Schools in Australia and New Zealand are trialling co-principal leadership structures, combining complementary skills and shared responsibility to address the increasing complexity and demands of school leadership.
School leadership has traditionally been defined by a single figure at the top of the organisation. Increasingly, however, some schools are experimenting with an alternative.
Across Australia and New Zealand, a small but growing number of schools are adopting a co-principal model in which leadership responsibilities are shared between two people. While still relatively uncommon, the approach is emerging in different contexts – from Catholic primary schools to specialist and gifted education settings – as systems look for ways to respond to the expanding scope and demands of school leadership.
Among the schools adopting the approach is Dara School in Adelaide. Australia’s first school dedicated exclusively to gifted education appointed Ms Tania Allen and Dr Emma Goodall as co-principals in 2025, with the pair taking up the joint role in Term 4.
The school board says the decision reflects both research and the practical realities of leading a contemporary school.
“Dara has never been afraid to do things differently,” a board spokesperson said. “While conducting an extremely rigorous principal search, we found a lot of evidence and research that supports the co-principal model. We hope this collaborative leadership approach provides both sustainability and vision as Dara continues to grow as a leading education provider for gifted students.”
The move places Dara alongside other schools exploring shared leadership at the top level, including Star of the Sea School and Suneden Specialist School in Adelaide, Logan Park High School in New Zealand, and Gunbalanya School in West Arnhem Land.
Observers such as Adelaide-based education researcher Dr Deborah Netolicky say these models are emerging as part of a wider reconsideration of what sustainable leadership in schools might look like.
Dara School: Complementary skills in gifted education
For Dr Emma Goodall, the scale and complexity of the principalship drives Dara’s shared leadership structure.
“The principal job is massive,” she says. “Dara is a K-12 school, so not only are you needing to be a principal of a primary, but also secondary. And obviously that adds another layer of complexity.”
Dara School currently enrols just under 100 students and has grown steadily since opening a decade ago. The school focuses exclusively on gifted education, drawing families from across Adelaide and interstate.
“It’s the only gifted school in Australia,” Dr Goodall says. “There are other schools that obviously service gifted children, but we’re the only school specifically for gifted children.”
She describes giftedness as extending beyond academic performance.
“It’s not just that they have a high IQ,” she says. “They learn more quickly, they often have more advanced language than peers, and they’re very curious. It doesn’t mean they’re advanced in everything – they may still struggle socially or emotionally – but they do learn very quickly.”
In this environment, the co-principal model brings together complementary expertise.
“It’s a practical and pragmatic way of getting two people who have complementary skills and who both are interested in job sharing so that we can share what we both bring best,” Dr Goodall says.
The model also reflects broader challenges in recruiting and retaining principals.
“It is really, really hard now to find somebody that wants to be a principal,” she says. “We know in the state sector that often places only have one or two applicants. That’s becoming rarer to have lots of applicants for principal positions.”
Dr Goodall joined Dara in Term 4 last year, bringing a career spanning the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Her professional background includes teaching, research, and work within education systems supporting students with additional needs.
At Dara, the co-principal arrangement divides the week while maintaining a dedicated crossover day.
“Tania and I basically split the week up,” Dr Goodall says. “She works Monday to Wednesday and I work Wednesday to Friday, so we have that Wednesday as a whole-day handover.”
The shared day allows the pair to align decisions and maintain continuity.
“Without that crossover day things would fall through the cracks,” she says.
While both leaders carry the full responsibilities of the principalship, some areas align with individual expertise.
“We do everything generically that a principal does, but we have divided up some particular things,” Dr Goodall says. She takes particular responsibility for senior schooling and practical life skills within the school’s approach to learning. Teaching also remains part of her role.
“I do some teaching as principal,” Dr Goodall says. “From a really practical perspective, if you’re teaching a class you can really see how their teachers are working with them, how they’re interacting with their teachers and their schoolwork.”
Early feedback from the school community is positive.
“The board and the parents have been really supportive and really welcoming,” she says. “Seeing Tania and I together, it is obvious that we can work together and that we like each other.”
For schools considering a similar structure, she emphasises the selection process.
“One of the things the board did when they were considering whether to pursue this model was to give Tania and I opportunities to meet and decide, would this work for us,” she says.
“It needs to be part of the process – the two candidates look at how they can work together.”
The approach changes how schools think about leadership capability.
“It enables schools to look at the whole skill set they want,” Dr Goodall says. “Rather than just saying to one person, ‘You’ve got 90 per cent of our desired skills’, you can look at where are the two people that together bring 110 per cent of the skills.”
