With schools across the state turning again to remote learning, and school leaders and teachers responding quickly and expertly to changing circumstances, this has been a difficult term for staff and students.

Here at the SLI we were very pleased to be able to continue to support current and aspiring school leaders through the continuation of our world-class development programs, our induction conferences and some bespoke offerings in response to COVID-19.

Our programs and professional learning opportunities were experienced by more than 1100 staff across nearly 800 schools this term.

One of the most exciting developments in Term 3 was the announcement by the Education Minister of our new Middle Leadership Development Program.

Starting in Term 1 next year, the MLDP will offer tailored professional development and support to 200 assistant principals and head teachers across an 18-month program.

There has been a lot of work over the past year to develop this program with our academic partners at the University of Wollongong and the University of Newcastle. It will eventually be available to 500 middle leaders per cohort, and will be the largest program of its kind in Australia.

This term we also held our Principal Induction Conference and Deputy Principal Induction Conference for newly appointed principals and deputy principals. Our induction conferences help give new leaders an orientation into their role and provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to successfully lead their school communities.

Other highlights of Term 3 2021 included:

• Participants in the Senior Leadership - Aspiring Principals Leadership Program had the opportunity to work with some of the most respected educational researchers: Professor Viviane Robinson, Professor Jioji Ravulo, Dr Kylie Lipscombe, Dr Paul Kidson and Ann McIntyre. Applications for Cohort 7 of the program close on 5 October.
• 60 new principals completed our Growing Great Leaders program in August, our second cohort to finish. Group 3 began in July with 54 new principals taking part.
• Our Rural and Remote Leadership Development Program welcomed a second group of more than 70 leaders from our rural and remote schools.
• The team working on the School Leadership Identification Framework (SLIf) have been using the evaluation data collected during term 2 school visits to finalise the SLIF Interactive Guide and all of the resources to support this for the rollout of the SLIF statewide in 2022.
• Our new FASTstream program reached an exciting milestone with the first 50 participants selected to start in Term 1 2022. FASTstream provides support and development opportunities to allow participants to become ready for a principal position within 10 years.
• More than 380 assistant principals and head teachers completed the first component of our Middle Leader Online Induction program. The second component, an online leadership conference, will be held in Term 4.

Due to the COVID-19 situation we decided to delay the release of our new Principal Leadership Framework (PLF) until Term 1 2022. The PLF is a professional learning resource available to all NSW public school principals to help them develop their leadership practice.

Finally, we also provided some new leadership resources for all NSW school staff through our SLI video series, featuring conversations on a range of educational leadership topics. We plan to continue building our resources for staff in the coming terms.