What we Offer

The Principals First service offers two kinds of service –

• working with Principals and other school leaders one-to-one
• providing professional learning to groups such as Principals or Leading Teachers

One-to-one consultancy

Our core work is designed to offer confidential one-to-one consultancy and support to Principals and other school leaders. We use experienced former Principals and Assistant Principals to act as a ‘critical friend’ or coach. Generally, Principals have taken up the service in either or both of the following ways:

• as a means of professional growth, enabling them to reflect on their professional practice with someone who has an understanding of their situation
• to enhance health and wellbeing, especially in times of stress, helping them to debrief or to stand back and assess the impact of their work on their life.

School leaders who use Principals First have access to years of relevant experience and wisdom without obligation and with confidentiality.

While there are similarities with the program of coaching for experienced Principals that was initiated in 2004 by the Department of Education and Training in Victoria, Principals First is distinctive in that it is

• a very flexible service, designed to meet Principals’ individual needs, and able to be taken up for any length of time, as the Principal decides.
• independent and objective: although we work in cooperation with other groups that represent Principals, all our work with individual Principals is completely confidential; we do not provide reports to other bodies.

Professional learning

We also offer professional development to leaders within schools, including networks and professional learning teams.

# Some of the areas in which we have led professional learning include communication, teamwork, handling difficult leadership team situations, goal-setting, the place of values, and looking after one’s own wellbeing.