Introduction

School leaders play a vital role in providing every student in New South Wales public schools with a great education and the best start in life. They have a positive impact in classrooms and on their staff. They guide teacher development and engage their communities.

Here at the NSW Department of Education's School Leadership Institute., our mission is to support NSW public school leaders by providing world class, evidence informed leadership development programs and resources.

Our podcast will explore the key issues and challenges of school leadership. Hosted by Joanne Jarvis, the director of the School Leadership Institute, tune in and listen to our guests and colleagues share their expertise, insights and wisdom on leading with purpose and impact. Welcome to our Leadership In Focus series.

Joanne Jarvis

Hello and welcome to episode 17 of the Leadership in Focus podcast series. I'm Joanne Jarvis and I'm the director of the New South Wales Department of Education's School Leadership Institute. This will be a two-part series on shaping school culture, enabling belonging. I'm recording this podcast in the principal's office of Melonba Public School, a brand-new P-6 school located in western Sydney.

And with me is Larissa Maraga, the foundation principal. Larissa has spent her whole career in education as a highly valued teacher, middle leader and principal. Previously principal of Quakers Hill East Public School and relieving principal of Rooty Hill Public School, Larissa brings a wealth of experience to the role. Larissa has extensive teaching and leadership experience and prides herself on personally knowing every child and their family.

She's recognised for her work in quality teaching, middle leadership and school improvement. In 2020. Larissa was honoured for her significant contribution to education by receiving the prestigious Australian Council for Educational Leadership NSW 2020 Leadership Award. For me, being in Larissa's office and having seen this beautiful school, it is such a privilege to be here with you today Larissa.

Larissa Maraga

Thank you, Joanne. I'm so privileged to be here with you, too.

Joanne

Well, let's begin. You are a principal of a brand-new school. You have over 50 staff, most of whom you met just six weeks ago. And on the first day of school, you welcomed over 650 students and their families. So talk to me about that first day.

Larissa

It was an amazing day, Joanne. Just the energy and the vibe here at the school was something that I'll treasure forever. I could see that the staff were feeling a little bit apprehensive in the beginning, and then when they started to see the students walking through those gates, their faces lit up. The smiles were so special, and just to see our students in awe of this spectacular school was amazing.

What was really touching was the families and just how much gratitude they had that their children were going to be provided with such an amazing educational experience.

Joanne

I think you've captured what happened on that first day nicely. I was here. There was certainly a vibe. The air of anticipation was palpable. And I could see in your own face just how excited you were to be here and proud to be a principal of this new school.

But clearly, the vibe that was enabled on that first day, didn't just happen overnight. There was clearly a lot of work that needed to be put in place for the 12 months preceding the opening of the school, whether it be working with the Department of Education to establish structures, to actually even establish the design of the school. But also to engage with the community so that you could help them to realise a vision of what that day would be like.

So how did you engage with the community to enable that to happen?

Larissa

Sure. I remember sitting as a team of one in a demountable and thinking, how can I capture the voices of the diverse community in which I'm going to be working and leading? And so part of that work was starting with connecting with country and connecting with our AECG, and building upon the strong partnership that we already had to work out, how can we be sharing their story through our school and through our vision?

And so from there, I then met with a variety of community groups, making sure that I heard the different voices of the community groups and also the cultural groups and local pre-schools.

We're in a fortunate position that we're well on the same premises as the local high school. So connecting with the students of the high school, those pre-school voices to help with the design of our school, not just from the things like the uniform and the colours and logo design, but more deeply what really mattered to our community, to our students. What did everyone want as a shared vision and a shared purpose for us moving forward into the future of our school.

And so one way that we did that was connecting with our families and inviting each of them to come and meet with us and to spend time with us one on one, to get to know their children with a focus on their children's strengths. And that was a really key component of the work that we did, for the parents to be able to share the student strengths after the child had shared their own strengths and they were able to really start that sense of feeling a sense of belonging at that point.

Joanne

So what did you, how did you actually do that? What did that look like?

Larissa

Yeah, so we invited each of them to come in and have interviews and with a strengths-based approach. And throughout that they would come, they would have their photo taken, part of our enrolment process. They would meet individually one on one with me and with members of our team over time. And during that time, I would individually speak with each family to find out what is it that they would like to see at a future Melonba Public School.