“It’s been amazing to see, already, how stabilising the co-principal role is, and the flexibility it provides Dara – particularly around work/life balance and leave. This is future-proofing the school,” the board said.
Star of the Sea School: ‘A sounding board’
Star of the Sea School in Adelaide provides another example of the model in practice. The Catholic primary school enrols around 600 students and operates distinctive programs, including an on-site marine discovery centre and out-of-school-hours care.
Co-principal Ms Annette Diassinas says the structure emerged organically while she and colleague Ms Kelly Manera were in acting leadership roles.
“When our previous principal decided to retire, I stepped up to acting principal and Kelly stepped up to acting deputy principal,” Ms Diassinas explains.
During that period, the pair began to recognise how effectively they worked together.
After discussions with Catholic Education South Australia, the pair jointly applied for the principal role.
Their joint appointment followed a thorough selection process, with the candidates interviewed individually and together.
“There were many questions during the interview process around how we’d manage the challenges, and who’s ultimately responsible for decisions, because obviously there’s one signature on lots of things, we now have a joint signature to ensure full accountability for us both,” Ms Diassinas says.
The two leaders now share the principalship, each working four days a week with three overlapping days. The arrangement increases leadership presence across the school.
They say one of the greatest benefits is the opportunity to test and refine decisions collaboratively. Support is particularly valuable during complex or sensitive situations.
“One of the great strengths of our co-role is the ability to collaborate and work through things together.”
Responsibilities are shared broadly, with some areas aligned to individual strengths.
“Kelly is an exceptional leader supporting families in the inclusive education space, so she heads up a lot of that work,” Ms Diassinas says.
“The financial decisions of the school are always a joint decision because at the end of the day we’re both responsible,” she says.
Communication between the two leaders is constant.
“We talk a lot, regularly debriefing about what’s been happening. There’s a huge amount of trust and respect for each other,” Ms Diassinas says. “There’s never been a decision Kelly makes that doesn’t sit at the core of what I would have done.”
For the school community, the model means leadership is present across a wider range of events and responsibilities.
“For our school community, this leadership model allows us to maintain a strong and consistent presence across the many events that take place throughout the life of our school. As a large school, it is common for multiple events to occur at the same time. While we enjoy attending events together, this model also allows us to divide responsibilities when needed, ensuring that a principal is present wherever possible.
“We see this as a real benefit for our community, as it enables us to remain visible, connected and actively involved in school life, something we value deeply in our roles,” Ms Manera says.
Dr Deborah Netolicky: A shift in leadership thinking
Education researcher and school principal Dr Deborah Netolicky sees co-principalship as part of a broader reconsideration of school leadership. She is Principal of Walford Anglican School for Girls in Adelaide and an adjunct senior fellow at Adelaide University. Her research explores professional learning, leadership identity and sustainable leadership.
“I think it’s part of a broader cultural shift that we’re seeing outside of education and inside education,” she says.
The traditional principalship often frames a single leader carrying ultimate responsibility.
“Most principals would say it’s not a job you can ever do alone,” she says. “You’re not the individual heroic leader as a principal. You absolutely have a team around you.”
Yet expectations on that role remain extensive. “The buck does stop with the principal,” she says.
The co-principal model makes shared leadership explicit.
“What the co-principal leadership model allows is that explicitness of collective capacity – sharing the load and working with a colleague,” Dr Netolicky says.
The approach also responds to growing concerns about principal wellbeing.
“If you look at the Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey, it reports high levels of stress, burnout, sleep problems, anxiety and depression among school leaders,” she says.
Shared leadership offers a practical way to sustain the role.
“It’s literally sharing the load so those heads can remain nourished and renewed and able to serve their communities without burning out,” she says.
The model broadens the expertise available to a school.
“You’ve got the strengths of two people rather than the strengths of one,” Dr Netolicky says. “You’ve got a wider diversity of expertise potentially coming into those roles, and therefore the organisation is benefiting.”
However, implementation requires careful design. “You need clear role articulation and clear communication about how it works,” she says.
Staff, parents and students must understand decision-making and responsibilities.
“What you don’t want is someone thinking, ‘I’ll ask the other principal when they’re in on Thursday because I might get a different answer,’” she says.
Above all, the relationship between the two leaders must be strong.
“I think that relationship must be of the utmost importance,” Dr Netolicky says. “You couldn’t share a role like this unless you really had explicit trust and respect for each other.”
