This year the SLI launched the Australia’s largest professional development programs for middle leaders, piloted a new teacher leader framework and developed the first FASTstream program for future school leaders.

We also developed new professional learning resources and provided support to staff in a year that was again impacted severely by COVID-19.

Participation in all our programs continued to grow and feedback was overwhelmingly positive despite the many challenges posed by the pandemic.

Here are some of the SLI team’s 2021 highlights:

• We launched the new School Leadership Development Strategy, which sets out how the department, through the SLI, will identify, develop and support aspiring and current school leaders.
• We introduced the School Leadership Identification Framework (SLIF) as a pilot program supporting 1900 teachers across 78 schools. In 2022, the SLIF will be rolled out to all NSW public schools to support more than 40,000 future school leaders.
• 50 beginning teachers and teacher leaders were selected in the new FASTstream program. FASTstream’s initial cohort of 20 recent graduates and 30 current teachers will start their placements from Term 1, 2022 in schools across NSW.
• We selected 212 participants for our first Middle Leadership Development Program, starting Term 1, 2022. Participants will be supported by 53 facilitators as they work through the 18-month program focused on building their leadership and capacity to drive student improvement.
• We provided greater clarity and certainty to school leaders with the release of an updated role description for principals and a new Deputy Principal Role Description.
• We inducted nearly 1500 principals, deputy principals, assistant principals and head teachers through 6 online induction conferences.
• More than 350 school leaders took part in our Senior Leadership – Aspiring Principals Leadership Program, while a further 200 newly appointed, first time principals participated in Growing Great Leaders.
• The first cohort of 48 aspiring and current school leaders have graduated from our Rural and Remote Leadership Development Program, while a second cohort began this year.
• Our one-off short course, Managing Leadership Complexity, was attended online by more than 350 principals, deputy principals and middle leaders.
• We also offered a short Harvard School of Business course, Navigating Complexity: A leadership course for principals
• We awarded 115 scholarships to exemplary senior leaders to complete additional tertiary studies in Australian universities.
• And finally, we conducted research into system leadership and identifying future school leaders, and published the findings on our website. We also published the largest ever research project into formal middle leadership in NSW public schools.

In October, the SLI was presented with a prestigious ACEL (Australian Council for Educational Leaders) NSW Leadership Award in recognition of its exemplary performance in establishing and delivering school leadership development programs.

The SLI team will continue to work to fulfil our commitment to deliver and develop programs for current and aspiring leaders in public schools in 2022.

Term 1 will see the release of the Principal Leadership Framework, a new, world-class professional learning resource for all public school principals. We are also rolling out a new series of leadership development sessions through our Principal Leadership Learning program, and launching a new principal resources online hub.

The first ever role description for middle leaders will be released in Term 1, while Term 2 will see the launch of the SLIF and accompanying resources.

The whole team at the SLI is looking forward to continuing to provide world-class, evidence-informed, and future-focused leadership development programs and initiatives to make the difference we seek in public education.