomes, the student data, and they’re the centre. And that’s challenged me a lot. Yeah.

So I see.

A much stronger awareness of the importance of building trust, slowing down. Being very intentional about how you bring teachers in with you in leading change. So being clear about the purpose, being clear about the evidence. Using those social and emotional skills to understand what might be happening for different members of your team.

Recognising that the same approach isn't going to work with all the members of your team. What worked last year isn't going to work this year. What worked two weeks ago might not even work again next week. So really building that understanding of what it means to have robust, trusting relationships with teachers that supports their autonomy, but at the same time moves everybody towards a consistent area of improvement in the school.

And I really see a change in the middle leaders when they've been a part of this development program. They have a stronger sense of what that means, to really get a sense of various perspectives before stepping into action. I think the biggest difference I'm seeing in leadership practices across the school is, how much influence our leaders have now in the school.

Particularly within the executive team. So the leaders who are a part of MLDP have kind of become the leaders that the other leaders will go to for support and advice. They're the ones that they check in with. Am I on track? How do I lead this conversation? How do I lead this improvement? So they go to them first, which is so amazing to see them take that role within the executive team.

They're now modelling a type of reflective and collaborative leadership, and it sets up everyone else within our school, especially those who are starting, who are new in the role and entering into leadership. It's also contributed to a strong pipeline of leadership within our schools. So we have our school's career development pathway and as a part of being a middle leader in our school, it's expected that you do do some, you engage with work with SLI particularly MLDP. I'm currently working with our aspiring leaders and they talk about MLDP because they see the impact it's had on the leaders who have gone. They're seeing the way that their team meetings are now run and professional learning is run.

They're seeing that change. And our aspiring leaders are excited for the opportunity as well. They just know that that's my next step. When I step into leadership. I also step into MLDP program. So ultimately, I think the program has helped shift the way we see leadership in our school. It's not just about the role but it's about knowing yourself as a leader.

It's about your influence. And it's about leading learning that has an impact on staff and students. I think the longer term impact we're seeing is a real increase in the rigour of thought about our practice as leaders and as teachers. So, so much of the teacher day can be driven by deadlines and tasks, but taking that time now built into our school to engage in rich, pedagogical-based discussions on our practice, on the way we approach teachers, on the way we lead, on the way we achieve growth in the classroom.

And having that backed by evidence, having the confidence to really bring in that deep learning from the program to back those discussions has built so much more confidence and so much more professionalism into those discussions. It's really inspiring. And we're seeing growth in capacity of all of our executives as a result. When I came back from MLDP, I am part of the strategic direction team, and we were looking at revamping our job embedded time.

So we have an hour a week with our teams and we're looking at changing that. Because we lost focus for a bit of what that time was for. So we analysed some data from teachers and then from that and, and using the PLC notes, and what a good PLC team looks like, I led the professional learning with the exec team regarding that work, and we all implemented it for our stages which was fantastic.

And now it's, you can see that there has been a shift in that the school’s team meeting time. Because of the work that we have done as strategic direction too and taking that learning from MLDP and actually putting it into place. For the middle leaders that I've seen most recently, Murray and Melissa, I think what I've seen develop in them is their strategic leadership.

They were always exceptional leaders within their own faculties. Their knowledge of their material, the way students were taking their courses and the way they were leading their staff was truly amazing. But I think if I'm honest too, this training offered them a chance to step back and really consider their own leadership strategically in terms of the whole school. Areas that they might have been really confident and comfortable with, but other areas that they might not have had the opportunity to explore as much.

I think the other thing I've seen from the leaders who participated is that willingness to start engaging in whole school endeavours and whole school activities, whether that be putting their hands up to work with HPGE, whether it be starting new initiatives within the school, but also just being there as a voice. And I think it's really offered them that opportunity to rekindle that fire, that what brought them into education and leadership in the beginning.

I've seen a big shift in the depth of the conversations that we're having amongst the executive team. So we're no longer talking about surface level operational tasks, what's directly in front of us, but we're talking about the work that really matters. A lot of our conversations are around teaching and learning. What impact can we have? Where are the gaps, and driving that improvement across the school.

So there's just much more depth to the conversations. And as I said before, focusing on the work that really matters in our school. So we have definitely changed how we do our team meetings. We've changed, our practice is a lot more, I think data-driven, a lot more reflective. And we've really worked to, I guess upskill our staff in a lot of those skills that we gained from MLDP in terms of being a reflective teacher, a leader.

And, and I think driving change through analysing data and really thinking about the decisions we make in terms of how we're moving forward with our practice. So I'm seeing that across all the teams in the school, and a lot of the teachers have really grown in their practice and how they use data and make decisions as well.

I think the biggest change that I noticed in our leaders who participated in the program is how much they grew in confidence in themselves and as leaders. They developed a much stronger sense of themselves, who they are as a leader. They started to believe more in their capacity and what they could do and what impact and influence they have.

They’re now much more willing to ask the challenging questions or step towards complexity rather than walk away from it. And I think they’ve become much more reflective as leaders as well. I think probably the biggest thing that I’ve noticed, because we have had a large number of our middle leaders participate in the program. What’s been really positive has been that consistency and coherence around leadership learning.

And as a team, they have a really strong shared understanding around how to build that relational trust with their teams, how to lead change in a really purposeful way. Those social and emotional skills, which are so important as a leader, and the fact that they have had that shared experience means that, as the principal of the school, I am able to follow up with them individually in terms of their PDP conversations and, just how their team’s tracking day to day and what sorts of insights they’ve got from the middle leader program that they are bringing into their work. But also as a whole leadership team, we are able to have a really consistent approach to the professional learning that we do, because I’ve got an understanding of the learning that they’ve done through SLI, it helps me add to that and enhance that as I lead their learning at the school level. I think the other strength there also is that they can talk to each other about their learning.

So while they’ve got their group within the middle leader program, and there’s a great benefit to that because they’re connecting with leaders from other schools, but they can also come back here and talk about it in situ. So when they’re having their day to day conversations with each other, I know that they’re bringing in the learning that they they’re doing through the program as well.