And we had a big mind map there, Joanne, and they would write things down of what they would like to see with students' voice. We had lots of kindergarten children, some who couldn't write. They would be drawing pictures to capture their thinking. And for us to then be able to use that to help shape our vision.

Joanne

So is that what that role of paper is over there, a whole lot of mind maps? Can you take the elastic band off and show me an example?

Larissa

So, here it says, imagine a future Melonba Public School that.... And all of the different ideas and thoughts that they had. So, in the early days it was things like before and after school care and kiss and ride for the families. And once we had those things under control and we'd been communicating with them about how the bus system would work, then we started to hear all about what the students really wanted to have at their school, things like a school camp or public speaking, after school activities.

And so from there we sent out surveys to really capture what were the after-school activities that families wanted us to provide after school.

Joanne

And I can see there's multiple ticks. So what did that mean?

Larissa

That just meant that if people agreed with some of the statements that were shared, they would then be able to show us that they were agreeing, that more than one person agreed that that was something they’d like to say at our school. You can see them here.

Joanne

Yeah. So we've got Lego, which seems to be quite popular, certainly dance, music and there's lots of ticks against sport.

Larissa

I like this one, a secret art room. And so I enjoyed speaking to the students about how they how we could create a secret art and craft room. And so what that has then led into is having art and craft clubs at lunchtime for students to be able to participate in.

Joanne

It's fantastic. It's such a practical way of capturing voice, but I would imagine they would have felt really comfortable in telling you this and felt like their voices had been valued and it would generate a sense of excitement, I would imagine.

Larissa

Yes, it really did. And I think on that first day when they came in and they saw that we had taken on their feedback and put things in like a slide in the playground, they were really pleased to be able to see that their voices had been captured and used as part of our decision making.

Joanne

I know you spent a lot of time seeking to capture the stories and the voice of Aboriginal people as you established this school. How did you go about that?

Larissa

So I started by having a yarn on a Friday morning with our Dharug elders and listening and sharing stories together. And through that storytelling, I was then able to make connections with Dharug artists and knowledge holders who played a significant role in the shaping of our logo, our identity, our murals and the work in which we do here at Melonba Public School.

Joanne

So in what ways did that deep knowledge and connection to country inform the way that you have been able to represent Dharug culture in Melonba Public School?

Larissa

So that makes me think about Vivian where she says that to build trust is through doing the work. And so it was through the doing of the work that we actually built that trust together as a community. And so the artist would come in and develop the murals together with our First Nation students at the high school. And through that storytelling, we were then building connections and helping to shape our vision and what would help to form our identity at Melonba Public School.

Similarly, hearing the language and being part of using Dharug language in our Acknowledgement of Country and within the signage and the building names and stairs helped us to know that this is the direction that we want for our students to be using this language daily in part of the work that we do here.

And then also connecting with the Dharug artists to find out how we could incorporate storytelling through the design of our logo, and part of that was subtleties, like having the different sized dots representing that we're all unique, and the curves of the river that represent the pathway around the wattle, also through to the inclusion of a meeting place with the outer circle of our logo encompassing the entire Melonba Public School education site, and then the inner circle representing Melonba public school.

Joanne

It's incredibly special that you've been able to capture such wisdom as the foundation for this school.

Larissa

When we were looking at how to design our uniform and our colour and identity, I vividly recall a conversation with Uncle Danny where he said, Larissa, we're in modern times now. We need to be using modern colours. And so then we spoke about the colour purple bringing together red, our Aboriginal histories and culture, and blue, the rich cultures and diversity that we each bring to this new Melonba suburb and community, to make the colour purple. And there's a beautiful image on the Dyarubbin story map of the sun setting over Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, with a purple haze, and the significance of the colour purple as the sun rises and sets symbolises a new day of learning is here.

Joanne

That’s very special, thank you. You gave a beautiful speech at the opening of the school where you acknowledged country, Dharug Country. I'm wondering if you could share some of that speech with our audience now, as you acknowledge that we are on the land of the Dharug people.

Larissa

Sure. So it's with my sincere gratitude and respect that we recognise that Dharug knowledges remain today because of the storytelling and learning practices that have taken place on these lands for thousands of years. It is within the context of both telling and hearing stories that we connect with each other and bring meaning to our lives.

