Thursday 6 November 2025
Every school in our diocese is called to grow great leaders. The challenge? Leadership doesn’t look the same in every context, yet we can’t afford to leave it to chance. That’s why the development of a shared Catholic Education Sandhurst (CES) Leadership Framework has become more than just a document. It’s emerging as a lever for culture, capability and connection. And it was the centrepiece of our Term 4 Leaders Day on Thursday 6 November, where 77 principals and senior leaders from across CES gathered in Bendigo to engage, reflect and contribute to the future of leadership in our system.
Pictured: Presenting the Leadership Framework, Darta Hovey, CES Deputy Director Mission and Educational Development.
“Today leaders were presented with a draft of a CES Leadership Framework that incorporates other foundational work from The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership,” said Tanya Mullane , CES Organisational Development Lead.
“It’s going to allow Catholic Education Sandhurst to be deliberate about the professional learnings that align with our culture, as well as the professional requirements of school leaders… and then blend that in with how we lead in an authentically Sandhurst way.”
The framework is being designed to support all staff — not just principals — and will offer a consistent structure to nurture aspiring, emerging and middle leaders across schools.
“It’s the first [leadership framework] since we’ve been in governance,” Tanya explained.
“Our principals have been forming leaders in their schools for years, but we want to elevate that so CES can take some of the heavy lifting and ensure consistency, while still allowing for local nuance.”
Pictured: Leaders from across the Sandhurst Diocese united in Bendigo to reflect, align and lead forward together.
The framework was well received by school leaders, who praised its alignment with current diocesan priorities and its potential to foster shared language and leadership pathways.
Joseph Mount, Principal of FCJ College Benalla said, “I can see the alignment with the Guiding Lights, and all the initiatives that Sandhurst has put in place right across our diocese with the leadership framework, and it's very much needed.
"As a RI school, FCJ College has embraced everything that Magnify and Sandhurst has put forward: wonderful initiatives bringing us closer together as a diocese.
"This leadership framework can be so beneficial for not only our graduates but right through to our middle leaders, emerging leaders, and our principals.
"What we also see is that common language right across the diocese can encourage our teachers to spread beyond the safety of Benalla, to see themselves as leaders right across the diocese and encourage that."
Pictured: Rich dialogue at every table as leaders reflect on practice, share insights, and share the future together.
Carolyn Goode, Principal of Sacred Heart Primary School in Tatura, said the framework brings clarity to the shared mission.
“Today is very much about providing a consistent structure and framework going forward, where we can all have that shared understanding of what our vision and mission is and how we can then leverage off that to develop our own.
"The leadership framework session has been really useful too in identifying where our people sit and how we can support them to be the best leaders that our schools need going forward."
Joel Brian, Principal of St Brendan’s School Shepparton, also attended and contributed to the discussion, sharing valuable reflections from a school perspective.
"I think it’s really exciting that as a system we are looking at a leadership framework that will help motivate and inspire future leaders for our diocese.
"It’s an incredible job that we get to do all the time, every day, and we need to keep nurturing that across our system."
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