Creating a Successful Catholic Primary School

The chapter explores the successful principal leadership of a Catholic primary school in Melbourne, Australia. The school was founded in 2009, and the principal has been instrumental in building a successful and contemporary Catholic school. The research included interviews with the principal, other school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and the Parish Priest; observation; document collection; and a staff survey. The principal used the idea of a professional learning community to support the staff in the creation of recontextualised dialogue school (a school with a more open Catholic narrative). Development of shared values, teaching and learning organised around student voice, inquiry learning, cultures of thinking, faith and life inquiry, and twenty-first century pedagogy and learning spaces, a focus on education of the whole child, collaborative leadership, and partnership with the broader community, are examples of the many initiatives the principal has led along with the senior and middle leaders in the school. The principal’s leadership is described through an open systems model that illustrates the complexity of navigating various levels of context and engaging positively with internal and external challenges.