On Reflection I Now Believe

I Was A Competent & Caring School Principal. Part One.

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I’ve written back on my now defunct blog something about my K-6 school principal role from 1999-2002 and it was often couched in the ‘negative’ as if “I” had “failed”….Interestingly I am now wanting to reflect and ‘correct’ my faulty recall and will do this over a few posts. I also wrote some post here. This series is now from a clearer-minded person who has both accepted and forgiven myself over time for what I “may” have deemed failures.

I’m making this into a series of substack posts over time as I reflect on this time in my life.

My ‘words’ for 2024 are choice, choosing and choose…and it’s only been recently I have seen how much I can now CHOOSE how to view events…and this one even more so, differently. Feels awesome!

Top: at Richmond in Winter, bottom: at Windsor in Summer…& my words of guidance for 2024.

On Being Appointed to the Role of School Principal.

Over 25 years ago I was selected as the best candidate for the principalship of a large K-6 Public School at Richmond N.S.W.

The selection process consisted of:

• a written application where my skills, attributes and knowledge for such a role, and in that community, was thorough and met the criteria of N.S.W. Department of Education policies for a school principal role.

• When the panel of District Superintendent, a fellow principal, a staff member from the school, and a parent from the school met, my application was deemed to meet criteria so the next stage occurred:

• my chosen referees were contacted (one of whom had to be ‘my boss’ at the time as a District Superintendent), as I was already a relieving Principal) and former executive staff in schools who knew me in my roles.

• And when the panel was satisfied with my referees; endorsements, I was invited to interview some two days later.

This was all within one of the busiest weeks in a school year…the last week before the Christmas Holidays and I was managing a school elsewhere in a relieving role…

• I had, over the previous month, also applied for other principals’ roles, and got to the interview stage only to be ‘pipped at the post’ by another candidate I was told by my then boss, District Superintendent, J.B. He was firmly encouraging me to continue to apply. I did.

• for this interview by the panel I took a slightly new approach (and one I could highly recommend to others) and that was this. I could ‘guess’ the types and nature of questions I would be asked…gleaned from my previous interviews and the specific criteria for that school.

• I wrote possible questions, then answers in point form on paper and used these as notes the next morning.

• In the lead up to each interview, potential principals got 15 minutes with the questions and I had picked pretty well and could adjust my responses accordingly.

• In I went, smiling (of course) and here’s what changed for me.

• I wore my reading glasses and had my notes in my lap. The interviews for principalship were never about memory tests and so I could glance down for a quick look for recall whilst make eye contact with the panel of 4 (or maybe it was 5!)

• By that evening, or was it the next day…time is a fluid memory, I was rung by the District Superintendent and told of my success.

• Great new! But…

• There is often a BUT…the schools had all but closed for the long Summer vacation, and when I spoke to the relieving principal at Richmond (someone who had to step up to the role because the substantive principal died in his sleep during the previous school holidays) we arranged to meet in mid January at the school.

I got the job!

And yes it was good to know I had succeeded.

Someone like me has a million thousand hundreds of ideas and questions in her mind with the role beginning the next year…1999…and yes, I would write things down but no, there was no significant ways of knowing ANYTHING more about Richmond P.S. other than these two facts:

1. The former school principal, much loved I am told, died in his sleep. The continuation of the school’s systems and planning suffered from this too because he literally died with all the school admin locked away by password that no-one knew. Files were locked. And it would fall to me, along with the current school staff, to try to work out the planning to start the school year….

2. My boss, the District Superintendent, said “It’s up to you Denyse, to bring this school community into the next century. The one that almost upon us.

For those who have known about my life as a principal I hope you can forgive my continuation of this theme..I felt I needed to write more…and isn’t that the value of having a place here to do so!

Denyse.

That’s my contribution to the “What’s Been on My Calendar” link up this month. Thank you to the team:

Deb

https://debs-world.com

Sue 

https://www.womenlivingwellafter50.com.au

Jo 

https://andanyways.com

Donna 

https://retirementreflections.com

Added for anyone who might be interested in the ‘how’ of making the first step in the application for principal.

And, whilst things have moved up a notch via technology and writing of applications from the last century (!) they still require this…and an ENORMOUS amount of time and consideration in writing one. This is at Principal level from N.S.W. Department of Education website.

Principal positions

The selection criteria for Principal positions will consist of the:

• general selection criteria for the position, and

• specific selection criteria for the position.

Applicants for Principal positions must address both the general selection criteria and the specific selection criteria for the position in their application.

Applicants need to articulate clearly and concisely their skills, knowledge and experiences in response to each of the criteria.

Applications must be written in a minimum of 10 point font, with standard business margins (approximately 2.5cm from each side of the document).

The total application length is determined by combining the page length for the general criteria and the specific criteria.

Selection criteria

Page length

General Selection criteria

Page length is based on the equivalent of half an A4 page per general selection criteria.

As a guide, applicants should address the general criteria in no more than 3 A4 pages.

Additional specific selection criteria

The equivalent one A4 page per additional specific selection criteria

For example:

• six general criteria and one specific criteria – application length is 4 (3+1) A4 pages total

• six general criteria and two specific criteria – application length is 5 (3+2) A4 pages total

• six general criteria and three specific criteria –application length is 6 (3+3) A4 pages total

• six general criteria and four specific criteria – application length is 7 (3+4) A4 pages total

Once the total application length is determined, the applicant will make a professional judgement on how to structure their response to each criteria. As long as the total application fits within the overall page limit, it is considered compliant with the guidelines.

Applications that significantly exceed the page length requirements may be excluded on that basis.