17 Guiding Questions
As part of developing my Council of International Schools (CoIS) Leadership Portfolio, I was asked to answer their 17 guiding questions.
Below are my responses which, I believe, reflect my philosophy, thoughts and practice in regards to leadership and education.
Below are my responses which, I believe, reflect my philosophy, thoughts and practice in regards to leadership and education.
1. Describe yourself.
I have been working in International Schools in the Asia Pacific region for the past 17 years and am currently working as PYP Curriculum Coordinator at KIS International School, Bangkok.
Prior to this, I was the PYP Curriculum Coordinator at International School of Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) in Vietnam, where our vision was to empower, engage and energize our learners through a personalised 'studio' model.
In 2016, I took a year off back in New Zealand, taking time to work on my Masters research, working as an Independent Education Consultant for the IB in Asia Pacific, and providing professional learning opportunities for schools in the Asia Pacific region through Effective Practice Education.
Prior to this I was working in the UAE as Deputy Head of School, Teaching, Learning and Innovation at RAK Academy PYP, and at the Western International School of Shanghai (WISS) where I was part of the PYP Leadership team working as Primary Deputy Principal and PYP Coordinator (2010 – 2015)
I have a BSc from Otago University (NZ), an MBA (Marketing) from Leicester University (UK), a PGCE (Primary) (NZ), and a Graduate Diploma in Educational Administration and Leadership from Massey University (NZ). I am currently working with Otago University on my Doctorate in Education.
We are a third culture family. I was born in NZ to NZ parents, raised in Hong Kong, made China my family home for 6 years and spent a year exploring the Middle East before returning to New Zealand for a year of learning and reflection. My husband is of Scottish and English descent, was born in Kenya, immigrated to New Zealand when he was 8, has lived in Hong Kong for 20 years, lived in China and the UAE, is currently reconnecting with family in New Zealand. Both our children were born in Hong Kong, both carry New Zealand and Hong Kong passports, and have called China home for more than half their lives, spent a year exploring the UAE and the Middle East, and are now re-immersing in the NZ culture and attending school in Lincoln. Our eldest (18 years old) is a blonde blue eyed boy and our youngest (15 years old) is Hong Kong Chinese.
My husband is a stay at home dad, managing our family life and all that that entails. He is trained as a sports coach, specializing in junior sports of swimming, tennis, rugby and golf, but is also experienced in football, and children’s sports programmes. In the past he has worked in schools as a teacher assistant working with both the Student Support and PE departments. He is a certified Learn to Swim coach and has worked in China, Vietnam and Thailand as a swim instructor and coach.
2. What inspired you to pursue a career in international educational leadership?
3. What sustains your motivation in international educational leadership?
On reflection, I’ve blended these two questions as I feel that both the initial inspiration and the continuing inspiration are one and the same.
Being raised and educated internationally the natural step was to return to Hong Kong and join the international education system as a teacher and coach. The path to leadership began initially from my drive in wanting to learn and to know more, and to explore better ways to teach to ensure those in my class had positive learning experiences.
When I was asked to take on the role of Team leader, this drive was then extended to not only finding ways to support my students, but also support the members of my team. My personal passion in to wanting to be a better teacher, a better team leader has always motivated me in that constant quest for knowledge and experience.
When I took on the role of PYP Curriculum Coordinator the challenge then shifted from a knowledge base, to one of building a community and developing trust and relationships with different teams, all with different needs and strengths. As I learnt to balance the art of managing and leading people, my focus was to develop leadership skills and to learn from colleagues, fellow teachers, mentors, leaders and continuing to find the best way to support those in our community.
I am an active member of social media platforms, learning, sharing and being inspired with my Personal and Professional Learning Network and connecting with leaders and teachers through Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook groups.
As my role continues to develop and adapt to suit the needs of the learning community, I am driven to find the best way forward, to manage change, and to explore innovative ways to do things differently and to inspire others to problem solve, be empowered and to challenge the ‘box’ in an attempt to do better for our community and our learners.
Leadership Style
4. Throughout your career how would peers/supervisors/parents describe your leadership style?
Through the years, I think my leadership style has been through many changes and growth, and with that, I have acquired a number of tools, strategies and the experience to be able to adapt when the situation arises. I think first and foremost, that all members of the community would agree that, as a leader, I am best described as a reflective learner and strongly believe in life-long learning and instilling this in both our young and our adult learners. I am learner-centred and have our learners and their learning as my priority.
I am viewed as a leader in the community who is not only knowledgeable, but is also supportive and approachable. John C. Maxwell said, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care” and I have been fortunate to have had a number of role-models who have guided and taught me that the foundation of any educational institution is the people. As a leader that values distributed leadership, I believe that building positive relationships ensures that everyone within the learning community feels valued and respected, and when issues do arise they can be dealt with in an atmosphere of trust, kindness and mutual respect.
