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CAP 2026 Conference

Growing Leaders, Growing Communities

Message from CAP

Powerful Leadership in Changing Times: Cultivating Sustainable, Innovative and Healthy Learning Environments

European School Heads Association 2025 Conference: Rome, Italy
October 27th to 31st, 2025 – www.esha.org

First, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to the CAP Board of Directors for supporting our participation at this year’s European School Heads Association (ESHA) Conference in Rome, Italy. It quickly became clear that ESHA is an international organization with which CAP should continue to grow a strong relationship. The opening keynote speaker framed the week by identifying the five biggest challenges facing educational leadership today:

• Recruitment and retention of teachers
• AI integration
• Inclusion
• Personal and staff well-being
• Parent engagement (both limited and overwhelming)

ESHA is a professional organization representing national school leader associations across Europe. Its membership includes organizations for school heads and deputy heads across (pre)primary, secondary, and vocational education, with nearly all European countries—both EU and non-EU—represented.

Representing CAP at the ESHA Conference in Rome provided significant benefits for our members across Canada. This international gathering offered valuable insights into how school leaders around the world are addressing challenges that mirror our own, including student well-being, staffing pressures, technology integration, and the evolving role of school leadership. Participation allowed us to bring back innovative practices, current research, and fresh perspectives that can enrich CAP’s professional learning opportunities and strengthen our national advocacy work. By building relationships with educational organizations across Europe, we also expanded CAP’s network of global partners, creating opportunities for collaboration, shared learning, and future initiatives that directly support Canadian school leaders. Attending ESHA ensured that the voices and experiences of Canadian principals were represented on the international stage and that our membership continues to benefit from the latest global thinking in education leadership.

Throughout the week, conference sessions and discussions focused on four central leadership themes:

• Leading Sustainability Education
• Leading Innovative Learning Environments
• Leading Well-Being for All Learners
• Leading for Diversity, Mobility, and Complexity in Education

Our time at ESHA was filled with meaningful connections and productive dialogue. We were invited to present to the ESHA Board of Directors, where we shared CAP-endorsed research projects, organizational strengths and challenges, and our goals as an association representing public school leaders in Canada. The exchange of ideas reinforced how aligned our organizations are in values and priorities, and how powerful collaboration can be in strengthening leadership across borders. We also found in reference to the last conference (2024), the attendees this year were more school leaders that were not working in schools (ie superintendent/district leadership type of roles). Other than Iceland whose group was mainly school administrators, many other country representatives were not in schools. They believe it is a sign of the times where school administrators do not have the time or the opportunity to attend conferences during the school year.

Have You Heard?

Kids Write 4 Kids 2025 Contest Now Open for Young Canadian Authors

Toronto, ON (October 31, 2025) – Ripple Foundation invites students in Grades 4–8 from across Canada to submit their original stories to the annual Kids Write 4 Kids (KW4K) contest. The contest, which opened on October 1, encourages creativity, self-expression, and literacy by giving young writers the opportunity to become published authors. Since its launch in 2012, Kids Write 4 Kids has published stories by talented young authors nationwide, with all proceeds from book sales donated to each winner’s charity of choice. The contest is open to all Canadian residents enrolled in Grades 4–8, with entries accepted until March 31, 2026. “Every year, we’re amazed by the imagination and originality that shines through in

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CAP Journal - Fall 2025

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