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On 8 May 2026, I had the privilege of joining more than 100 school leaders at the Mosman Taronga Zoo Conference Hall for a full-day professional learning session exploring Artificial Intelligence and leadership. We heard from leading Australian thinkers including Dr. Kristy Goodwin (Neuro-Performance Scientist), Aimee Presnall (Founder of Well-Nest), and Dr. Kirsten Macaulay (Deputy Head, Teaching & Learning K-12).

Amid the conversations about AI, one simple question stopped me in my tracks: “What comes before team culture?” The answer changed how I think about leadership, not just for me as an educator, but for every teacher and every student leader at Macquarie Grammar School.

It is called The Leadership Chain, and it has three links:

Clarity – seeing what is actually happening, not what we assume;

Conditions – the foundations from which others grow; and

Culture – built by the team, but led every single day.

I also learned about The Five Foundations of High-Performing Teams (Sam Crome, 2023): Belonging (psychological safety and trust), Alignment (purpose, values, and goals), Development (coaching, debriefs, and leadership), Dynamics (motivation, conflict, cohesion, and wellbeing), and Operations (knowledge, roles, communication, and meetings).

I could not keep these insights to myself. First, I prepared a short 15-minute presentation and shared it with our teachers and students at a Monday Assembly. Together, we reflected on questions like: What have I been unable to see clearly because I have been too full? Which of the five foundations is most at risk in our team right now? What is one thing I might be doing, without realising, that is impacting team culture? Our teachers left with two commitments: one for themselves personally, and one for their teams.

I asked three of our remarkable student leaders, School Captain William Jinglin Jiao, Annie Phuong Binh Ngo, and Mike Zhang to take the content and share it with the whole school at the following Monday’s assembly. And they were nothing short of beautiful. William opened with confidence and poise, explaining why leadership is not just for adults but for every student in the room. Annie walked everyone through The Leadership Chain and the five foundations with remarkable clarity and warmth, making complex ideas feel simple and accessible. Mike challenged every student to ask themselves: What is one thing I might be doing without realising that affects my team’s culture? They did not simply repeat what I taught them. They made it their own. They spoke as genuine leaders, not as students reading from a script. I could not have been prouder of them.

Here is the truth I took away from this whole experience. Professional learning is valuable, but it becomes truly powerful only when it is shared. Our captains showed me that student leadership at Macquarie Grammar is not about preparing students to lead someday. It is about trusting them to lead now. William, Annie, and Mike did not just present well; they embodied clarity. They created conditions for their peers to listen and reflect. And they built a genuine moment of culture for our entire school community.

So what comes before team culture? Clarity. Conditions. Then Culture in that order. I went to the Taronga Zoo School Leaders Conference expecting to learn about AI. I left with something far more human and far more valuable for our school. And thanks to our dedicated teachers and our extraordinary student leaders, learning is now alive and growing here at Macquarie Grammar School.

Mrs Sun

Director of Welfare and Operations