I am described as an integrated leader, focusing both on instruction and distributed leadership. As an instructional leader, I work to support classroom practitioners and oversee curriculum design and development for the PYP in classrooms. I am known for being committed to developing our next wave of leaders and helping our teaching staff to develop their craft to be the best they can be. I view the role also as mentor and facilitator – ensuring support is available to all members of our learning community and that up-to-date, pedagogically sound, effective, teaching and learning experiences are available to our staff and students, whether this being myself supporting others, or other colleagues or outside support. I have trained in cognitive coaching and support my teams as a coach in their own learning and growth journeys.
I am recognized for having strong communication skills and being open to involving members of the community in decision-making procedures and respectfully sharing ideas and opinions. As a leader, I encourage a collaborative approach to decision making, valuing and appreciating the expertise and insight of the community.
I am seen as a visible leader and an active participant in the learning community, managing morning duty, greeting students as they arrive, regularly visiting classrooms, attending collaborative meetings, interacting with students, teachers, hosting parent workshops, and maintaining a working partnership with all members of the community.
5. Describe a challenging professional situation you have faced. How did you resolve it? What did you learn from the experience?
Unfortunately, as for many others, there have been a few challenging situations over the years. I have been faced with angry and upset parents, with families in crisis, with ineffective or unprofessional staff, with unhappy staff members and with issues or concerns of governance and school leadership.
One recent situation came when we were having issues with a classroom language teacher. Although, as a school we were committed to an inquiry approach, we were seeing evidence in her classroom teaching of a more traditional approach to learning. There had also been complaints from parents and students about disciplinary practices in the classroom.
This teacher had been with us for 18 months, and had started well. She was partnered with an experienced co-teacher who, on reflection, also struggled with the inquiry model. We had begun the year with all language teachers discussing and developing essential agreements as to what we believed in how children best learn, and developed as a team a unit of inquiry that would have the scope for all age groups and language levels. This teacher was actively involved in this discussion.
A meeting was arranged where we shared with her our concerns and a summary of the complaints we had received, however, we also apologized to her as we felt that we had not taken action or given feedback early enough and had not provided the best support for her development. This apology helped to dissolve the tension and made it clear from the beginning that we were committed to work together to support her and her teaching. Together we put in place a 6 week time-line, and made arrangements for her to co-teach with another strong inquiry based teacher, and to observe a number of classes and different strategies throughout the next two weeks. We met as a team weekly to review differentiated planning, and the language coordinator scheduled times to support in class and to observe her development. Although the plan put in place was there to support her, and developed through mutual agreement, this teacher found the inquiry model and developing open–ended tasks too different from her own beliefs and training. She chose to not renew her contract at the end of the year, and joined a more traditional school in the community. Although she chose to leave us, all interactions were professional, and as her employer we felt that we had been respectful, professional and supportive of her and her development whilst she was in our employ.
I believe that in any difficult situation, maintaining professional standards and a calm, respectful manner is paramount and that communication, transparency and respect are a big part of resolving issues and maintaining relationships.
To take some of the stress for all parties out of the situations, I have learnt to ensure that meetings are organized to be proactive rather than reactive and that there is always one other person present as a witness to the discussions, and that minutes are recorded, and, if appropriate, an action plan is developed.
I have learnt in all situations to ensure the purpose and the preferred outcome is known by all from the outset, and to ensure that the protocols are in place to ensure that all parties maintain professional respect and boundaries. I have been fortunate to have been trained in the use of cognitive coaching models, and have introduced and developed these within our learning communities.
6. Tells us about your readiness for a position change.
I am currently working at KIS International School, Thailand as PYP Curriculum Coordinator. Previous to this, I was at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) as PYP Coordinator, Head of Learning and Teaching (Primary). I am a member of the founding team of Studio 5 Advisors piloted in 2017. Studio 5 is a model of self-directed learning. We believe that education is at a turning point and that learners learn bet when they are provided time and space for agency. We have removed some of the barriers to learning, highlighted our strengths such as personal , social and emotional connections during CAR time, and redesigned our timetables to allow time for prolonged inquiry.
Before this, we took 8 months back in New Zealand to reconnect with family and to follow up on my Masters research. During this time I was invited by the International Baccalaureate to continue my role as an IB Educator and to visit schools in the Asia Pacific region either to run workshops for teacher development, or to take on the role of Team leader in verification and evaluation accreditation visits.
As part of my own research, and learning, I am also took time to visit schools in the Asia Pacific region and NZ to observe different models in teaching and pedagogical practice and to talk to those in leadership as to how they are supporting their teachers’ development and continuing practice.
