Middle Leadership Symposium

We were disappointed to postpone the Middle Leadership symposium in the October term break. We had a lot of interest in this event, which demonstrated the need to give our middle leaders support on their pivotal roles in schools.

Middle leaders navigate a challenging space, they have pressure from above and below in their educational settings (Fullan 2010). Often middle leaders are selected for their role because they are excellent classroom teachers, but they are not prepared for the leadership complexities required to drive the strategic direction of the school.

Principals cannot lead alone. Research shows that leadership must be focused and distributed if schools are to realise their vision for learning. To achieve their aspirations, specific forms of support are needed to develop middle leaders in schools (Fleming 2013).

The purpose of the symposium was to give middle leaders an opportunity to listen and be challenged by first time principals; keynote speakers sharing their knowledge; and a range of breakout sessions that hopefully would resonate with their vision for learning and leadership. It was also an opportunity to network and to share experiences with other middle leaders.

It is our intention to run this symposium in 2022, once we are able to hold face to face conferences again. We also intend to accommodate more participants as we see that there is a huge interest, so watch out for the invite early next year.