This excellent program was presented last week, February 27 and 28 in Darwin for both AISNT and Catholic School Leaders. The presenters were our well known Dr Stephen Brown, Managing Director of the Brown Collective and three lawyers who are partners of the noted Law Firm Colin Biggers and Paisley - Megan Kavanagh, Morgan Lane, Mathisha Panagoda.

The Principal I had in 1980 had just returned from running a school in Brunei for five years. He had a global view of life and I can see him now, as he addressed the staff in a meeting, noting that we were following the United States trend into the Age of Litigation. And he was certainly right! As a new Principal it was easy to be intimidated when someone said: “Well I’m going to see a lawyer.” I quickly learnt to say: “Fine if you have to.” I knew that I would do likewise immediately.

A humorous story - Four boarding parents unhappy, with a decision I had made, ended up in my office ready for battle. I refused to acquiesce to them, saying: “ The decisions I make have to be in line with the law of our land”. This irritated these parents who said: “Right we are going to see a lawyer.” I said, “Fine”, and they left unhappy. I immediately rang our lawyer and outlined the situation. Sometime later he rang to tell me the parents had arrived at his office to complain. Well I was there first! Surely one of the benefits of a country town!

Principals today can’t be ignorant of the law and must seek legal advice when necessary. It costs money, unless you have a lawyer on your board, but the “Age of Litigation” has made life much more complicated. What the presenting lawyers emphasized was the importance of “paper work” and “record keeping.” A principal must be very familiar with the school’s constitution because that is the guide to appropriate actions which should be taken. The legal system looks favourably on an action that is keeping faith with the constitution. This was new information for me!

As always there were many wise and helpful statements from Dr Stephen Brown.

Here are some of them:

• Good Governance is about how to make the BEST decisions. This is where lawyers can, if necessary be really helpful.
• Knowledge is useless without Thinking.
• Art is about Perception; Leadership is about Practice.

Stephen included in the excellent study book a thought provoking quote from the Brilliant Educator Howard Gardiner, the creator of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The quote was taken from “Five Minds for the Future”, Howard Gardiner, 2006, p 5-6.

“Beyond question, both management and leadership are disciplines - though they can be better informed by scientific studies, they are better thought of as crafts………… all of us - scholars, corporate leaders, professionals - must continually hone our skills.”

As a Principal you are always busy but you must resist deciding that you are too busy to attend that which will enhance your capacity. My long term chair always supported me enhancing my capacity as a Principal, even when it meant travel and the budget was extremely tight. My development as a Principal was not to be sacrificed because ultimately if my progress was constrained the school would suffer. Of course being a surgeon he knew all too well the value of keeping up with the latest developments in Knowledge and Skill.

I found the 4 Pillars of Accountability (Caulfield 2005) challenging but worth thinking about.

Professional      Ethical      Legal      Employment

Categorising responsibility like this can help to target thinking and planning and also the regular reporting to Boards.

Stephen once again singled out Culture and its major importance for a school and I guess any organisation as it is fundamental to the performance of an organisation. It has a profound effect on behaviour and personal performance all of which effects organisational performance. I was interested to see how feelings and the state of mind will effect engagement. It is valuable for a Principal to acknowledge this and promote creative ideas / activities that can influence this with both staff and students.

Lawyer Megan Kavanagh initially focused on GRC - Governance, Risk and Compliance and the school’s strategies in dealing with these. Breaking responsibilities into acronyms is useful in directing tasks that MUST be considered.(Though education has heaps of acronyms).

Megan defined the three components of GRC:

1. Governance refers to the ethical management of an organisation by its leaders in accordance with approved business plans and strategies. She emphasized the importance of having strategies. I know that if there isn’t a strategy then chaos can break out, plans will not be realised and possibly money will be lost. It is worth remembering that not everybody thinks strategically.
2. Risk management refers to an organisation’s process for identifying, categorising, assessing risk and implementing controls.
3. Compliance refers to adherence with standards, regulations and best practices mandated by the business of education and by relevant governing bodies and laws.

Mathisha Panagola presented an excellent section on Bullying, the activity that is so hard to keep on top of in an organisation. The Australian Human Rights Commission define it as:

“Repeated and intentional use of words or actions against someone or a group of people to cause distress and risk to their wellbeing”.

Three types of Bullying were identified.

• *Face - to - face bullying (direct)
• Covert Bullying (indirect)
• Cyberbullying. Dealing with any of these is difficult.

Dealing with not only Bullying but other concerns that occur in a school, to do with safety, staff who are struggling, perhaps a staff member who is missing things because they are over confident, students who are struggling because they are worried about a range of problems, or fearful of their future, really require people who genuinely care but are also really good empathetic and intelligent listeners.

Really good Principals are by definition good active listeners and are committed to thinking about what they have heard. Today there are many distractions to ruin the art of good listening. The program “School Leaders and the Law” required participants to be good deep listeners if they were to get the most out of the presentation. This was an occasion where multitasking would not work satisfactorily. Similarly if someone comes to you with a concern, to get to the heart of the issue, listening effectively is what is required and being distracted will kill the conversation or any trust that is developing. Over the years I have known Principals who did this poorly, were readily distracted and lost the connection with the person telling them their concern - what a shame.

It is worth talking to the school community about the value of good listening. When you are listening to someone effectively, they have to feel that they, at that moment, are the only person you as the Principal are interested in. Schools with valuable cultures are schools that promote good listening. Certainly dealing with bullying requires good active listening if there is even a small possibility of a solution or way forward.

Finally if you are trying to get a reading on the culture of the school I believe you can actually feel it if you are sensitive to it. If things are not going well and you can feel it you can then perhaps do something about it. I know people visiting the school would often articulate how they felt about the school.

Morgan Lane produced a very good session on Cyber Security and the unfortunate reality of Cyber-attacks. I personally have had that wonderful experience, and was amazed at how smart the perpetrators were. He noted that schools could be targeted in a variety of ways and if the schools were not aware of this they could be hacked. He explained that schools were targeted because of the following 6 factors:

1. Limited security protections in place.
2. Schools are Data rich.
3. Schools may unfortunately have disgruntled / bored students.
4. Universities use untested technology.
5. There is value in the “.edu” email address.
6. Staff susceptible to phishing.

It is important that security plans are sound and in place. It is essential that a school has:

1. Data Management Plan
2. Data Breach Plan
3. Data Security should be a Standard Issue on Board Meeting Agendas, Quarterly.

Sometimes as a Principal fatigue gets you, your mind is cluttered with issues you may be unable to take things in. If an issue is a priority you have to follow it up. You can’t ignore it regardless of how you are.

The words from the Simon and Garfunkel song “The Sounds of Silence” remain as a reminder of the importance of listening.

“People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening.”

A Principal, must avoid these when engaged in important conversations.

I knew that I really wanted to absorb and understand what our presenters were saying about Schools and the Law and I knew if I wanted to absorb this information I needed to be interested, listen, think and absorb and I’m sure others felt the same. It is not an area in which you want to make an unwitting mistake. 

Written by Chris Tudor