Our recent series of leadership meetings reached something of a climax in the excellent workshops led by Michael Fullan.

Underpinning all of these discussions, of course, has been the conviction that our work has to be supported by, and be consistent with, excellent professional theory and best practice.

There is no single roadmap for taking education forward today, no one way, no simple manual with seven easy steps.

Yet we do have very clear understandings, directions and structures in place that will enable us to move forward together.

Central to these is the belief that schooling makes a difference at the point of interaction between teachers and students. This interaction is at its most effective when placed in the context of quality leadership – leadership that is instructional, collaborative and distributed.

Teaching of this kind shifts the focus from the central office to where it most naturally belongs – the school.

The shared responsibilities of all elements of the system is to bring into alignment the system's priorities, school needs, school capabilities and teacher capacity.

In carrying out this task, some things are best done at system level; others at school level; and others at teacher level.

Aligning our responsibilities and processes is the great challenge to our imagination in this era of change and opportunity.

I will develop these observations more specifically over the coming weeks.