27 Mar 2026
Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) is strengthening its long‑standing commitment to instructional leadership, recognising the critical role school leaders play in directly influencing teaching practice and student learning outcomes.
Three BCE leaders recently completed the Masters of Instructional Leadership with The University of Melbourne, a two-year commitment.
These leaders include BCE Senior Leader Cluster 6, Chris Thomas, St Kevin’s Catholic Primary School Benowa Principal, Leigh Mirto and All Saints’ School Boonah Principal, Robert Campbell.
Chris Thomas said instructional leadership was best understood as a model of leadership, rather than a program or initiative.
“Instructional leadership sits alongside other leadership approaches such as adaptive, transformational and relational leadership,” Chris said.
“However, at its core, it is about leaders deeply understanding what is happening in classrooms, such as how teachers are instructing, how students are learning, and how we can collectively improve practice.”
Instructional leadership reframes leadership as relational and learning‑focused.
“Leaders don’t need to have all the answers. What matters is that they stand alongside teachers as co‑learners.”
Connecting leadership to classroom learning
St Kevin’s Benowa Principal Leigh Mirto said the Masters of Instructional Leadership challenged him to be "more deliberate about how leadership decisions connect directly to classroom practice and student learning”.
“Through the course, I was required to interrogate evidence, analyse teaching practice, and align improvement priorities to what actually happens in classrooms,” he said.
“That discipline has sharpened my instructional focus as a principal.”
Leigh said the biggest benefit was the way learning translated immediately into his leadership practice at St Kevin’s.
“From strengthening professional learning communities, to refining feedback and coaching conversations, and ensuring our Explicit Improvement Agenda is genuinely instructional rather than aspirational,” he said.
“Instructional leadership has helped me move from leading initiatives to leading learning. It has reinforced that sustainable improvement happens when leaders work alongside teachers, using evidence, shared language and trust to build collective efficacy.”
Instructional leadership and instructional coaching
This year, Brisbane Catholic Education is also placing a strong focus on instructional coaching training as a key lever in realising our Education Strategy and strengthening learning and teaching across every school.
It reflects our commitment to building a culture where coaching is not an additional layer of support, but an embedded, evidence‑informed practice that empowers educators and strengthens collective capability.
Chris said that while instructional leadership and instructional coaching are closely connected, they are not the same.
“Instructional leadership takes a whole‑school perspective, focusing on setting direction, establishing expectations, allocating resources and actively managing the instructional program,” he said.
“Instructional coaching, by contrast, operates at the individual teacher level, with trained coaches supporting teachers through goal setting, feedback and improvement cycles.
“When enacted together, instructional leadership creates the conditions for learning, while instructional coaching brings that learning to life in classrooms.
A strong research foundation
BCE’s approach to instructional leadership is grounded in robust, peer‑reviewed research, particularly the work of education researcher Viviane Robinson.
Robinson’s seminal 2007 research synthesised decades of leadership studies and identified five key dimensions of instructional leadership, which now underpin the work of BCE senior leaders as they support schools across the system.
“Viviane Robinson’s research brings clarity to what instructional leadership looks like in practice,” Chris said.
“It gives us a shared evidence‑based framework that guides how we work with school leaders.”
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BCE Head of School Performance, Brett Horton, said research shows that when leaders adopted an instructional leadership stance, there were both direct and indirect improvements in student learning outcomes.
“Our evidence‑informed approach is focused on helping every student not just succeed, but truly thrive,” Brett said.
"Through instructional coaching and instructional leadership, we are creating the conditions for engaged teachers, and learning environments where students can flourish academically, socially and emotionally.”
Image caption: BCE Senior Leader Cluster 6 Chris Thomas. ©Brisbane Catholic Education (2026).
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