About Growing Great Leaders

Growing Great Leaders is a school leadership program delivered by the SLI in partnership with the University of Auckland. The program is for newly appointed, first time principals once they have attended their Principal Induction Conference.

The GGL program is a leadership development program based on the Student-Centred Leadership model developed by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Viviane Robinson. It focuses on the development of the professional skills and capabilities of new principals, supporting them to work effectively in their schools, alongside their colleagues and communities, to improve teaching and learning outcomes.

GGL helps new principals develop student-centred leadership by embedding evidence-informed theory into practice. Participants’ skills are deepened as the leadership capabilities of applying relevant knowledge, solving complex problems and building relational trust are explored across the 6 modules in the context of each participants’ unique setting.

• Download the GGL Program information brochure (PDF 222KB)

Modules

GGL is comprised of 6 modules.

• Introduction to student centred leadership: participants explore their understanding of the SCL model and its applicability within the every day world of the school leader.
  
• Relational trust: introduces participants to, and enables participants to interrogate seminal research into, relational trust, its determinants and its impact on school outcomes.
• Establishing goals and expectations: allows participants to engage in goal theory and understand the impact of effective goal setting on school improvement.
• Resourcing strategically: enables participants to understand the importance of resourcing strategically, and how this is critically linked to the achievement of priority goals.
• Solving complex problems: participants investigate the nature of problems and consider the implied understandings that underlie the typical leader’s approach to problem solving, and the impact of these beliefs.
• Ensuring quality teaching: participants will understand the importance of a shared theory of quality teaching, and the principles that underpin that theory.

Participants will work in both large seminar groups as well as small professional learning groups (PLGs) based on school size and school type.

The andragogy used in GGL provides considerable time for working with the content of the 6 modules, opportunities to contribute to collegial discussion and the application of constructive feedback to demonstrate an understanding of professional knowledge and application in practice.

The GGL program is supported by experienced principals currently working in the NSW public school system.

Principal Facilitators

Principal Facilitators support the learning of newly appointed principals through small group facilitation. They participate in quality professional learning delivered by experts in leadership development and engage in collaborative networks with other school leaders, system leaders and university partners.

Find out more about becoming a Principal Facilitator.

Participant feedback

Further reading

Additional Information about the GGL program is available on our Leadership Resources pages (available to staff only).