Professional Learnings NSWPPA Educational Leadership

Championing Public Education with Lila Malarczyk OAM

• NSW PPA Professional Learning • Season 3 • Episode 13

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What does true educational leadership look like when equity remains at its heart for over 40 years? Lila Malarczyk OAM offers a masterclass in purposeful leadership that transforms lives and systems.

Growing up in western Sydney from a low socioeconomic background, Lila experienced firsthand how education could open doors—and how prejudice could try to close them. A defining moment came when, as a 17-year-old scholarship student, she confronted blatant discrimination from a university administrator. Rather than letting this experience diminish her, it fortified her resolve to create more just educational environments.

As principal of Marylands High School, Lila revolutionised community engagement. She invited cultural groups into meaningful dialogue, resulting in astonishing transformations—most notably reducing suspensions of Māori students from 93% to zero within a single year. Her radical reimagining of staff development days—where parents became the teachers and students orchestrated professional learning—flipped traditional power dynamics and created authentic school partnerships.

The data tells a compelling story: significant increases in HSC achievement, university acceptance rates tripling, and 62% of those students becoming first-generation university learners. Behind these numbers were innovative approaches like employing former students as paraprofessionals, creating visible success pathways for current students to aspire toward.

Now directing her passion toward the Public Education Foundation, Lila helps provide scholarships that transform lives—like Michael, who despite discovering his mother after suicide at age 12, went on with scholarship support to become a teacher himself. The Foundation also recognises often-invisible school support staff and provides learning opportunities for educators through prestigious programs.

What remains constant throughout Lila's 43-year journey is her unwavering belief that "every interaction matters" and that leadership is fundamentally about responsibility, not power. For new principals, she offers this wisdom: "You are never alone," while insisting students must remain at the centre of every decision.

Want to support equitable opportunities in education? Explore the Public Education Foundation's work and consider how you might contribute to their life-changing initiatives for students and educators alike.

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Drew:

Welcome back to Professional Learning's, the New South Wales PPA Educational Leadership Podcast. It's great to have your company. This podcast aligns to the values of the New South Wales Primary Principals Association, that is, the values of principal wellbeing, principals as lead learners, as well as supporting principals to lead school operations. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe for further updates. Now let's get into today's latest episode. In this episode, we explore the exciting journey of Lila Malarkic OAM, a distinguished leader in public education. We discover her work with the Public Education Foundation that she's leading. We hear about her leadership journey and we discover her work that she's leading with the Public Education Foundation and how it's shaking equitable opportunities for students and educators alike.

Lila:

My name is Lilla Malarczyk. My full name is Liliana Malarczyk.

Drew:

This is Lilla Malarczyk, OAM, a name synonymous with public education leadership. Is Lilla Malargic OAM, a name synonymous with public education leadership? Lilla has served as a principal, a policy advisor, president of the New South Wales Secondary Principals Council and is a system leader with the New South Wales Department of Education. But more than that, she's known for her heart, her voice, her vision and, especially, for equity. She once said leadership is not about power, it's about responsibility, it's about doing what's right for students, even when it's hard. Today we'll explore her story and the powerful work of the Public Education Foundation, an organisation she champions. And with that, welcome Lilla.

Lila:

Thank you so much, Drew. Thank you for having me.

Drew:

Absolute pleasure. Let's start from the beginning, and what inspired you to pursue a career in education.

Lila:

Well, I don't want to just be repeating what people, what teachers, normally say, but I am going to merge that in because, it is true, inspiring teachers inspire more of us along the way. But if, drew, with your permission, if I could start at the beginning of the end, which sounds bizarre, but what I'm saying is I'm in my 43rd year of working in and around public education schools and I still value every day and every opportunity I have to contribute to the growth of students, their opportunities, but also our colleagues in school and, importantly, of course, our system. So there's a whole lot of things that we do there and in my current work life. I am working with several universities now. I work as a lecturer, I work with prac teachers, I work running conferences of professional learning at the unis. I do conferences with our union, I work as a principal in residence with the system, doing a lot of projects such as the HALT work and sometimes Dress for Success, et cetera. I do coaching and mentoring, and I mention that because this is the pinnacle of having choice now of where I am, but that I have been inspired to continue that work post what people often call as the end of your career, and I am nowhere near it, but I'm getting closer. So what's inspired me? Well, I believe what inspired me 43 years ago still inspires me now, and that is about making a difference for everybody, making a difference with everybody, because we never work in isolation, and I think that's really important.

Lila:

Education was exceptionally highly regarded and valued in my home. My mother and father both regarded it quite strongly. One of my parents and I don't need to differentiate had far more opportunity in terms of that, and that was overseas, where they were getting those opportunities. My own experience at school I had teachers that inspired me. They included all the different learners that we had. They opened opportunities. They gave more, it appeared, than some other teachers, but that doesn't mean other teachers weren't good. But I'm talking about the inspiration for going into teaching. They took a genuine interest in getting to know the students, and I don't just mean me, I mean the cohort that we were in, and I am going to name some people that no one will know, but Mrs Richardson, mrs Beckhouse, mr Perot, mr Norris, ms Bruehl. Two of them have been principals in SPC Ms Brown and Mr Piggott. They are some of the inspiring teachers that have given me or platformed my career to date, which is great.

