3 key ingredients for successful school leadership

Gary Underwood

By Gary Underwood
Community contribution / April 13, 2023

Working with principals in my first year of retirement, I identified three key requirements that all school leaders should embed in their contracts.

All principals need a dedicated mentor to discuss work decisions they cannot talk about with their staff.

After 12 continuous years as a principal, my first year of retirement allowed me to visit many principals and spend ‘real’ ...

Assistant Director of Student Development

Assistant Director of Student Development Canberra ACT

Canberra Grammar School is seeking an engaging and collaborative Assistant Director of Student Development to strengthen our Senior School’s House-based pastoral syste...

School Management / Oct 16, 2026

English Teacher

Canberra Grammar School Red Hill ACT

Canberra Grammar School is seeking an experienced and engaging English Language and Literature Teacher who inspires curiosity, critical thinking and confident expression.

Teaching - Secondary / Oct 16, 2026

Secondary Classroom Teacher (Mathematics)

Oran Park Anglican College Oran Park NSW

We are seeking to appoint a dynamic educator with passion and experience in Mathematics. The role involves teaching Stage 4-6 Mathematics, including the ability to tea...

Teaching - Secondary / Oct 16, 2026

School news / Teen study finds extra serve of fruit linked to lower risk of depression and anxiety

The food choices teens make could have implications beyond their physical health, with new research linking eating and consuming sugar to the later emergence of depression and anxiety symptoms.

School news / ‘Show us the money’: clock ticking on Vic Premier’s public school funding promise

With just days remaining before the Victorian Government goes into caretaker mode prior to the upcoming state election, the annual budgets for 2027, issued recently to Victorian public schools, show that the Premier is yet to deliver on his full f...

Opinion / Eating it up: when everyday foods become objects of observation, comparison and learning

The idea for this teaching experience came to me one Saturday while I was waiting for a coffee at the snack bar of a sports club. As I watched several adolescents deciding what to eat, I noticed that some chose fruit or yogurt, while others prefer...

School news / Revamp the curriculum! Amazon says Aust needs AI visas and bots in kindergarten

Special artificial intelligence visas and revamping the school curriculum to put bots in Australian classrooms earlier have been floated by a tech giant facing a parliamentary grilling.

School news / The story of A House Divided in 1975 remains as powerful now as it was then

Historical fiction for young adult readers is a puissant means to get teenagers interested in reading, because it transforms abstract textbook timelines into emotional, deeply human experiences.

School news / ‘We only hire graduates’: experienced teachers lament limited career options

Some experienced Victorian teachers at the top of the pay scale say their status can be a burden when it comes to their job prospects and career mobility.

School news / ‘The system has let a lot of them down’: teens ‘begging’ for endometriosis support, guidelines

Seven years, nine different health practitioners, $6000 and more than 20 doctor visits. That is what it took for Melbourne woman Konstandina Karavias, now 19 years old, to get an endometriosis diagnosis.

School news / Digital duty of care bill: clear path forward on major online safety overhaul

The door is open to allowing Australians to take on social media platforms under wide-ranging digital safety changes.

School news / Eight US states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT harm to young

A bipartisan group of eight US states have sued OpenAI in courts across America over harms they say ChatGPT has caused to their residents, alleging the chatbot has coached its users – including teenagers – to harm themselves or others.

School news / ‘We are at a crisis point’: sharp rise in violence and sexual assaults involving kids

Children are being abused and violated at alarming rates, with sexual assault and family violence-related assault involving children increasing sharply across Australia from 2014 to 2024, with violence particularly accelerating in the last 3-5 yea...

Comments