10 September 2025

President's Report

Dear TPA Members & Supporters,

Welcome to our New Members

A warm welcome to Lynette Knibbe, Jenna Squire, Tim Elliott, Jill Bosua, Eve Marcus and Amanda Maree. We are delighted that you have made the decision to join an Association focused on supporting and building the capacity of our profession.

Celebrating Growth in Tasmanian Education

When I began teaching almost 25 years ago, thankfully, one outdated classroom practice had already been abandoned—the public display of children’s individual test scores on the wall. For generations, this was seen as acceptable, yet I have never heard anyone from that era speak of the positive impact it had on their learning or self-confidence. For some, it may have provided a momentary push, but for many, it created shame, fear, and disconnection.

What hasn’t changed is this: every learner is on a unique journey. Students don’t start from the same line. Some face obstacles from day one, and many need targeted adjustments and support to achieve the growth they deserve across their education.

For decades, governments have recognised that the greatest predictor of student achievement is parental level of education, captured in the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA). This measure informs how schools are resourced nationwide, now delivered through the Better Fairer Schools Agreement, regardless of whether they are government, Catholic, or independent.

While we know that no standardised test can capture every child’s passions, strengths, or potential, we also recognise the value of systematic literacy and numeracy checks. These provide essential data that shape programs, policies, and practices at the school, state, and national levels.

What is less helpful, however, is how these results have been presented in the media. Each year we see headlines such as “Tasmania lagging behind” or “Latest NAPLAN results worrying.” This approach echoes those classroom walls of years past—comparing without context. If ICSEA remains the strongest predictor of outcomes, then it should surprise no one that Tasmania begins behind six other jurisdictions before they step up to the starting line!

The real story and the one too often overlooked is about growth. And here Tasmania is excelling.

• In Year 5 reading, Tasmania has recorded the highest growth in the nation.
• In Year 5 numeracy, Tasmania has achieved the second-highest growth, just behind Victoria.

There are multiple other data sets that we could show that validate the growth of our young people as a direct result of the quality of education they receive.

These results, spanning across all school sectors, demonstrate the collective strength of our profession. They reflect the daily commitment of Tasmanian educators to meet learners where they are and help them move forward. This is not about cherry-picking data—it is about telling the fuller story. Our challenge is to encourage the public to look beyond the headlines and celebrate the genuine progress happening in Tasmanian classrooms.

CBCA Book Week

Book Week is a memorable time of the year in most schools and is up there with Christmas for some people! The level of creativity (and craft) on show from principals in the past week has been nothing short of entertaining! Reading has been and always will be a simple experience that can be life changing – it helps us to connect and make sense of our own experiences, with other people and with the world around us. Book Week is much more than dressing up, though. It provides a platform to expose young (and older people to quality Australian literature. We are fortunate in Australia that there is a strong appreciation for literature and some outstanding authors who create texts that engage and inspire our young people. Congratulations to our schools that provided really carefully considered approaches for engagement in every context that go beyond dressing as a literary character, and thank you to colleagues that gave some great insights into their patch.

Book Week

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 11

Next

National Principals Occupational Health, Wellbeing & Safety Survey

Make a Difference: Take the 2025 Australian School Leader Health & Wellbeing Survey

The Australian Principal Health & Wellbeing Survey is confidential and independent of all employer groups, professional associations and unions. This research informs state departments, evaluates existing policies, and drives new initiatives. Participants receive an individualised report on their job-related health and wellbeing upon completion. Global results provide a holistic, system-level picture of principal health and wellbeing, with recommendations for action.

APPA

APPA has released its latest position papers, covering:

1. Raising the Profile
2. Reducing Red Tape
3. Professional Learning
4. Full and Fair Funding
5. Professional Supervision

Learning First Survey

Learning First is conducting a short, anonymous survey on how teachers, curriculum leaders and principals of government schools are implementing the Australian Curriculum. This year’s survey includes questions on how AI is being used in schools to support curriculum implementation. Your feedback will help shape how the DECYP supports schools and teachers. The survey closes on September 18.

2026 Tasmanian Educational Leaders Conference

Please mark your calendars and save the date to join us to connect, learn, and be inspired alongside educational leaders from across Tasmania.

More details, including program highlights and registration information, will follow soon.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards

Mat 

Zart Update

We’re excited to announce lower delivery rates in Tasmania and share the benefits you received as a TPA member. 

TPA Member Discount:

10% off every order – use promo code TPA10 at checkout
5% rebate for TPA – your purchases help give back annually

For support on orders and quotes, please reach out to our Business Relationships Manager, Lyn Rogers 0410 602 238 or lrogers@zartart.com.au

Travel Report - International Seminar for School Principals, Shanghai - Libby Robinson

As an affiliate of ICP (International Confederation of Principals) through ASPA (Australian Secondary Principals Association), TPA were invited to send a representative to present at the 2nd International Seminar for School Principals, Shanghai 2-5 July 2025. This invitation was extended to Libby Robinson, principal of Hobart College, who agreed to represent TPA and Tasmanian Government Schools at that seminar. Here is her report:

If you are ever provided with the opportunity to travel for your work and listen to the experiences of our international colleagues, I fully encourage you to grasp the moment. So it was that in the 38 °C heat of Shanghai’s summer, I found myself listening to theories of practice related to the use of innovative technologies for teacher evaluation and feedback, namely AI. As you might imagine, this very premise confronts a variety of socio-cultural expectations where teacher evaluation itself is very much grounded in how we see our profession as educators. The use of technology immediately raises questions about who or what has the capacity to observe, evaluate, provide feedback, and support improvement in teacher practice and by extension, student learning outcomes and hopefully wellbeing.

Over the course of the seminar, it was apparent that China’s current education platform, aimed at guaranteeing teaching quality across a vast and immensely populated country, is seeking not just an agenda of massive infrastructure development, but also teacher evaluation. At scale, it is politically and economically understandable that the use of AI has reached the forefront of application in China’s strategic thinking on quality teaching. Big questions come to mind at the notion of a teacher using VR to teach a class of virtual students, whose avatars sat in single desk rows, whilst AI evaluates the teacher’s progress through a lesson. I presume at this stage of advancement, AI will only measure what we ask of it, that is what we already know to be best practice. And there are good questions about teacher professionalism and learning beyond performance and compliance (Diamond and Bulfin 2025). By the end of the seminar, a humanistic view had come back into focus, concluding that certainly AI has a place, but only in the service of human relationships and educational endeavours where we make decisions that are adaptable to the myriad of students’ needs.

Perhaps MyCareer and our PDPs have some way to travel before our practice as principals is evaluated by AI, or perhaps it might as well be here already.

Libby Robinson

2nd International Seminar for School Principals, Shanghai

Professional Learning

Intentional Leadership Professional Wellness Program - Lee Crockett

This program offers school leaders a powerful, year-long experience focused on sustaining clarity, purpose, and professional wellness. 

Professional Wellness Workshop - LEAD WELL. LIVE WELL.

In this FREE 60-minute workshop, you will learn a proven framework for sustainable, high-impact leadership, built on our own 6 Dimensions of Professional Wellness.

Instruction to Leadership Coaching

The Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) is bringing PD4HPE to you on Tasmania's pupil-free days, and we'd like you to send your HPE teachers along!

TPA Partners

Platinum

Gold