Lila:

I also loved visual arts. I love the history of visual arts and that's what hooked me curriculum wise into our system and what we do. And I had the opportunity at the school certificate level which is quite different now to what it was back then, but my work was actually selected to travel around New South Wales. I was lucky that I came first in that and the reason I'm saying that is because I also came from an exceptionally low SES background. Having that recognition, not just for myself but for the school, changed a whole lot of flavor of how I looked at teaching and what we could provide for students, and I'll speak about that later. But the other thing that inspired me to be a teacher was some of the people I came into contact with through education. That actually wound people because they're not inspirational, they're really hard and they can be quite damaging, and I'll tell one story later on.

Drew:

Yeah, please.

Lila:

It actually gave me strength that I didn't realize I needed or wanted. I will do it at the end of this response, but I had a hunger for learning. My friendship group had a hunger for learning and the teachers looked at us. I know differently now and I know why. To feed us Now. At the time we were in year 10, and this is really giving me historical context there was a Carmel report done in the USA which was about working with children from low SES, disadvantaged backgrounds, and that was informing the way that the teachers actually worked with this particular cohort in my group, which was fantastic. And, to give an example, we had over 300 students in year seven when I went to year seven. By the time I got to year 12, we had just under 100 students. So you can see that the nutrition.

Drew:

There's a churn, absolute churn, yeah.

Lila:

I'll just tell you the story of Mrs South, which is the person who attempted to wound me, and I'm sure she wounded others, but this informed the way I work. Three of us from our school, which was a great public education school, got to university with scholarships. You needed to be monitored if you had a scholarship. Each scholarship student was called down one by one to Mrs South's office so that she could begin the monitoring. This is at university. However, she called all three of us down as a pack and I started to think is this a social experiment? The first question to the three of us we're all from the same high school, all close friends was and what does it feel like for young people from the western suburbs to be attending a tertiary education? We are talking late 1970s. She then turned to me and said and you from another country, you can see how things have forged my, my work around equity and wanting fairness and justice for all so picking, picking up on that where, where did you, what did you do with that in terms?

Drew:

of that said totally, that seemed to be a pivotal moment for you and what did you do with that, with that?

Lila:

I was just turned 17. My parents had always brought me up to be polite but not step back. I stood up and I just said and how does it feel to be so bigoted and racist? I left her office quietly. I never up and I just said and how does it feel to be so bigoted and racist? I left her office quietly. I never returned and nor did she ever call me down for any monitoring.

Lila:

But for me, I kept thinking about the sphere of influence that I could take that further in a whole lot of contexts, including having conversations with my two friends who were absolutely gobsmacked as well. But it was much further than that. But that really did inform how I worked in terms of students that are not necessarily strong. They're disenfranchised communities, school communities that we work with. In terms of that disenfranchising, it was not okay and I'm really strong when I speak to pre-service teachers about every interaction matters and you don't wound anyone, be really cautious of those sorts of things. But they're just some reflections that I think helped, informed and inspired me and it was a marriage of those things. But also, you know, my parents were really strong on education will open doors and open opportunities for you.

Drew:

Yeah Well, thank you for sharing that, lilla. That obviously has impacted and shaped all of your career and understanding for those listening going up in terms of the response. You stood up to what stood for your values and and shared that as well. So thank you for sharing that it's and we we hope that that doesn't occur in, you know, the 2025, but in terms of what I've heard, is just sticking to those values and those principles helps make the right decision.

Lila:

That's right. No matter how awkward or difficult it may be, we do need to call out the inappropriate, the damaging, the hurtful.

Drew:

Yeah, yeah. So let's move into what a privilege in terms of sharing that, and I can hear all of the things that you have experienced as well, and you sound very, very busy, but it doesn't sound like work, it sounds like a mission. It sounds like you are supporting colleagues in different contexts still supporting principal colleagues, as well as potentially sometimes coming in and relieving as a principal as well. If we go to your role, where we go back to Maryland High School, and that's a school that's known for its incredible diversity, transformation under your leadership. What were some of the breakthrough moments during your time there?

Lila:

Drew, it's not going to surprise you that I am going to tell you some stories that will break through moments, but I would like to also start being quite cheeky.

Lila:

I'm just going to rattle off a couple of data information because that's all part of the greater picture in terms of tone, culture and aspirations as well for what we do. So, and we used to do slices of time it might be 12 months, it might be 24. And we just feed it back to the community and to the staff about how we're going on things and I'm not going to rattle off the things that we needed to keep working on, but the things that we did, you know that was really quite good in a slice of time. That was around the early to mid-teens of 2012, 2013, et cetera. We had started to do a whole lot of equity work and we'd been starting to get equity money coming in.

