26 September 2025

From the President

Welcome to the Term 3 newsletter.

This time of year is perhaps the most challenging time to be a leader in secondary education.

The end of the influenza season means that many staff have had to take on classes for their absent colleagues, leaving them more weary than usual. Whilst planning for 2026 has been underway for some time, there are always some tricky challenges to navigate – not the least of which is ensuring you have the right staff to deliver your educational programs.

For your ATAR students, school-based examinations are reaching their conclusion either this week or next; whilst ATAR practical examinations kick off next week. At the same time, your non-ATAR students seem to be excited to be finished with their compulsory schooling… although many will feel quite daunted by the prospect of life without the security provided by their school.

Despite all these challenges, your leadership has been crucial to keeping things on track. Your guidance, support and encouragement have kept your staff focussed on the end goal – with your students being the most important beneficiaries of these efforts. 

As you watch your staff head off for a break, now is the time to pat yourself on the back. The work you do is tough and unending, but it is incredibly important.

As always, I encourage you to take the time to relax, refresh, recharge and reconnect over the next couple of weeks. You will need all your energy to lead your team down the back straight and over the finishing line!

Melissa Gillett
WASSEA President

2025 Australian School Leader Health & Wellbeing Survey

It’s that time of year again – time to get stuck into the survey that looks at the health and wellbeing of school leaders around the country. The survey has been critically important in increasing awareness around workload; leading to this being a priority area of reform identified in the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.

Done the survey before?

• If you have completed the survey in previous years, you should have already received a link from the survey team. If your email has changed since last year, contact the team to arrange for a new link.
• If you are no longer in a school leader role, you are welcome to complete a shortened survey.
• The 2025 survey has removed a number of questions, making it shorter and more accessible.

Not done the survey before?

• 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.
• Register now at https://healthandwellbeing.org
  

Sangora Post-Secondary Education Awards

Nominations for the 2025 Sangora Post-Secondary Education Awards are now open!

The Sangora Education Foundation’s Post-Secondary Education Awards are given to Year 12 students to financially assist them in continuing their education at a tertiary institution such as university or TAFE. Up to five scholarships are awarded annually to students who will have difficulty engaging in post-school education for reasons such as personal circumstances and distance but are keen and able to continue their education.

If you, your school’s Year 12 coordinator or your student services team know of a worthy candidate in your school, for whom the award would make a difference to their chances of tertiary success, please consider submitting a nomination.

The awards are coordinated by WASSEA and are only available to public school students.  To nominate a student, complete the nomination form linked below and return it to michael@wassea.asn.au by 5:00pm Friday 31 October.

Building a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce – Productivity Commission

ASPA, our national body, has provided a submission to the Productivity Commission interim report – Building a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce (Interim report - Building a skilled and adaptable workforce). The report proposes reforms to secondary and post-secondary education and to occupational entry requirements to build a more skilled and adaptable workforce. The report provides eight recommendations under the following themes:

• The best resources to improve student outcomes
• Building skills and qualifications for a more productive workforce
• Fit-for-purpose occupational entry regulations

ASPA’s response supports aspects of the Report and disagrees with others, providing a rationale and recommendations for consideration by the Commission. The ASPA submission can be viewed here.

Scholarship opportunities

Woodman Scholarship

The aim of the Woodman scholarship is to assist WASSEA Ordinary and Life members in accessing high quality professional development that that might otherwise be out of their reach for reasons such as interstate or overseas travel being required, or PD that is for leadership development but cannot be school funded due to school priority or budgeting restraints.

Applications can be submitted at any time, and are judged at the end of each term. More info and an application form can be found here: