Talking to an Education Forum for Principals in Wagga Wagga, Mr Scott told principals that public schools have high expectations and continually strive to improve.

“This and nine other forums across the state are about connecting directly in conversation with the leaders who are shaping the future for our students,” he said.

“We strive to excel and invite the best ideas from our principals and others in and outside the education system.

“We welcome collaboration and learning with others, and this and the nine other forums across the state are valuable for the sharing of ideas that they facilitate.

“Our new strategic plan makes it clear that our vision is to be Australia’s best education system and one of the finest in the world.

“By connecting directly with principals at these forums we can talk about how to best meet the needs of the students in our care and support our schools.

“It is an opportunity to go into more depth on how we want to support the work of principals and enhance the educational services on offer to our schools,” he added.

Boorowa Central School Principal, Paula Hambly, said the day was a good opportunity to talk the people who are running the department of education.

“It was a worthwhile day spending time listing to what is happening in our department and where we are headed,” she said.

“They were really informative, really listened to the contextual environment of rural schools, and the things we as a group were interested in and need addressed.

“Because it was a group of principals from Wagga and the surrounding areas, we had a lot of different questions and comments to what they got in the forums in Sydney,” she said.

Ms Hambly said the principals talked about addressing the differences between metropolitan and rural schools and what the future of education in Australia looked like.

“It was a lot of those normal everyday issues, like staffing, funding, facilities, the curriculum and assessments,” she said.

“The big thing at the moment is investing in leadership, which I think is something as a group we need to have, we looked in detail at the values of the Department of Education and what we are trying to achieve and how we function as an entity.

“We looked at how the workplace is changing, what the requirements of those different employment opportunities in the future will be, and how we need to address those as the education department and as schools.

“We discussed the leadership strategist that the department is looking at and nurturing and growing the future leaders of schools.

“So we are going to have high performing principals in those instructional and leadership roles, supporting our teachers to get the best educational opportunities for all our kids,” Ms Hambly added.