My professional goal continues to be to work as part of a leadership team that has strong educational and social values, that leads by example, and has high expectations of themselves, their staff, their students and other members of their community.
The organization I am looking to join has students at the centre of its conversations and decision making process and is committed to challenging themselves as they explore innovative teaching and learning practices as they prepare young global citizens for their next steps.
7. What is your personal commitment to global citizenship?
Jerome Bruner said “Education must be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of skills to explore them".
As an IB practitioner and leader, I am committed to developing and nurturing global citizens who have the skills to interact with and help others within their local community and beyond are empowered to act and take on responsibility, to confidently express themselves and live the attributes of the IB Learner Profile.
I believe as a leader, that the commitment to developing global citizenship must be aligned with the school vision and mission statement. As a learning community we should exemplify the values we wish to promote and ensure that the curriculum, the learning processes, and relationships between all members of the community reflect and reinforce these values.
We should also be committed to developing global citizens that have respect for self and for others, and develop emotional intelligence where resilience and intrinsic motivation enable creativity and critical thinking to develop, whilst simultaneously ensuring that communication and collaboration are everyday events in our students’ development.
Over the past 18 months, I have been on a personal learning journey and have enrolled in professional development courses focussed on DEIJ to support my understanding how we can work in International schools to ensure our commitment to International Mindedness and Global Citizenship in these important areas.
As part of our schools CIS Accreditation and our IB Evaluation, I worked alongside our Global Citizenship committees as we, as a school, worked to strategically ensure a shared understanding of Global Citizenship. My own role was to ensure the documentation of our journey, evidencing our commitment to Global Citizenship in our curriculum and preparing our Programme Development Plan for presentation to the IBO.
8. What is your personal commitment to Child Protection?
I believe that Child Protection and welfare considerations should permeate through all aspects of school life and should be embedded in all of the school’s policies, practices and activities. Too often this is implicitly referred to within other school documents and policies, but not explicitly discussed, agreed upon or understood by all stakeholders in the learning community.
In all cases, the most important consideration to be taken into account is the protection of the child.
As part of the schools mission and culture there should be in place support for the child, their family, the teachers and care givers and the school itself. Some international schools have guidelines and support from the host country and government policies, but others are ‘an island’ and thus have no set guidelines within their host country context. It is the responsibility of the school, who have been entrusted with the care of children, to take on the responsibility to have an explicit understanding that the protection and welfare of children is of paramount importance, regardless of all other considerations. I believe they should work with available agencies and relevant statutory authorities to set up their own guidelines and policies on behalf of their learning community and work in relation to child protection and welfare matters.
As part of the teaching and learning, schools should provide students with the support and skills to recognise and respond to unsafe situations, seek assistance effectively and establish and maintain relationships, whilst strengthening attitudes and values related to equality, respect and responsibility. Teachers should be provided training, support and the approved curriculum materials to assist in developing student knowledge and understanding about child protection issues.
The Learning community, including the board, leadership, teachers, support staff should all be involved in developing a practice of openness with parents and encourage parental involvement in the education of their children; and fully respect confidentiality requirements in dealing with child protection matters.
9. If you were writing your professional growth development plan today, what would you identify as areas you need to develop and/or strengthen in order to make you a more effective administrator?
I am very much a reflective person, and often look back on not only my own practice and growth but also how it may, or may not have had an impact on the teaching, support and administrative staff that I am working with and on behalf of.
Reflecting on those areas which I would like to continue to develop, I have 3 areas that are currently my focus:
Board/Community
10. Describe your experience of working with various governance models.
The schools I have been a part of, have unfortunately, not had strong governance models in place. They have, for the most part, been owner run, for profit and there has been either no board or governance set up, or a skeleton board which met intermittently.
I have also been a part of a school where single members of the board were very much involved in the day-to-day operational decisions, rather than the overall strategic decisions of the school, leading to many issues and concerns aligned with the running of the school.
These past lessons and experiences have highlighted to me the importance of having a solid and balanced governing body that oversees both the long and short term strategic development of a school and puts its trust in the leadership of the school.
I believe the governing board or committee should be a balanced committee, made up of members of the extended community, the learning community (parents and teachers) and the active heads of school and should be elected through a transparent procedure.
In an ideal setting, I believe the focus of a governing board and committee should be:
11. Describe your involvement with building a sense of community and establishing key stakeholder relationships
The development of a learning community and a culture of community within a school involves nurturing respect for all, building a sense of belonging and helping all members of the community become responsible and active global citizens.
I believe it is the role of the leader to lead, model and develop their community of learners and encourage all members of the community to work and learn together, share best practice, but also their questions, concerns and inquiries through respectful dialogue, discussion and communication.
