Australian Professional Standard for Principals Leadership Profiles

PurposeThe Standard and the more detailed Profiles create and promote a sharedvision, clarity of understanding and a common language around effectiveand high-impact school leadership. They draw on effective leadershippractice both locally and internationally and are informed by research intowhat makes great principals.The Australian Professional Standard for PrincipalsThe Standard sets out what principals are expected to know, understandand do to succeed in their work and ensure their leadership has apositive impact. It takes full account of the crucial contribution made byprincipals in:• raising student achievement at all levels and all stages• promoting equity and excellence• creating and sustaining the conditions under which quality teaching andlearning thrive• influencing, developing and delivering on community expectations andgovernment policy• contributing to the development of a twenty-first century educationsystem at local, national and international levels.Research and a substantial, evolving body of knowledge inform theLeadership Requirements and the Professional Practices that are at thecore of the Standard and show that:• effective leaders understand their impact• leadership must be contextualised, learning-centred and responsive tothe diverse nature of Australia’s schools• effective leadership is distributed and collaborative, with teams led bythe principal working together to accomplish the vision and aims of theschool• the practices and capabilities of leaders evolve as they move throughtheir careers• almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of coreleadership practices and behaviours, with some key personal qualitiesand capabilities explaining the significant variation in leadershipeffectiveness.4 Australian Professional Standard for Principals and the Leadership Profiles