Five WA system leaders have now returned from a two-week benchmarking tour through New York and Ontario in May 2017.

As participants in the Queensland Educational Leadership Institute (QELi) Executive Development for Catholic Leaders Program for 2017, Shane Baker, Ivan Banks, Darren McDonald, Ainslie Perrigo and Annette Quirk had the opportunity to gain a unique insight into different schooling approaches. They spent two weeks meeting with system and thought leaders, local principals and teachers across schools in the USA.

Highlights of the benchmarking tour included:

• the opportunity to ‘live like a local’ catching the subway to Catholic schools in the Bronx and Charter schools in Brooklyn;
• meeting with Ken Leithwood, educational researcher and thought leader, in Ontario;
• hearing from directors of education across Ontario about system leadership, strategy and alignment; and
• developing relationships with and learning from colleagues from the dioceses of Bathurst, Cairns and Wagga Wagga.

 This group is the second cohort through the QELi program, which brings together experienced principals and system leaders from Catholic dioceses across Australia to contribute to the sector by continuing to provide innovative, exciting and responsible schooling for all children and young people.

Following their involvement in the program, participants are now working towards developing a position paper that will contribute to shaping the future of system leadership policies and practices.

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