Stronger Smarter Leadership Program
The proverb goes, “it takes a village to raise a child.” The Stronger Smarter Leadership Program™ (SSLP™) recognises that principals, teachers, support workers, parents and the community are all leaders with a significant role to play in a student’s education, health and wellbeing.
Our flagship Stronger Smarter Leadership Program™ is the first in our pathway of programs that partners with school and community leaders in their pursuit of educational excellence for all students. This is achieved through guiding participants to enact the Stronger Smarter Approach™.
The Stronger Smarter Leadership Program™ equips you to challenge mindsets within schools to actively engage the school community and staff to enact High-Expectations Relationships, promote positive identities and excellence in schools.
The Stronger Smarter Leadership Program™ is based on fundamental strategies to support success for all children including:
- Acknowledging, embracing and developing a positive sense of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity in schools.
- Acknowledging and embracing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in schools and school communities.
- High expectations leadership to ensure high expectations classrooms, with high expectations teacher and student relationships.
- Innovative and dynamic school staffing models
- Innovative and dynamic school models in complex social and cultural contexts
The program is facilitated by Stronger Smarter Institute staff with presentations from school and community leaders. It has been described as intense, stimulating, challenging, full of humour and personal involvement. The footprints of the Stronger Smarter Leadership program are transformational, powerful, different and growing.
Program Structure
Participants are provided with a safe and supportive environment to explore the Stronger Smarter Approach™ . The program is an action research model, with a series of workshops and meetings throughout the year and includes:
- Face to face workshops facilitated by the Stronger Smarter team
- Personal challenges in which participants’ explore their own beliefs and behaviours
- Specific leadership challenges to work on between each workshop session and
- Opportunities for participants to document and share their learning journey with others as participants are invited to join the well established Stronger Smarter network.
Approaches to Learning
The facilitation and learning approaches are based on adult learning principles including:
- Drawing on participants’ existing knowledge and experiences;
- Offering new learning frameworks and processes through which participants reflect on experiences;
- Multi-model delivery – visual, auditory and kinesthetic; and
- Structuring the learning over a significant period of time so that new learning can be integrated.
Course Outline
The Stronger Smarter Leadership Program™ is a minimum 12-month commitment and requires a commitment to two face-to-face forums and all program components:
Phase 1*:Stronger Smarter leadership development forum focusing on enhancing collaborative and cultural competence and leadership capacity to facilitate change, engage Indigenous community and transform learning contexts
Phase 2: Taking the message back: workplace engagement and cultural planning phase, focusing on discussions, consultation, and planning.
Phase 3*: Leadership for School Transformation forum: workplace challenges and school transformation plans are shared, reviewed and discussed by participants and the Stronger Smarter team.
Phase 4: Transforming workplaces implementation, ongoing support, and forums supporting school transformation.
Phase 5: Acknowledging and celebrating learning case studies and/or action research on school transformation plans and positive student outcomes.
*Phases 1 and 3 are face-to-face forums. The Cherbourg Stronger Smarter Leadership Program will require participants to travel to Brisbane, Queensland for Phase 1 and Phase 2. The first phase is a 6 day residential program held at the Ration Shed Museum in Cherbourg, south-east Queensland with the second phase being held in Redcliffe, QLD.