Lila:

So some of the data is 8.3% improvement in achieving the higher bands in the HSC, which was just absolutely so, that's bands 5 and 6, and a 5.2% in the middle bands of band 4 and sometimes band 3. There was a move from bands 1 and 2 up into band 3. That was 13% and whilst that may seem insignificant to many, the actual impact on the school community was pretty powerful to see that things were climbing and students were achieving Increase. In the number of students actually wanting to do an ATAR pattern of study, we had an increase of 6% wanting to do ATAR exams through VET, which is really important. We had 100% of students on individual education plans. Now, before everyone goes, wow, that's amazing, it was ambitious and it probably wasn't as strong as the statement sounds, but the intent was to know each student, so there were those sorts of things we had over a 24-month period two years we had increased and these are important stats by 14% assessment submission rates. Now that's pretty powerful too, because you know that students are now starting to be engaged.

Lila:

We had 63% of our students accepting tertiary or university courses because a number of different equity programs and funding and opportunities. Now that trebled within two years. Now that's powerful and the message or the lens that goes with that across the school community is yes, we can, yes, we are, we are doing those things. 62% of those attending university out of that, 63% were first-generation university learners, which is pretty powerful, and it goes without saying that 100% were low SES. We also had 59% of those students attending had language background other than English and 15% were refugee students, which is pretty powerful.

Lila:

I can go on and on, Drew, with different data. So we had incredible attendance rates moving up, which was great over a period of time and we did that by having programs, but one of the most powerful programs was actually having paraprofessionals, and this was quite early in the case of having paraprofessionals, but there was, I guess, an unspoken caveat. They were university students needing part-time work and they were all students ex-Marylands High School, so that our students could see that it was happening for our community. That that was one of the great things.

Drew:

Anyhow, there's a lot more those, those stats are amazing and and how how do you, as the leader of the school, how do you see that happening? Like what do you put down to those stats, those amazing statistics? What did you see internally at your school, as a principal, to make that happen?

Lila:

Oh, there were a whole lot of things that were happening and I might speak about other programs later, but we had, early in the piece, a community of schools, before it was actually labelled a community of schools. So we were already scoping, sequencing across six primary schools and the secondary schools as partners. We were scoping and sequencing curriculum delivery so there wasn't repetition, there weren't gaps. We were doing those things. We had the paraprofessionals. We had expert subject teachers from the high school working with expert, expert teachers, because that's what primary school teachers are expert teachers working across curriculum areas, sharing pedagogical skills, sharing curriculum knowledge skills. So those aspects were then working and being married across there as well.

Lila:

We had consistency, as much as you ever can in a huge community, in all our schools, whatever size, a much larger community you'll be controlling but we had consistency of language, of expectations in terms of conditions to enable learning, in expectation of understanding what assessment tasks could and should look like for learning and feedback. We worked across all those cycles that you would have. We had professional learning at the forefront of most gatherings of staff, so the staff meetings didn't need to be a list of people aren't wearing their uniforms, people aren't you know those.

Lila:

It was trying to be meaningful as well as having the communication. But a huge aspect of this, Drew, was actually the fact that we had parents, integral to the learning as well, and their contribution to the community, which I can give you so many examples. May I give you one story. So this was in my first year, so it is going back before some of the people online were even born.

Drew:

As principal, I love it. We have a diverse audience.

Lila:

So with this the community engagement could be stronger and have a different flavour to it, because there were so many great things already happening at the school and this was an aspect that we needed to look at. So I began having cultural groups come to the school, because the mix wasn't happening in a comfortable way. So in the first six months I think I had 48 different community groups of parents inviting them in. Can you be raw and honest about what's not working for your children, crumbs? They were raw and honest. I'm telling you that. Now, if I had it for whatever cultural groups and I went from the larger groups to the smaller groups, I would run those three times a day, so in the morning, at lunchtime and at night. So no parent could say to me I can't make it. If they genuinely wanted to be there, I was going to make sure that there was an opportunity to do it and we worked through a whole lot of things. Now, if I go to the group or the Maori group as one example, that got the momentum up first.

Lila:

There were a whole lot of things that we worked on. The parents thought it would be really good to have a focus camp for their children, because the Maldon children or the Maori children at that time did have the poorest attendance and anything that they were excelling at percentage-wise were things that you don't want them to excel at percentage-wise in terms of referrals. So we ran camps. Now the parents virtually designed the entire camp, the workshops.

Lila:

Talking about cultural stereotyping, is that what you want? Learning your first well, not first language, but learning your heritage language. We had a whole lot of things working on that how to actually study, getting a goal setting, and the parents ran this. I will say that the teachers did all the paperwork because we needed to make sure that risk assessments were done and we just kept working and the community were involved. They were walking the school, doing things coming in, you know, with food, with music, with focus, with language. They would take them to McDonald's to order Big Macs in Maldi, like it was just magic. And this is one of the stats of that. The first year that I arrived, 93% of long suspensions at the school were the Maori boys, which is, you know, disproportionate, to say the least.

