Purpose
Principals Upfront delivers a series of public seminars aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the role of principals as key agents of success in our schools.
Attended by principals, academics, NGOs working in school leadership, government representatives, funders and others involved in education, the seminars enable the voices of principals to be heard and serve as a platform for exploring some of the challenges and successes of school leadership, sharing lessons and initiating action.
The Principals Upfront seminars are presented by a partnership comprising the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance, Wits School of Governance, the Catholic Institute of Education, the Sasol Inzalo Foundation, and BRIDGE. The first seminar was held in October 2015.
Key Activities
Each year the Principals Upfront partnership hosts a number of seminars to explore key aspects of the principal’s role. Topics have focussed on the practice of instructional leadership, and have included perspectives on leading for quality and change, analyses of NSC results and the effective implementation of ICT in schools.
The seminars combine expert subject matter input with the views and experiences of panels of experienced principals, augmented by contributions from the audience.
Link to the BRIDGE Knowledge Hub and here for meeting highlights, presentations, tools and documented working practice from the Principals Upfront seminars.
Contact: patience@bridge.org.za
Purpose
This community of practice brings together principals and other school leaders, practitioners supporting school leaders and programme facilitators working in schools, and gives them a platform for sharing their wealth of knowledge, working practice and innovations, while strengthening collaboration opportunities.
The community believes that focusing on the principal’s role and ability to exercise influence in key domains of the school, will lead to effective school leadership that transforms learner outcomes and performance.
Key Activities
The CoP is deeply concerned with finding best practice in school leadership, and articulating what this means in the classroom, in the school and in the community. To this end, members value inputs from programme facilitators, mentors, coaches, principals, and other school leaders.
Activities focus on principals as leaders in curriculum management, instructional practice and instructional leadership.
Members share tools and resources that support the group’s common purpose of improving learning and teaching, as well as information on school leadership programmes and interventions for principals in the Western Cape province.
Some of these programmes are school-based, taking a whole school evaluation systems approach to supporting principals and their School Management Teams (SMTs), while others take an individual approach, assisting individual principals working in challenging contexts.
Link to the BRIDGE Knowledge Hub for meeting highlights, presentations, tools and documented working practice from this community.
Contact: info@bridge.org.za
Purpose
In fulfilment of BRIDGE’s vision for school leadership, BRIDGE supports communities of practice for principals at district level in Gauteng.
The position of principal can be a lonely one, and these communities give principals the opportunity to network, to give each other mutual support in a framework of trust, to reflect, and to work collectively on common issues and problems.
The first local Principals Community of Practice was convened in Ekurhuleni North in 2012. A second group was established in in 2013 in Gauteng East. The number of local communities had increased to ten, as listed below.
Ekurhuleni North 1 (Fledged*)
Ekurhuleni North 2
Ekurhuleni South 1
Ekurhuleni South 2
Sedibeng East
Sedibeng West
Gauteng East 1 (Fledged*)
Gauteng East 2
Gauteng East 3
Gauteng East 4
[*When a CoPis described as ‘fledged’, it means it has become self-sustaining.]
Key Activities
Principals within geographical proximity meet every month in facilitated sessions guided by issues they identify as key to improving their effectiveness.
The programme promotes professionalism and improved leadership and management processes, and is informed by the Department of Basic Education’s standards-based accountability systems for principals and schools. The sessions are also an opportunity to maximize resources and share working practice.
Because of the sensitive nature of these communities, the proceedings of their meetings are not shared on the website. However, some of the learnings, stories and resources are shared on BRIDGE platforms with permission from the relevant group.
A major resource that has been developed with some input from the Principals CoPs is the Principals Planning Toolkit. Click here to see this set of tools and guidelines.
Contact: patience@bridge.org.za
