Primary school leaders from across Australia will converge on Canberra later this month for the Australian Primary Principals Association's (APPA) national conference, with this year's program centred on principal agency and wellbeing.
The 2026 APPA National Conference will run from 31 August to 3 September at the National Convention Centre Canberra, opening with school site visits before three days of keynote and workshop sessions. This year's theme, "Our Primary Purpose: Vision, Voice, Agency, Impact," follows a year in which APPA has repeatedly raised concerns about principal workload and wellbeing.
Wellbeing and workload set to feature
APPA President Angela Falkenberg has used recent months to warn that the emotional demands of school leadership have intensified. In comments to The Educator K-12 late last year, she said principals routinely manage crises spanning student mental health, family violence and community trauma. Maintaining a steady presence for staff and families amid all this, she added, is making expectations on leaders "excessive and unsustainable."
Those concerns sit behind the conference's focus on agency and voice, themes Falkenberg has connected to APPA's broader advocacy work. She has said effective policy requires a shared understanding of the problems schools face, rather than assumptions about their causes.
Program includes cultural and civic visits
Beyond the main conference sessions, delegates will take part in what organisers have billed as a "Big Day Out," a program of school visits and themed excursions across Civics and Citizenship, Science and Technology, and History and Art streams, concluding with a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial.
APPA represents more than 7,600 primary principals and school leaders, alongside 200,000 primary teachers and 2.2 million primary students, across Government, Catholic and Independent schools in 24 jurisdictions nationally.
Conference Design is managing the conference, including sponsorship and exhibition arrangements.