Drew:

Yeah, yeah.

Lila:

And have some sort of recognition. The next year it was Zippo like in the following year, after pretty intense work, and we did this tailored as parent and student felt for different. You know the Arabic community, you know we had a little bit of a French community then, et cetera. We did it for everyone. There was more intensity in some areas and it did have a lot to do with parent buy-in, but that was just magic, that stat.

Drew:

Absolutely yeah.

Lila:

And it sent a message to everyone, not just to one cultural group. I will tell you, drew, by the end of the year we did have all the groups coming together as one Marylands High School community, by the way. It didn't remain that way, but we needed to open the door.

Drew:

What a powerful story in terms of you coming through as a leader that uses data and really interrogates that data to find the problem. And then what I heard further is you unpack that data to see how, in the problem you're trying to solve as a leader, what you could do to unravel that problem of 93% of long suspensions, which is just and then you unpack that, you really unpack that further to see, well, why are the students behaving that way? Incorporated what I heard is incorporated programs really made sure those participants or the families were feeling included. You really brought that in and then celebrated that success. How did you get the team as the leader, lilla, in to have that same motivation and that vision you had?

Lila:

I'm going to start with. It was kind of easy.

Drew:

Okay.

Lila:

They felt it was the right time for this particular direction to come in. We actually had harmony days, as everyone does Sorry, that's not unique, everyone has that and so there were already once a year, on one day a year already, teachers were working with one particular cultural group. So we all we had a semi contact that was coming. But when we started to have so, you know, with the group and with the arabic group, those particular teachers were ongoing and pretty excited when they could see the buy-in of conversation that was happening with the parents in the school and there were students that always attended. Also, if I could just say, whenever we have an event, it was never a parent night or a student night or a teacher night, it was a school night or a school event, and that means students, teachers and parents always the same as our school development days were always that the three.

Drew:

So, anyhow, Okay, so just to clarify that, you mentioned staff development days, so you incorporated your community in that as well. Tell us further, yeah.

Lila:

Okay, so every school development day the invitation went out to every student. Can I just tell you I didn't need to do crowd control with that, but they were there, the invitation was there and invitation went to every parent as well. Every school development day we would tell them what we're going to talk about. We would suggest if you don't can't give the whole day, because that would be their way to come for an hour or not, you can come for just sections of it. Here's when lunch is on, morning tea. This is the keynote. This is when you'll be workshopping. But I'm going to take it one step further.

Lila:

Drew now, any story I tell is going to either be a one-off or a series, and you know I'm not going to go into everything, but we had a school development day that became a model for other local schools, where the only presenters were parents for the day and it was almost like masterclasses and it was speaking to if students turned up, but also to the staff the cultural sensitivities or life at home, what it was like, what the impact of different things.

Lila:

And I mean, you know, some cultures have Saturday and Sunday church requirements. Some don't have access to sadly, electricity all the time or to laptops. This is those sorts of things. So to talk about that, what does it mean to be part of the church? Well, it means Saturday and Sunday, apart from football they're at, they can't do homework, those sorts of things. What are the behavioural aspects? And we did that for just about any group we could think of. It didn't have to be a cultural group, might have been some other understanding around that. That was that, and it was so well received by the parents, but also by the teachers, who had an understanding and a connection with parents they'd never had before.

Lila:

We ran another and I know I was there for a long time, so we should have done one or two like this. There was another school development day where we actually worked with 16 local schools and the day was orchestrated, supported by teachers, but orchestrated by students only in terms of their wellbeing. Teachers did assist them because they were doing things like organising what workshops could look like for teachers and parents, what data needed to be collected prior, there were different surveys done, so we had all of that, but the students ran the delivery of the school development day on wellbeing about students and what they Wow in terms of the.

Drew:

You've totally flipped the in terms of the. You've totally flipped the model in terms of what actually Staff Development Day would and should feel and sound like. You gave your parents a voice, you gave your students a voice and autonomy as well, and it's that whole handing and the benefit is for the educators, for the teachers at your school, to understand the context in which they're working upon. So that would have been an exciting opportunity. Yeah, some of those stories are so powerful and also possibly first time in terms of no one else was doing that or were you aware of other schools doing that practice?

Lila:

I wasn't aware, and it was way back when Drew.

Drew:

Yeah.

Lila:

Yeah.

Drew:

Well, tell us way back when. What are we talking? How long ago?

Lila:

I began as a principal in 2002 and then I moved into a director's role at the end of 2016.

Drew:

Okay, yeah, at the end of 2016. Okay, yeah. So quite very forefront in terms of that thinking and also because of that thinking and leadership, were the team with you.

Lila:

I just wanted to say I wanted to. It wasn't my only leadership, it was a team. Absolutely it was a team, and I don't mean only executive or senior executive. I have some pretty powerful leaders throughout the staff community but also throughout, you know, the parent community and the students. I can tell you amazing stories about the students running professional learning across Australia in terms of advising teachers on how to best use technology with teenagers. You know we can talk about those sorts of things. It's just incredible things. But teachers in their first year and teachers in their 30th year running professional learning in their second year across schools and across our state.

