Outstanding government principals tell how to run a top school

Dec 12, 2003

The NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Training, Dr Andrew Refshauge, launched a new book on December 11, which involved the University of Wollongong as co-producers, on the leadership strategies of outstanding NSW high school principals.

Best Practice in Educational Leadership: Case Studies of Ten Effective Principals looks at 10 leading government school principals, how they run their schools and the secrets of their successes.

The book was jointly produced by UOW's Centre for Educational Leadership, the NSW Education Department and the NSW Secondary Principals' Council.

Professor Terry Burke, Professor in Educational Leadership and Director of the Australian Centre for Educational Leadership at UOW, said research for this new book indicated that government high school principals were quality people doing a quality job.

"The research indicates that these principals, like the vast majority of their NSW colleagues, display the best leadership characteristics of very effective principals," Professor Burke said.

Dr Refshauge said the book's findings would assist schools and universities to design future leadership programs for NSW public schools.

The Deputy Premier said the state's public school principals were excellent and the equal of principals in the best school systems in the world.

The 10 principals featured in the book included six male and four female principals from a range of high schools in a range of communities.

The President of the NSW Secondary Principals' Council, Chris Bonnor, said the new book helped show the enormously complex role of school principals and the multitude of demands on their time.

"Principals will find that the stories contained in the book will help them reflect on and improve their own practices," he said.