Mount Waverley Primary School: Adapting Leadership Approaches & Optimizing Well-being Programs for Greater Impact

 Education is a field that continuously grows to meet the changing needs of students and educators. Over recent decades, schools have faced increasing demands to adapt to new trends and expectations, leading to a variety of approaches to teaching and learning. The focus on enhancing educational outcomes has prompted many institutions to explore innovative strategies and programs, aiming to improve both student success and teacher effectiveness.

In educational leadership, Campbell McKay, as a Principal, has dedicated considerable effort to refining and enhancing teaching practices. With a background deeply rooted in academic research and practical experience, he has accentuated a leadership style that integrates collaboration and shared responsibility. His approach, characterized by careful planning and a commitment to professional development, underscores a belief in the transformative power of focused, evidence-based strategies.

Mount Waverley Primary School exemplifies a commitment to these educational principles. This institution has implemented significant changes aimed at improving lesson effectiveness and student outcomes. By adopting a structured approach to planning and highlighting the importance of high-quality conversations among teachers, the school has achieved notable success. The focus on refining key elements of teaching and learning demonstrates a dedication to enhancing both educational practice and overall school performance. 

Balancing Leadership Styles

Campbell believes that leadership style depends on the context and often refers to the work of Goleman and the golf clubs analogy, which involves selecting the right “club” for the situation. However, he tends to favor what Alma Harris describes as Distributive Leadership rather than ‘distributed’ leadership. Distributive leadership involves sharing the work but prevents the creation of silos—where leaders work in isolation—by incorporating checkpoints that bring teams together, allowing for input and corrections as necessary. This approach also helps the leader to better integrate the work, ensuring that each task complements the other activities across the school.

Campbell’s primary leadership style is what he terms ‘Agreement Leadership.’ In this approach, he seeks to achieve ‘an agreement’ at all levels within the school to ensure that everyone is involved in the decision-making process. This fosters shared responsibility, which he refers to as the cultural ‘OAR’—Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility—to effectively steer the school, likened to a figurative ship.

Agreement leadership is best captured through the school's Cultural Agreement Plan (CAP). Each term the staff work towards the five key ‘agreements’ that drive the school’s culture. Checking and refining along the way, staff members take responsibility to ensure what the team has agreed upon, is enacted. At the end of each school term, the whole staff evaluates the successes and identifies actions to improve the school’s culture through the CAP. This approach has been central to the state education awards Campbell, and his school, have been nominated for and won.

 This structure ensures that all staff members are positioned for success, preventing any teacher from failing or falling behind. Disciplinary issues and underperformance are minimized because everyone is supported. Central to this approach is the importance of high-quality conversations between teachers, fostering mutual learning while minimizing whole staff meetings.

To engage with parents and the broader community, McKay notes the importance of understanding the community’s values and needs. At his previous school, which served a highly disadvantaged community, providing food and fun activities led to significant family engagement. In contrast, his current school, which serves first-generation immigrant families who are highly educated and aspirational for their children’s educational success, has found that events like Math, STEM, or Literacy nights are more effective. These events help parents understand how they can support their children’s learning, contrasting with the previous school’s successful traditional Australian BBQ.

Addressing Teacher Workload and Advocating for #TeacherTime

Campbell has observed a significant increase in accountability for teachers over the past decade, which he believes has been necessary. At the same time, there is a persistent expectation for teachers to work beyond school hours. Given that many teachers have young children, the pressure on them has intensified to an unsustainable level. From his experience across three schools over twenty-one years, Campbell notes that this pressure has only escalated, with no relief in sight and increasing demands placed on teachers.

In response to this, Campbell has initiated a movement called #TeacherTime. This movement aims to shift the expectation that teachers should work outside of school hours, advocating for the respect of teachers’ time after work. Campbell questions why other professions do not demand such extensive work beyond standard hours and argues that schools need to become more efficient and realign their work practices to support teachers within school hours. Some of these issues are addressed in the following discussion.

Enhancing Success and Well-Being through Effective Engagement

Campbell believes that students are much less likely to experience well-being issues when they are successful. When work is set at a student’s ‘point of need’—neither too hard nor too easy—they are more likely to succeed and less likely to misbehave. Drawing from his experience at two vastly different schools, he has observed that high-achieving students who become bored may disengage, leading to potential problems. Similarly, students who find work too difficult may act out. Campbell asserts that engaging students effectively can significantly reduce well-being issues, even accounting for trauma and mental health concerns.

The same principle applies to teachers. Campbell argues that the best way to support teachers’ well-being is to enable them to complete their work within school hours. This involves improved collaboration, shared responsibilities, discussions about teaching and learning, and minimizing administrative tasks. He contends that well-being in schools should not be confused with activities like Pilates or motivational speakers. Instead, it involves providing the support necessary for teachers to perform their jobs effectively. Well-being, according to him, is about the satisfaction of knowing one is doing a great job, going home without work-related stress, and returning to work with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Transformative Impact of Streamlining and Focused Well-being Programs

Campbell believes that slowing down and eliminating unnecessary work may not initially appear innovative, but it can be transformative. He notes that between 2000 and 2020, many schools felt pressured to adopt every new trend, with frequent changes being seen as impressive and positively received by families. According to McKay, schools often overextend themselves, including those where he has held roles similar to a superintendent in the U.S. At his current school, there were initially five different well-being programs for students, leading to a lack of clarity and poor delivery. By reducing the number of well-being programs to one focused approach and improving its execution, the results were significantly better. 

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practical School Implementation

Campbell is deeply engaged in academia through doctoral studies at The University of Melbourne and remains connected with current research and trends. He also follows professional forums to stay informed. However, McKay finds that the deliberate networks he is part of and the regular school visits he initiates are most valuable for staying current and aiding his decision-making. He observes a notable gap between research and practical implementation in schools, often seeing a ten-year lag between research findings and their application. Few principals are adept at interpreting research or applying it effectively in schools. His efforts to stay open to new ideas and avoid narrow perspectives aid in the decision-making process, ensuring that changes are made carefully with evidence-based consideration.

Gradual Implementation for Enhancing Lesson Effectiveness and Student Outcomes

Campbell highlights the importance of embedding recent implementations at the school. He notes that their approach involves deliberate and gradual change, represented by their two-and-a-half-year effort to refine the first ten minutes of a lesson. The staff developed an instructional model called the Best Lesson and regularly visited each other’s classrooms to follow a rubric and use video analysis to ensure consistency in starting lessons. While this may appear to be a slow process, McKay believes that getting the beginning of the lesson right will lead to a more effective and smooth progression for the rest of the lesson. This method aligns with his belief that taking time to focus on key elements can ultimately accelerate student outcomes. Under this approach, the school has become one of the highest achieving in Australia, according to the national NAPLAN testing regime.

From Unexpected Beginnings to Passionate Leadership in Education

Campbell never anticipated becoming a school principal. After completing his teaching degree, he worked in a bar and considered pursuing the career for which he had trained, leading to his eventual role in education. Reflecting on his journey, he acknowledges that his passion for helping people, influenced by his mother, who was a teacher, has shaped his dedication to his work. Now, in his fifth decade of life, Campbell realizes that his love for his role stems from his desire to do good for others, which the position of principal enables him to fulfill. Education remains engaging for him, and over the past decade, he has completed a Master of Instructional Leadership through The University of Melbourne and is nearly finished with his Doctor of Education. Despite a slow start in teaching, he has developed a deep passion for pedagogy and the learning process, appreciating the constant variety and excitement that comes with working in a school.