Lila:

And if I could just say and I won't go into this, but the project I spoke about, where we did scope and sequence of curriculum, we had teachers that were magnificent and had never spoken at a staff meeting ever before were now running multiple school professional learning. So the leadership was there. I guess it's a matter of sharing with everyone. You are a leader, which I don't want to sound corny because we always say everyone's a leader and there's an amazing story that's been documented a few places you choose to opt out of leadership, as far as I'm concerned, and you don't get to choose to opt in. That's what I would have thought was best for our school community and just the most magnificent staff there, and I know everyone says that, but mine was the best.

Drew:

Well, you could see that, going back to the start of your education story, you could see that ethos shone through and I could hear that you were going to make sure all of those that you supported as a leader, as an educator, were able to shine with their best ability in terms of making students to be leaders, which is a piece of if I indulge, similar to one of our pieces with Leader and Me, through Franklin Covey, and an opportunity to share as a multiplier, so to speak. You saw the genius really in others that they could shine through.

Lila:

Thank you, can I say. One of the highlights for me was when two of my students who had been incredible leaders at the school were then at uni. They're both lawyers in social justice now, but they they approached me to present at their professional learning, so I was being hired by my. I just love that whole cycle how good is that full? Cycle. It was grand, it was grand.

Drew:

So then, if we move into obviously had fantastic success results at Maryland High School, tell us about your role. You moved into the president role of the New South Wales Secondary Principal Council and you became a voice for school leaders across New South Wales. Can you tell us what are some of the pressures and privileges of this position? Well, everything's a privilege. I know that sounds cheesy. School leaders across New South Wales. Can you tell us what are some of the pressures and privileges of this position?

Lila:

Well, everything's a privilege. I know that sounds cheesy. I'll get back to that. Can I just start from?

Lila:

It was an understanding of what the role was and I've mentioned earlier in our discussion about the sphere of influence and understanding what the sphere of influence is going to be in that role and for what purpose, and that my actions and my words were actually going to be precedents for any future decisions that were going to be made on behalf of the association. So that was a pretty powerful responsibility because it would be an immediate influence and then a longer-term influence and I really wanted to make sure that I got that right, which I'm about to reference. But it's also the perception of our system. As the current presidents know, it's at a state level. How is the association perceived by sharing that understanding of what the voice is?

Lila:

But it goes further, because I did have the privilege of working nationally and internationally on behalf of the associations, but also of the system. So you need to be really cautious. It's a real strong understanding of knowing what is right for all in our association, or for as many as you can in terms of school leaders, but colleagues as well in our system, for our students and school communities and, as I said, you can't step back from it. You've got to call out things as they arrive. Don't massage the message. You know that, that old saying. You can't do that, no, and you have to be the voice representing members.

Lila:

and how do you know that? That old saying you can't do that, no, and you have to be the voice representing members. And how do you know what the voice is if you don't go and seek it? It's not a matter of listening to those who want to share it, which is great. You listen to that, but you need to go and seek the voice from those who haven't been sharing, and I guess it's a similar ethos to generating leaders you know from the school community and then feeding back to the members what you are representing, why you're representing it. This is the information you got, so I'll just oh, no long intro.

Drew:

No, no, but it's also important to understand. That's what we're. As you said, it's a privileged but understanding that, putting yourself into people, listening, what is it like to be in that position?

Lila:

In that context because Lilla was from Marylands High. I was a principal of a large suburban school. How am I going to know what Grant out near Broken Hill really needs? I'm not to make that assumption. And the executive? We're not to make that assumption. We have to be informed. So the privilege was you know, knowing that and, as I said, the representation, and on the global stage as well, which was pretty good. But the privilege was also being able to inform, maybe help block some of those decisions that weren't going to work well for schools and for school leaders. You don't always get that privilege, but you do get the privilege to say quite firmly what you believe. The pressure I don't want to and I've said this before, I don't want to be too cheesy, but I darn well loved being a principal and I loved being the president of SPC. So the pressure that I guess I did feel was that I was and I remained active principal whilst I was the president.

Drew:

So my office was at Mary Lane Right. You acted as a principal as well as okay.

Lila:

However, I did have. My two incredible deputies were co-principals, because there were times when I could not be at Maryland's high school. We get that, we're not going to pretend that that's not the case and we worked as a trio. Thank goodness for mobile phones at that point. We would Any staff member that went to one, two or three of us would get the same response. We kept tight about expectations, what we thought was best, et cetera, et cetera, and honestly, we would be texting all day. I'd be sitting in a bridge street where it was. Then you know, oh, this is what I think, blah, blah, blah. So the pressure was, I guess, making sure there's communication. But time and emotion is for me, I think, was the biggest, because you can't be emotional publicly in your role. I mean, I think you can be excited and enthusiastic, but you can't be emotional about a whole lot of things. And time is really important. And I'll give you another little story.

