Leadership in schools today requires clarity, courage, and collaboration.
Connected: Edvance Spring Leadership Day 2026 invites school leaders to step back from the pace of daily demands and engage in meaningful conversation with peers. This day is designed for principals, vice-principals, and leadership team members from across the Edvance network for a day of focused conversation, shared learning, and practical reflection.
A mix of practical and reflective breakout sessions will be offered, drawing on the collective wisdom of experienced school leaders and facilitators. Topics span governance, finance, learning innovation, student life, staff culture, and leadership, with each session designed to foster dialogue, shared problem-solving, and renewed perspective.
The Edvance Spring Leadership Day is an opportunity to reconnect with purpose, learn alongside peers, and return to your school equipped for the final stretch of the year. Read on for full event details!
Event Details
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Location: the Edvance office at Crossroads Unity Commons, 1295 North Service Road, Burlington, ON
Registration: FREE for Edvance affiliate schools
Agenda
| 8:30am | Arrival and refreshments |
| 9:00am | Opening plenary session and devotions |
| 10:00am | Break |
| 10:15am | Breakout sessions - timeslot 1 |
| 11:15am | Group activity |
| 12:30pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm | Breakout sessions - timeslot 2 (sessions repeated) |
| 2:30pm | Closing plenary session |
| 3:00pm | Dismissal |
Please register by Friday, April 10, 2026.
Breakout Sessions
The following breakout session options will be repeated twice (during both timeslot 1 and timeslot 2), so you can choose the two you'd most like to attend:
Who sits around the board table has a profound impact on school leadership, culture, and long-term health, yet many school leaders report limited involvement in board recruitment and training. This breakout explores the appropriate, constructive role school leaders can play in identifying board members, without overstepping governance structures or lines of accountability. Join your fellow principals in a facilitated conversation about healthy collaboration, clarity of roles, and practical approaches that strengthen both leadership and governance.
Facilitated by Ian Timmerman (Director of School Services, Edvance), with school leaders sharing how they work with their board.
This practical session is designed to demystify school finances and empower leaders with better financial insight. We'll look at key components of financial health and learn how to interpret financial data to support informed decision-making. This session enables leaders to confidently interpret and understand numbers to strategically plan for the future, even if you don't have financial expertise.
Facilitated by Martli Hattingh (Director of Finance, Edvance) and featuring a principal and financial administrator team sharing their practices.
Across the Edvance network, schools are experimenting with new ways of organizing learning, stretching beyond traditional classroom structures in order to better meet student needs. This breakout will explore practical examples of innovation, including outdoor learning, creative scheduling approaches, and differentiation strategies already being implemented in schools. Participants will engage in collaborative discussion about incremental, realistic ways to introduce or expand innovative learning practices within their own contexts.
Facilitated by Justin Cook (Director of Learning, Edvance) and featuring school leaders sharing their real-world projects. Principals and vice-principals are encouraged to come ready to share examples, questions, and ideas from their own schools.
For many vice-principals, particularly those not serving as VPs of Learning, the role often centres on student behaviour and discipline, an area that has grown increasingly complex in recent years. This breakout creates space for vice-principals to reflect on the realities of their role, explore emerging challenges related to student behaviour and care, and consider how the role is evolving beyond traditional disciplinary frameworks. Through guided discussion, participants will share experiences and explore approaches that support students well while sustaining healthy leadership practice.
Facilitated by Dr. Phil Teeuwsen (Dean of Education, Redeemer University), this session is designed especially for vice-principals whose portfolios focus on student life, behaviour, and care.
Staff culture shapes everything – from student experience to school sustainability. In this breakout, leaders will explore what it takes to cultivate a healthy, joy-filled staff culture that supports both excellence and wellbeing, particularly during seasons of change and transition. Drawing on years of school leadership experience, this conversation will focus on practical, relational practices that help staff feel valued, supported, and engaged in the shared mission of the school.
Facilitated by Marianne Vangoor, Edvance Leadership Coach and retired principal.
Leadership today is shaped by complexity, pressure, and competing demands, both inside schools and beyond them. In this conversational session, school leaders are invited into a reflective dialogue on what it means to lead well in challenging and changing contexts. Drawing on experience from organizational leadership and change management at Crossroads in recent years, the discussion will explore themes of clarity, resilience, and faithful leadership, with space for participant questions and shared reflection.
Facilitated by Tim Bentum (Director of Leadership at Edvance) in conversation with Kevin Shepherd (CEO of Crossroads).
Please register by Friday, April 10, 2026.
