Cashmere Primary School
Principal profile: Jacqui Duncan
I've been teaching for 33 years, and I've been a principal for 15 of those years. Cashmere Primary is the fourth school I have been a principal of. In 2005 I trained as a facilitator for the Principals' Development Planning Centre.
I began as a principal before Tomorrow's Schools and I experienced the shift from a centralised system to a largely self-managing system. More recently, we have started looking at what leadership is in relation to how leaders lead good practice in classrooms. That has been a huge change, from managerial leadership to instructional leadership.
My role as a school leader is as an instructional leader, and it can be described as a lead learner. I am there to model learning, and I need to model that all of us need to reflect on our own practice. I am there to influence others to do their best and for them to reach their own potential, and I think that really is the role of a principal.
