Lead Forward Workshop Spotlight: Who decides what in your school?

Monday, 21 September 2026.

Dear Principals & School Leaders,

Yesterday we held our 2026 Child Safety Summit, and we are still reading through the wonderful feedback from participants!

One principal who joined us face-to-face described it as:

“The best CLV Summit I have attended in my 10 years of teaching experience. It was short, practical, and provided useful ideas and resources that we can apply in our school.”

What has also stood out is just how important the interaction around the learning was.

Participants valued the practical scenarios, discussion and opportunity to work through real situations together. Interestingly, one of our online attendees told us afterwards that they wished they had been able to hear more of the discussions happening in the room.

And that captures something we saw very clearly yesterday.

The presentations matter — but so do the conversations between them.

That is why, if you are able to join us in person for Lead Forward this Sunday, 27 September, we strongly encourage you to do so... and, even better, bring members of your school leadership team with you.

Because some leadership conversations are much more powerful when the people who share responsibility for the school are sitting around the same table.

And that brings us perfectly to one of the practical workshops at Lead Forward…

WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHT
Who Decides What? Practical Governance for Community Language Schools
with Dr Oksana King, CEO, Community Languages Victoria

Dr Oksana King will lead a practical and interactive workshop examining the respective roles of governing committees and school leaders in community language schools.

Through realistic school scenarios, participants will work through questions of:
Who should approve the budget?
Who manages teachers?
Can a committee member give instructions directly to staff?
Who needs to be consulted?
Who ultimately remains accountable?

Rather than focusing on governance theory alone, the workshop will examine the kinds of situations community language schools regularly encounter when the boundaries between governance and operations are not clear.

Participants will leave with a practical decision-making framework they can take back to their school, together with an action they can implement to strengthen role clarity.

Oksana brings extensive experience across education, leadership and governance.

Before joining CLV as CEO, she served as Principal of the Ukrainian Community School and on the boards of several community organisations. Her research has also examined governance within community organisations and Australia’s not-for-profit sector.

This is one to attend together.

If you are a principal, bring a committee member.
If you sit on a committee, bring your principal or school leader.
If several people share responsibility for leading your school, bring your team.

Because a conversation about roles and responsibilities is far more useful when the people sharing those responsibilities are sitting at the same table.

Lead Forward: 2026 Principals & School Leaders Summit
📅 Sunday 27 September 2026
🕘 9:30am–1:30pm
📍 Monash University, Clayton + Online

Face-to-face registrations are entering their final days.

[CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR LEAD FORWARD →]

Lead Forward has been designed as one connected leadership journey, beginning with Associate Professor Maria Gindidis’ keynote and moving through three practical workshops that take school leaders through the bigger questions of clarity, sustainability, readiness and action.

And throughout the morning, leadership teams will have the opportunity to think about these questions in the context of their own school, together.

And tomorrow… I’ll reveal our third and final workshop.

It is very different from the first two, very hands-on… and you won’t want to miss this one 😉

Speak soon!