Our View
The Principals’ Federation of Western Australia believes working collaboratively with all stakeholders in our public education system will help provide proactive procedural improvements.
We work hard to campaign on our members’ behalf about the important issues affecting the future of our education system.
Position Statements
To view the PFWA’s position statements click on the relevant section below. Information is frequently updated, so please check back regularly for the most current position.
PFWA Response to Pathways to Post-School Success Review
Classification and Salary
The classification of Principals and Deputy Principals must be based on an evaluation of work value. The Director-General has made her own assessment of the value of the work Principals perform when she refers to them as “the most important leaders in our public education system”.
Schools Resourcing
Whilst the Student Centred Funding model (SCFM) was introduced in 2015 with the aim of providing a simple, transparent and equitable allocation model, centred on the educational needs of students and being responsive to school contexts it has not consistently met this objective. Inevitably within his model a level of inequity was inadequately addressed at the onset and gaps either have always existed or have subsequently occurred that has led to inequities between students, school context and locality.
GROH (Regional Housing)
The Principals Federation of Western Australia (PFWA) is committed to the Department of Education providing suitable housing to staff in rural and remote areas. School staff should expect suitable and well maintained housing in their work location.
Complaints and Ministerial
Complaints by parents and others in and around the school community can take up an inordinate amount of a Principal’s time. While it is recognised that it is important to have a complaints policy and procedure as an integral element of a school’s operations, too often Principals have experienced ongoing, vexatious attacks via email, phone and social media that bypass and ignore established processes for resolving problems that often arise from misunderstandings or misinterpretations.
Turning Back The Clock
The “Facing the Facts” review into the Western Australian public-school system, commissioned by the SSTUWA, makes forty-six recommendations to the Government and Department of Education addressing the issues that the review panel has identified as major challenges confronting the public-school system in WA.
Workers Compensation
School leaders make up a small percentage of the total Department of Education workforce, and an even smaller percentage of the liability associated with workers’ compensation. However, for school leaders, the workers’ compensation, injury management and return to work processes currently employed by the Government and Department of Education do not effectively support those school leaders who have had the misfortune to be
injured (physically or psychologically) while performing their duties.
Occupational Health and Safety (WHS)
The Principals Federation of Western Australia (PFWA) is committed to having the Department of Education better support school principals with Occupational Health and Safety in schools as this is a specialist function. That the principal is not personally liable and that the support for schools needs to be comparable to other major industries.
Staffing and Recruitment
Current recruitment and staffing processes are governed by Public Sector Standards that do not always work effectively for schools operating within a “connected autonomy” and where schools are funded on an enrolment based methodology.
Conditions of Work
Over the last decade there has been significant reform in education and changes in the work of principals and schools. These changes have contributed to increased delegations and responsibility for principals; greater accountability; increased administrative responsibilities and workloads; the need for greater availability out of hours; the gradual erosion of annual holidays; and greater expectations for the development and maintenance of interagency and community partnerships.