Autumn 2005

Leadership

From dismal failure to strong and smart

CHRIS SARRA reckons that real leadership is more about doing than about theory. In this story about how the Cherbourg State School in Queensland turned full circle he well and truly proves his point.

ONE HAS TO SAY 2004 was a great year for me. I was named Queenslander the Year, and Cherbourg State School won Education Queensland’s State Showcase Award for Leadership.

On another note I did a subject on Leadership for the Executive Master of Public Administration that I am currently doing through the Australia New Zealand School of Government. I had to write a 3000-word essay on leadership and for my efforts I got 65%.

I figure that real leadership is less about the theory of leadership and more about the doing of leadership. Let me share with you what was ‘the doing’ of leadership in our school.

It started with the need to actually define the problem. For many, this meant signalling that a problem actually existed. I had inherited a staff that believed they were doing good things in the school despite many signals to the contrary. Attendance, literacy and behaviour across all grades were extremely poor.

As principal of the school I would not tolerate such failure. As an Aboriginal person I would not tolerate such failure.

On questioning staff about the extent of our school’s failure they would tell me that:

• there are many social and cultural complexities<
• the parents and students don’t value education
• the community doesn’t support the school.

On every occasion the students and/or the community were getting the blame for such failure. At no stage did we scrutinise such dismal performance and ask: What are we doing that is contributing to such dramatic underachievement? To me, this was crucial. Clearly we had very little control or influence on the external forces of the students’ social and cultural context. We did however have control over our own. If we developed and embraced a culture of dismal failure within our school, then clearly this is what we were destined to return.

In Education Queensland we have the Principles of Effective Learning and Teaching. In one of the Principles, Education Queensland states that ‘Effective Learning and Teaching shapes and responds to the social and cultural context of the learner (1994)’. Accordingly, there is incumbency upon us as educators to shape and respond to a student’s social and cultural context; not blame it!

Our problem had very little to do with the community and its students. Our problem was that we had watered down expectations about what the students could achieve.

In a staff meeting at the middle of 1999 I had to say to the staff that I inherited:

What I believe and what the community believes, is that our children can leave this school with academic outcomes that are comparable to any other child from any other school in Queensland, and with a strong and positive sense of what it means to be Aboriginal … if you don’t believe it then it is time for you to leave!

Half of the teaching staff left the following year! This created a much needed opportunity to establish a new team with high expectations of themselves and the students. We established a team that was not there to rescue or save the students; but to get on with the job of effective learning and teaching.

With a new team and renewed community faith in the school, it was necessary to articulate a new vision for the school, shaped by the new sense of expectation. The aim of Cherbourg State School is to generate academic outcomes that are comparable to any other school in Queensland; and to develop a strong and positive sense of what it means to be Aboriginal in today’s society.

It is necessarily a twofold definition that must focus on improved academic outcomes for Aboriginal children, but not at the expense of their cultural identity. With this vision we had to hook the most important stakeholders of all—our students.

This new aim is encapsulated in a catchy new school motto: ‘Strong and Smart’. Any day of the week I can go to any class and say: ‘What is the thing that we aim for in our school?’ and they will all sing out: ‘Strong and Smart’. We also developed a school song that our students love to sing in unison and with gusto. It has been heard nationally and it goes like this:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Cherbourg School is here. We are young and black and deadly, So come and hear us cheer. Bring on every challenge, Put us to the test. We’re from Cherbourg State School, And you know we’re the best.

On many occasions I will say to them things like: ‘You can’t tell me you want to be “strong and smart” and say “We’re young and black and deadly”, if you are not prepared to act strong and smart or to be young and black and deadly … it has to be more than words coming out of your mouth … your actions have to tell me the same as what your mouth does!’

Such an approach has laid the platform for students to lead by cleaning up their own school grounds; to improve their attendance and behaviour at school; and importantly, to work much harder in the classroom for improved student outcomes.

In fact, everyone who has any involvement with our school, from teachers and teacher aides, to the administration officer and the groundsmen, knows they have to be on about the pursuit of ‘Strong and Smart’.

I think that is the most effective form of leadership—the type where everyone knows where we are collectively headed, and is prepared to lead themselves there. This is particularly so given the extent of the change that had to occur at our school.

From this point, where everyone knows where we are going, it becomes a matter of just getting on with the job and being prepared to work hard to get there.

I believe that two things are crucial in schools—a positive, productive teacher-student relationship that is shaped by high expectations; and leadership. If teachers decide that students will learn, they will learn; and if school leaders decide that the school will go forward, it usually goes forward.

In closing I should point out that it can take time. I should also confess that I wrote the leadership essay in only one hour and 20 minutes! You get out what you put in … but I was ‘doing’ leadership at the school!

Reference

Department of Education (1994). Principles of Effective Learning and Teaching, Publishing Services for Studies Directorate, Qld.

Chris Sarra is principal of Cherbourg State School in the Queensland.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au