Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard will this week invite 150 school principals to Canberra to have a ''national conversation'' with them about the Rudd Government's education revolution.
But she can expect a frosty response from most principals on the issue of school report cards and league tables.
The National Principals' Forum will be held on November 10 and 11 with government, Catholic and independent school principals attending.
Ms Gillard's nominated topics for discussion include the Government's new national curriculum, assessment, reporting, literacy and numeracy, school infrastructure, indigenous education and student wellbeing. But it is on the issue of school reporting where she is likely to hear the loudest voices.
Ms Gillard is pushing through with controversial reforms to assessment and reporting at the end of the year which will result in league tables of school performance.
While she is adamant that parents receive more information about their child's and school's progress, teachers from all school sectors have warned the information could unfairly compare schools against each other and lead to upheaval within the system.
ACT Principals Association co-presidents Mike Battenally and Murray Bruce said they welcomed any chance to engage in a conversation with Ms Gillard, but hoped she would really listen to the high level of concern regarding her reforms.
Mr Bruce said, ''Julia Gillard will certainly hear from us but whether she wants to listen to us is another matter.
''We have consistently recommended against the very simplistic [reporting] measures on the basis they give the wrong impression to parents and the community, and we have major concerns about the new national website where these results are going to be posted.''
The newly established Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority is due by the end of the year to provide an online national database of school results and Ms Gillard said the forum would allow principals to ''have the opportunity to engage directly with the new ACARA; the first national education authority in the country's history.''
Mr Bruce said Ms Gillard had consistently taken a hard-nosed approach to reporting, ''and it would be pretty difficult for her to do an about-face now''.
Mr Battenally said if league tables went through, ''it would be a damning response to reforming education in Australia. But if she is really open to having a dialogue then we hope she takes into account the views of the school community and make an appropriate adjustment to what is being proposed.'' Ms Gillard is also likely to hear widespread support for the Chaplaincy in Schools program despite evidence presented in Senate estimates last week that funding has not been guaranteed beyond mid-way through next year.
Principal support for the program is as high as 97per cent with MrBattenally saying a recent Government review of the program would be likely to receive significant positive feedback.
Mr Bruce said, ''it is a lovely program and another resource for student wellbeing and we would certainly be disappointed to see it go.'' He said the Government could look at alternatives if it didn't want to maintain the chaplaincy, ''as long as it doesn't amount to cutting a resource''.
Association of Independent Schools of the ACT executive director Jeremy Irvine said it was timely to have a forum two years into the Rudd Government's term.
Regarding the new reporting and assessment reforms, Mr Irvine said independent schools were ''aware that it is a condition of their federal funding.
''But we will be watching very closely to ensure schools are not unfairly targeted by vested interests.''