For over 60,000 years, the stories of our First Nations people have hummed and flowed through the soil, rivers and skies of this country, nurturing us all. We acknowledge and respect the stories that have been told on the very land of Melonba Public School, where we will connect, collaborate, learn, share our stories, and create new stories.

Joanne

Beautiful sentiment. And thank you for sharing that with us. I'm sure that that would not have been a dry eye in the in the space in which you delivered that those beautiful words.

So Larissa, you've spent a lot of time engaging with community, capturing the voices of community. What has that led to so that it informs the next phase of your leadership at Melonba Public School?

Larissa

So Joanne what was exciting was at the time I didn't realise it, but through all of those authentic conversations and engagement with the community, that was really shaping our vision. And so I have used vision statements before where it's been lots of buzz words into a statement, but this was something different where we were able to really encapsulate the vision of our community into a four page document that highlights the role that each of us will have for the vision for us for the next three years.

And it's written in a way that is the year 2027 and this is what we are achieving, so that we are aspirational, that we are looking forward to this and we are going to be able to fulfil that vision based on the input from all of our community members.

Joanne

That's really exciting and it gives a real strong sense of clarity and trajectory so that everyone can commit to the vision of Melonba Public School. What are the two key values or the core values that have come out of that?

Larissa

Our core values that came out of this huge amount of work are simply: be kind, work hard.

Joanne

Love it.

Larissa

Thank you.

Joanne

Now, we've spent a fair bit of time talking about the way you engaged with community, but we haven't asked the question why is it so important to engage with community? I mean, why bother? What difference does it make for the students that come to this school whom you serve?

Larissa

Yeah, so I do see myself as a servant leader and so particularly in the role as the principal. Part of what I would probably say here is linking back to Peter Drucker, who asks three questions of us as educators: what business are we in? Who are your customers? And what do your customers value?

And so the connections that we had building that trust and authentic engagement with our community has really helped us keep a focus on learning, to shape a school culture that prioritises learning for all. So if we have this shared culture where we together, we are all focussd on learning for all, then that's our shared purpose and our shared commitment that we all want what's best for their children.

The parents want what's best for the children, our teachers want what’s best for the children. And I want what's best for our children. And so together we are really excited about what the future will bring at Melonba.

Joanne

And you've just really articulated such a strong moral purpose that underpins everything that you have done as you've committed to action your vision for Melonba Public School as well.

Your leadership at a brand-new school and the way you’ve engaged with community, I imagine would have been informed by the way you have led in established schools. And I guess the wondering I have is, is it so different to be establishing connections with community in a new school to the requirement tohave working with community in an established school?

Larissa

That's a good question, Joanne. I feel that the work that I did as I was trying to build a community in a new school was all drawn upon the work that I had done at an established school. And so yes, there were differences in the fact that some of the structures allowed me to be able to have the interviews with the families.

I was still doing that in an established school in different ways and making sure that I was using that authentic engagement through incidental conversations, forming strong connections with our AECG and community groups, and also encapsulating student voice so that they were genuinely part of the decision making.

And something that I often referred to is that the dadirri, deep listening, and to do deep listening, it means that you do need to enact courage and curiosity to be able to give families the option to share their feedback and to have a voice.

Sometimes it's not the feedback that you might have thought that you want to receive, but that's okay. It's having that courage to say, okay, well, how can we take on board that feedback and use that in our planning and our decision making moving forward? And so I think letting the community know that their voices are valued and that together, even if we do differ in our opinions from time to time, we both want what's best for the children, and together we can work in partnership and we will to do the very best for the students whom we have the privilege to serve.

Joanne

As I've listened to you talk about what you have done to date, to set Melonba Public School up for success, it seems to me that deeply embedded in the thinking behind this work is a sense that every child is going to carve their own pathway, their own learning pathway, so that they feel that they can thrive at this school and in life beyond.

So you've really created a sense of belonging. What has informed that thinking?

Larissa

For me, I see my leadership is around relationships, relationships, relationships. And so if we can have those strong relationships with our students, our families and our staff, then that will help to create that strong sense of belonging. The relationships in the set up that we did in connecting with them all in those one-on-one interviews, and in our community engagement events where we would invite them in throughout the year ,to meet our external providers and to get familiar with the site and have tours of where we'll be going.