Lila:

Someone who was in a remote school emailed me, I can't remember, four or five o'clock in the morning on a Saturday, really distressed. It was a principal. They needed something. Of course I responded in the next one minute because I would have alerts coming through, because I did and I do thoroughly believe you've got to be available. If you take on the job, you've got to do the job is how I feel and that principle to this day will remind me and I don't remember the actual phone call or anything. I did phone him immediately and he implied that it wasn't as drastic as life-saving, but it pretty much put him back in a safe zone for the rest of the weekend and he said I didn't ever expect that, but how important it was that I was available.

Drew:

Yeah.

Lila:

You know I could speak a whole lot more about everything. As you've worked out, drew, I could speak for hours.

Drew:

I could speak a whole lot more about everything as you've worked out, drew. I could speak for hours, oh well, but in just understanding what the role is and what are you proudest of in terms of taking on that position as the secondary president of the New South Wales, secondary Principal Council, I think we had incredible working relationships and it still happens PPA, spc and Teachers' Fed.

Lila:

We're pretty united in most aspects of our thinking and I think that trusted relationship was pretty powerful when we disagreed and go figure, there were times when we disagreed. There was never a public conflict ever between the three. I'm really proud of that and how we worked around those aspects. I'm really proud of a number of programs and reforms that we worked on. So if I give an example of great teaching inspired learning I think that was pretty powerful and that was the department and the alliance, as it was called then working together. That was pretty amazing working on that and making sure we were getting as much resourcing as we could to support new teachers to the system or new teachers to their new context as well, which was pretty powerful. There were a whole lot of other reforms that, maybe with less success, but the fact that we were all at the table working really strongly was terrific.

Lila:

Yeah in terms of SPC, I think we did some pretty marvellous work, developing things and you know, been a series of great presidents. I at that time worked primarily with Jeff Scott and a little bit with Jim Cooper, maury Mulherrin, but also working with the department Amazing, amazing team of educational leaders which everyone was yeah, and it's great that the system, you know, our department now has another educational leader working together using educational language.

Drew:

Yeah.

Lila:

You know, yeah, yeah, so yeah.

Drew:

Yeah, terrific, yeah, you know, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, terrific. Let's turn to the Public Education Foundation now, an organisation that provides life-changing support for students and educators. What led you to be involved with that organisation?

Lila:

Well, if only you should ask what led to it, drew, in 2008, I think is when it began, the then president, jim McAlpine, a very, very, very dear friend of mine, asked me if I'd go along to a meeting that was the Public Education Foundation. So I've actually been in some form married to it since then, but in my alleged retirement years I've become a director, which is great, but I've always been on the panels doing voluntary work, doing mentoring, giving advice well actually and also trying to get sponsorship and funding for the scholarships. So, yeah, well, and I believe wholeheartedly in public education that, along with health, is the health of our nation, so to speak.

Drew:

And what's some of the stories that you've seen through the Public Education Foundation?

Lila:

I'm going to begin with a statement. There are so many volunteers and many of them are retired principals and we might have 50 or 60, sometimes there's hundreds of applications and they're based on the greatest need and I don't think we've ever seen an application where there is no need but there's limited funding. If I could just explain that, there have been times with panel members, strong principal leaders in their work life, who have actually had to stop and debrief because of the stories they're reading that the children have shared with us, in need of getting some additional funding. So I'm going to just speak about Michael and I don't need to say where he's from, but I do know Michael. He was a young Aboriginal student. At school he put in for a scholarship, vision impairment, exceptionally low SES and lived off country. He actually came home to find his mother after a successful suicide and he was 12 years old. You know it's a pretty incredible, horrible context and he had mental health issues that were as a result of that no self-esteem whatsoever.

Lila:

I guess no focus in life. He sometimes spoke about wanting to be a teacher. He was put in for a scholarship. He got a scholarship, he went to university. He's out there now teaching and working on the cycle. Now that's a pretty powerful story amazing yeah, and I I can.

Lila:

You know, I can speak about Layla, who was a bright girl, but school wasn't working for her. She needed some additional support. So she got a scholarship during high school and then a scholarship to move into tertiary and you need to get the grades like a scholarship doesn't guarantee a placement. So she worked through all of that and started doing industrial design, which was fantastic. Didn't actually feel fulfilled, but she could go and change courses because she had the scholarship. And then she did and may have spoken about this girl then became a lawyer of social justice Wow, and there's so many other stories, like Barrow, who is a friend of the board. She was from a school and she couldn't afford to go to university. She used the scholarship money to work with a group that actually got her an internship during her university, which then turned into a full-time employment. She is thriving just being promoted, promoted, promoted. She was a refugee, came out in year 10, could hardly speak English from Syria. Story after story after story.

Drew:

It can see the hook, yeah, and the motivation and the why of what it say this not very lightly. It truly does change people's lives.

Lila:

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. As does every great educator too in our public education system. Every interaction is going to just help them grow and grow absolutely yeah can. Can I speak about the opportunities for teachers?

