Middle Leaders are the engine room of every school. They shape what happens in classrooms, tutor groups, boarding houses and co-curricular programs every day, yet most step into the role with little preparation for leading their colleagues. PLi's Middle Leaders’ PD Program is a multi-workshop, school-based program that gives your Heads of Department, Heads of Year, pastoral, wellbeing leaders and others the practical skills to lead with clarity, hold powerful conversations, work through challenging relationships and deliver team goals that make a real difference for students, staff and parents.

The program is aligned to the AITSL Australian Professional Standards for Middle Leaders and is designed for every type of Middle Leadership role, not just teaching and learning.

The program will focus on the following outcomes:

• Building a shared understanding of the impact of high-quality leadership, promoting a culture of collective efficacy

• Targeted development of the key leadership skills and capabilities aligned to the AITSL Middle Leader Standards

• Flexible content for the full range of Middle Leader roles: academic, pastoral, wellbeing, co-curricular and operational

• Developing The Middle Leader as coach: strong partnerships that support continuous reflection on practice

This Middle Leaders’ PD program can be fully customised to suit the needs, context, timing and budget of individual schools. It will develop participants’ shared knowledge of the impact of high-quality leadership, promoting a culture of collective efficacy their school.

Program Roadmap (example):

Workshop 1: LEADERSHIP VISION AND VALUES (Term 1)

• Surface your core leadership strengths

• Decide your "non-negotiable values" as a leader

• Turning the vision into specific leadership practices

• Using the AITSL Middle Leader Standards to build capability

Workshop 2: POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS (Term 2)

• The challenges with a top-down advice model for your teams

• Self-Determination Theory and motivation

• The 5 Key Ingredients for Powerful Dialogue

• Improving school culture by establishing protocols for receiving and providing powerful feedback on performance

Workshop 3: DEALING WITH DIFFERENT (AND DIFFICULT) PEOPLE (Term 3)

• Why people behave the way they do

• The challenge of different values

• Quick DiSC (People like people like them)

• What behaviours "push your buttons"

Workshop 4: LEADING TEACHING, LEARNING AND WELLBEING FOR THE YEAR AHEAD (Term 4)

• What are your goals for leading your team next year?

• Developing high-leverage team goals

• What success criteria and data will you define and collect?

• How to ensure everyone is "on the bus" to achieve goals that matter to them and will make a difference to others, including students, parents and colleagues

Why Principals Choose This Program:

• Built around your school: content, examples and activities are tailored to your strategic plan, priorities and culture

• One program for all Middle Leaders: academic, pastoral, wellbeing and co-curricular leaders learn together, building shared language and stronger connections across the school

• Learning that sticks: four workshops across the year (for example), each building on the last, with workbooks, practical tools and post-workshop actions to apply between sessions

• Measurable outcomes: participants self-rate against the AITSL Middle Leader Standards and finish the year with a high-leverage team goal, success criteria and a launch plan, all reviewed by their peers

• Develop and retain your people: invest in the leaders your staff work with every day, and strengthen your leadership pipeline from within

• Cost-effective: whole-school delivery means significant savings compared with sending individual staff to external courses

If your school is interested in an obligation-free discussion and/ or quote for the Middle Leaders’ PD Program then please email us @ info@prolearning.edu.au or contact us on (+61) 0411 558 232.