When we were planning to be in a different site of what we ended up in.

Joanne

How did you bring your school staff along with you to shape the school culture that enabled belonging to be so evident in what I have observed today?

Larissa

That's a great question, Joanne, and something that certainly took time. I had a team of one that then became a team of two, then the senior executive came on board, then the executive team and the admin staff and then the teaching staff and our educational support staff were part of the team as well. And so that journey really meant that I had to be clear on my vision, but I also had to be shaping that in a way that allowed people to have a voice within and for me to develop that curiosity, to find out, tell me more. What do you think? Proposing things out there and having that courage and risk taking to say, this is what I was thinking, is this going to work?

And so the big piece of work that we did around that was around wellbeing, because if we got the wellbeing right, then we knew we could get the academics right. And so we started with the wellbeing, our senior leaders, our deputy principals did a lot of work on our leadership framework, the Melonba Way. And then that made sure that in a partnership we had a very high focus on how explicit teaching was going to be at Melonba public school. From there we were able to really spend that time to shape our vision together so that as more and more people came on board the team, we could ensure that they knew the direction that we were going.

And there were times where we had to unlearn and we had to relearn different things. And that was part a really exciting part of our journey and something that is continuing to be ongoing, where we are questioning does this fit in at Melonba? And it might have fitted at another school or from my previous context, but does it fit in our vision here? And having that that open dialogue for staff to ask questions, share their wonderings and to provide feedback and have check points where we are seeking their feedback.

This is the first time we did this. Did it work? Tell us about it. Why or why not? How can we improve it for next time? And having that culture of improvement in that feedback culture certainly underpins the vision here at Melonba.

Joanne

I can see the leadership mindsets of the School Leadership Institute embedded in everything you've been saying today, you know, the student centeredness, the curiosity and the courage to ask the questions, knowing you might not like the answer, the growth oriented because you're just growing and developing together. The efficacy is so palpable. You know, that sense of belief that we can do this together is shining through.

And of course, that's not able to occur without collaboration, which is evident in everything that you do and evident in all of your leadership as well. Thank you for sharing that.

Now let's talk about next steps. The principal and the deputy principal role descriptions includes the professional practice of engaging and working with community. And specifically, and I quote, “principals lead a culture of inclusion that recognises the richness and diversity of the wider school community.”

Now, from what I've heard you talk to me about today and what I've observed walking around this beautiful school, um, it's clearly, it's clear to me that you have established a really strong foundation for that to flourish into the future.

So I'm wondering what your next steps?

Larissa

For me the next steps making sure that I keep this community engagement in my thoughts and in my thinking. Because what I'm conscious of is I don't want it to look like I've heard all of the voices, we've got our vivid vision and so we're off and we don't need to check in anymore. I want to make sure that we are continuing to check in and to see are we hitting the mark?

Is this what our parents and our families and our students need and value in our community? And our community is growing. It's evolving all of the time and it's important that we keep revisiting that and keep adjusting our pathway, it's not linear, and making sure that we do take on board these voices to help our decision making.

So that's something that I'm really conscious of, that it's not a set and forget, it's a how can we keep engaging through authentic conversations for being present at the gates, for connecting with our students and hearing their student voice, seeing what is important to them and working together in partnership so that we can continue to improve year after year.

Joanne

So at the start of this podcast, you may have heard me say this will be a two-part series and you might have been wondering why I said a two-part series. What I'm asking is I'd like to come back in 12 months' time and find out how things are going and so that will be part two of our series.

Now, are you going to commit to be able to do that with me in 12 months' time?

Larissa

Yes, I would love to Joanne, I think that would be a nice bit of accountability for me. So thank you.

Joanne

Thank you, Larissa. So I think that's a good time to end part one of our two-part series. So thank you for sharing your insights and perspectives on leading a new school and helping shape such a vibrant and inclusive culture from day one. It was obvious watching the students out in the playground just then at recess what a happy school this is, and we appreciate the valuable knowledge you've brought to our conversation today and what we can learn from the research as well.

For our listeners, please follow the School Leadership Institute on X. Our handle is @NSWSLI. For NSW Department of Education Staff, you can access our leadership resources on the Department's website. Thank you for listening.