Drew:

I was about to go there. So yeah, please, please do, yeah. So tell us further about the opportunities, for we've heard about the amazing life-changing experiences for students, but Public Education Foundation also supports teachers as well as leaders in the system. Can you tell? Us further about the scholarships for those participants.

Lila:

Yes, so for mid-career and early career teachers, there are scholarships for them to pursue their learning.

Lila:

So they will apply and I think it's about 10,000 and they might itemise what they want to do. So it might be I want to do this particular degree at Sydney University or whatever it is, or I want to go and study in Canada for, you know, a month doing this course or visiting these schools, and they make applications, which is pretty. So, you know, meeting their needs through the requirements and the regulations that we have too, that's something. There's also a STEM scholarship for teachers and principals who are totally committed or want to focus and grow more on the STEM aspect, and the Harvard scholarships there's four a year. It is national.

Lila:

I have not spoken with a principal who has not just been blown away would be the only way to describe their learning experience in Harvard, and there's pre-learning courses that you can do as well. But if I talk about some that I know as very, very dear friends and some of them are on their second or third principalship the learning at Harvard affirmed their thinking and their beliefs and informed it more and gave them courage to do particular paths, and one of them is actually working with the department, of course, on different curriculum provision aspects that they might do, because they're in a new build so they get to do all that learning and bring it into reality.

Lila:

Yeah, which is great. The last thing that is not about scholarships but I think is equally important is that PEF works with the department, or rather works with the department because they're the department's awards. About recognition of parents, SAS staff, business managers, SAMs, CEOs, curriculum support officers, GAs, to be recognised in the system. May I just say the impact of that that you're because it doesn't happen much. Many of these people are invisible in the system. Let's be honest To have your general assistant or your teacher in food tech, assistant in food tech to be recognised for going above and beyond which they nearly all do is just phenomenal for the school community, but for the esteem of everyone involved in that provision of work within our system, it's pretty powerful stuff too.

Drew:

So it's embracing all I've heard, obviously, students. It's embracing families, changing lives. It's supporting educators, teachers through to principals, but, as I said, the invisible voice, but all those people in the system ground assistants, food tech assistants, teachers' aides all recognised. So how to say the pitch? How do people get involved in this amazing organisation? Or they're thinking this is amazing and what?

Lila:

can they do, please? Well, may I just firstly also say that the PPA and SPC are partners with the Public Education Foundation, which is fabulous, and of course, the Department of Education and Teachers Federation and a really strong partners. And it's not New South Wales centred, it's national, but of course New South Wales-based sponsors. It goes towards New South Wales recipients. How can people get involved? Well, there's a whole lot about advocacy that we do and we actually have resources for schools to use it for different community events. So I guess you know.

Lila:

So spreading the word there, applying for scholarships and recognition, is pretty powerful, because when the team goes out to speak to philanthropic possibilities, to say that you know there were 200 applicants just for this one and we could only fund 50, your help, because they want to give money, they want to know that there's a need for it. That's another way. Certainly, if anyone wants to put their hand in their pocket, they're more than welcome, because we do have many colleagues in our system that will do different contributions as well. They can volunteer to be panel members and so forth. There is quite a lot that can be done and absolutely happy to send information, resources, links for you, drew, to put at the end of the call Absolutely, we can definitely put that in our notes as well for people further information.

Drew:

There'll be links in our show notes as well that we can explore for for participants. It sounds like a truly life-changing organization and I can see the motivation that you're involved with this amazing organisation.

Lila:

It is, and wouldn't it be great, drew, if there wasn't a need for it.

Drew:

Yeah.

Lila:

But it has been a great win for public education in recent days. Yes, they have indeed.

Drew:

Still celebrating that success, as we call it, colleagues, literally after the new labor government was successful federal labor government was successful over the weekend look in terms of reflection and let's go to our reflections and future focus. If you look back on everything you've done, from the classroom to in your role of senior leadership, what are you most proud of?

Lila:

Oh gosh, I believe some of the examples I used as a principal earlier, some of the stories talking about the leadership.

Lila:

I think I've actually practiced that ethos throughout my career.

Lila:

So when I was a head teacher and I'm saying this because I am proud of, I think, the leadership legacy I have left and I think I have left places better I'm not saying great, I'm not pretending to be but the recognition of people, the leadership of people, I think, is pretty powerful. As I was saying, when I was a head teacher, I just made up this role but it was to give every student recognize and this was a really low SES, disenfranchised school that every student that year would be recognised on morning assembly. Throughout the year Every teacher was recognised and just about every parent that came through was recognised. So I think recognition is really important. I used to write letters to every teacher in my school at the end of the year saying thanks, we've had a great year, and I'd put in some of the data, which was general, and then I'd say thanks for being the tennis coach, thanks for being the chess, because I knew what they were doing, because it was so important for the community. But it's important for people to be recognised for what?

