Gary Martin

School leaders usually agree to disagree on many thorny education issues but are united in their view that schools must be places where children and young adults can learn and develop without fear of discrimination and harassment.

OPINION: Self-trolling represents a disturbing new social platform for students who turn to self-harm to express their emotional trauma.

OPINION: Businesses need to step up and work with schools to support initiatives and programs to counter online bullying.

OPINION: Businesses that place emphasis on corporate social responsibility, or CSR, are attracting a growing share of consumer goodwill and spending.

OPINION: Undermining successful co-workers is not unique to schools, but it goes some way to explaining the under-representation of women in leadership roles.

OPINION: Identifying student with an entrepreneurial bent and streaming their skills would bring a multitude of benefits.

OPINION: Listening to feedback can be confronting, but failure to do so can be detrimental to a school’s performance.

OPINION: School leaders and parents are increasingly questioning the way classrooms are organised.

OPINION: Parents naturally want the best for their children, but increasingly forceful representations to, and demands of, teachers is a problem.

OPINION: Determining the ideal classroom size is arguably the number one topic on the long list of thorny education issues to have divided policymakers, academics, school leaders, teachers, parents and even students over the past 50 years.

OPINION: The most effective school leaders know how to work cooperatively with the members of their team, even welcoming dissent, to achieve optimal outcomes.

OPINION: A failure to take care of one’s own wellbeing will quickly blunt a leader’s capacity to do what’s best for others.

OPINION: You need to lead a significant change program at your school and are already bracing for the resistant rants of some of your colleagues.

OPINION: Growing demands on school leaders have led to a lack of confidence among many, fuelling the onset of ‘impostor syndrome’ within school communities.

OPINION: Those of us who have learned to drive a motor vehicle will no doubt recall the driving instructor alerting us to ‘blind spots’, the parts of the road to the side and slightly behind your vehicle that you can’t see in your side or rear view mirrors.

OPINION: When teachers, students and parents reflect on their most admired school leader, what do you think springs to mind?