Lila:

they do. So I kind of think those sorts of things in terms of it are great, but recognising leaders, yeah, and letting them fly, because I don't know everything by a long shot, but letting them fly and then telling me what I'm not doing as well as I could, those sorts of that openness is pretty important and changes the complexion of the immediate community, but also their next context and my next context too, anyhow that's just.

Drew:

That's terrific. I mean, how inspiring for those listening going. Geez, I wish you could have been my principal.

Lila:

I'd just also say for everyone listening, I'm pretty sure there are a couple of people that would say the opposite too.

Drew:

Okay, Always humble and grounded. A few more questions before we finish. What gives you hope?

Lila:

So we've got another hour, because I can keep talking.

Drew:

Oh look, we could, we could. We're wrapping up, though. Lilla, I love how your enthusiasm and the stories you could share numerous stories what gives you hope for the future of public education in New South Wales?

Lila:

I work with pre-service teachers a lot multiple hundreds every year now and I work with not that many principals multiple hundreds but many Forty-three years in schools and around schools. I'm really happy to say that everything that has been important throughout those four decades is maintained. It looks different, teaching looks completely different. I get all of that, but the principles of what we do remains the same that we want to do the right thing by that student, by that student, by that student. We want to help the families do the right thing by those students, because that's a really powerful thing that parents all want the best for their children. They don't necessarily know what that looks like they just don't understand that.

Lila:

So I really see that things haven't changed in terms of commitment generally across our system. People go into it for the right reasons and just get better at it for the right reasons, which is pretty fantastic. The unrelenting commitment to teaching and learning, the fact and I'm not meaning to criticise anyone, but the joy of having educational leaders at the top again changes the conversation to where it should be Recognising the workload and the respect that teachers should have being paid the largest salary in the nation and things continuing Working significantly now to change the workload. I'm not saying it's great, it's not finished, there's so much more to do, but that's certainly some of the great things. That gives me hope for it for the future, because we're always looking for better practice.

Lila:

I don't believe there is best practice, Drew, so I never use that term for better practice. Collaboration is a whole new game in the world of technology and we do that much better and that's going to continue. But it's got its drawbacks as well, as we know the support I always say if I can just throw this in here anyone in our profession is not alone, and I think that's a really powerful thing, and I think they are less alone now than they ever have been. And you know, we've got our associations, we've got our networks, we've got our unions, we've got outside networks, all those sort of aspects.

Drew:

Why are they so important? Why do you think those organisations are so important?

Lila:

Well, apart from giving voice, it's the actual, it's the collaboration, it's the debriefing, it's reframing issues of concern, because we can't live complaining about things. We've got to contribute to getting the answer or improving things, and working together is a much smarter way of doing that. And the voice of SPC and PPA have been, and continue to be, pretty powerful and respected and that is really important. Leadership of schools, for all schools and for the schooling system in itself, those sorts of things are happening and I do think there's a reset starting and there's a lot of reset to be done, but it gives me hope because the reset is willingly being done by the leaders of the system, the associations, the union, profession, whatever you want, but it's being reset by educators who have a deep understanding and a deep want to make the future always better yeah, well said, lila.

Drew:

Before we finish, we ask guests what would you say to a first year principal walking into their school tomorrow?

Lila:

okay, it's like I can't answer you straight. I would say the same thing to a first-year principal that I would say to a beginning teacher or to someone in their new role I'm so excited for you is the first thing I would say, because I think it is always exciting. But then I'd go through a whole lot of things like you are never alone, please, don't think you are alone. And I think principals going people go into the principalship thinking they're alone. My goodness, I had the best senior executive team. I have the best then and now, principal friends who are very deep and important. You've got the association, so you're not alone. Students have got to be at the center of every decision. I'm just going through a whole lot of things that everyone knows, but everything else will follow from that. Like how do you support your teachers? How do you grow their capacity? And it comes from students are at the centre. How do you work with the community there? Yeah, there are a whole lot of other things Communication, communication, communication.

Lila:

And I'm going to say you communicate up and you communicate across. I do not believe in the term communicate down. If you're in a school, you're with your colleagues. Policy, policy, policy. Don't take a shortcut ever. Don't ever do that. If you don't like the policy, then put yourself in a position where you can help change or inform that policy change, but don't make yourself or others vulnerable. There's a whole list. I could.

Drew:

I could do a whole workshop on this Drew I'm sure you think I have but yeah, I was going to say I'm sure you have or you you're in the process of doing so yeah, so much knowledge. It's a privilege to speak to you. Your generosity, your leadership, your fierce belief in public education has come through so strongly. The work that you're doing with the Public Education Foundation is truly inspirational. Thank you for joining us for this powerful conversation. Thank you.

Lila:

Thank you, Drew.

Drew:

Well, thanks for joining us on the New South Wales PPA Professional Learnings for Educational Leaders. I'm Drew Janetsky. If a little of this insight has resonated with you, consider exploring the Public Education Foundation initiatives at publiceducationfoundationorgau. Stay inspired and keep leading with purpose. Thank you.

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