In my leadership role I have been actively involved in ensuring all members of our community are invited and involved in decision-making procedures and respectfully share ideas and opinions. Research shows that student achievement is maximised when the learning community takes responsibility together and all resources, including expertise and people, are utilised effectively using current research, practice and understanding as to how best our students learn and with that, the quality of teaching, learning and behaviour improves.
In the past I have developed Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) which include the involvement of students, staff and parents to give feedback and review our reporting procedures, assessment strategies and scope and sequences to ensure our curriculum continues to be relevant, accessible and contextually significant whilst being challenging to our students.
As a leader, I support a collaborative approach to decision making, valuing and appreciating the expertise and insight of the community, and believe it is essential to include staff members in consultation processes and make as much use as possible of their personal insights when leading a team. Having risen through the different levels of responsibility, and been given the trust and support from my mentors, I am attuned to the expertise of our teaching staff and middle leaders, and am always eager for all to be a part of any initiatives that are aimed at improving the school’s performance. I would extend the same respect and invitation to our parent community and welcome the expertise from within the extended community.
I believe in an open door policy in school, developed under the understanding of respect and purpose and that continuing to build positive, respectful relationships ensures that everyone within the learning community feels valued and respected, and when issues do arise they can be dealt with in an atmosphere of trust and respect.
Instructional/Teaching & Learning
12. Describe your experience with various curriculum models and commitment to academic excellence.
As a teacher, I have worked with the NZ National Curriculum, the National Curriculum (UK) and the Primary Years Programme (IBO).
As a pedagogical leader I have worked primarily in the Primary Years Programme (IB). As an International curriculum committed to the development of internationally minded learners, the IB and its member schools strive for excellence through its implementation of standards and practices, through rigorous assessment and expectations in academic achievement. The PYP, in particular, has evolved and continues to be reviewed using the latest research to ensure that its practice and application align to its beliefs on how children best learn, how we are best preparing our students and how we can ensure the needs of our learners are best met through its international framework.
I have been a member of the IB Educators Network since 2012, and ensure that, not only the school and staff from my school have access to the latest updates, developments on research and articles pertaining to educational practices, but also those schools I support as a consultant, a workshop leader and a school visitor.
13. Do you have experience with international accreditation models? If yes, please outline.
I have sat on and led committees as part of the IB, CIS and WASC accreditation processes. The scope of these committees varied between a focus on curriculum, assessment and student progress, reflecting on continuum practices through the school, reviewing and developing schoolwide procedures and policies and developing a professional culture within the community. As PYP Coordinator in 2010, I led WISS through their self-study for the PYP evaluation and subsequent visit.
I have also worked on behalf of the IB (PYP), working with both CIS and WASC representatives on joint visits to schools as part of their accreditation processes.
I am a believer in the self-study process, as a reflective process that provides learning communities the opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses and be able to reflect on these and plan accordingly in a strategic manner.
The processes I have been a part of, both as a school visitor and as a member of the school, have proved to be critical learning curves that made the teams stronger, more cohesive and resulted in procedures and protocols being put in place for consistent assessment practices, recording, tracking and reporting student progress against learner outcomes and the development of benchmarks.
14. Describe how you inspire students to develop and demonstrate the skills necessary to be effective global citizens, environmental stewards, and to serve others in order to build a vital and caring community.
16. What should we be doing to ensure that our graduates will be prepared to experience success and to contribute meaningfully to their communities?
I see these two questions connect and thus, have blended my response.
John Dewey is quoted as saying, "Education is not a preparation for life, it is life itself."
As a PYP and IB educator I believe our ultimate goal is to develop young learners who are able to confidently express themselves, have responsibility for themselves and their own learning, interact with and help others within and beyond the classroom environment, or as the IB refers to as developing global citizens and lifelong learners.
We often have in our mission statements that we are student-centred and are developing responsible learners and global citizens, but this needs to be embedded within school practice, our curriculum and our culture.
Our aim is to develop global citizens who have a sense of the wider world, who take responsibility for themselves and their actions, and who respect and encourage diversity, and is an active part of their community. To do this we need to ensure that within our practice we are providing students with more choice, more control and opportunities for collaboration. Research has shown that academic achievement is improved if students feel they have a voice in their learning.
Following our WASC/ CIS accreditation, developing student voice and agency became a focus within the school. We ran staff meetings to discuss what this may look like in different areas of the school, and then developed a 4 step plan to help all those involved move towards having more authentic, relevant and engaging opportunities in place within and outside of the curriculum. This focus as a staff, and then the follow up presentation to parents, helped us move past the student councils, prefects and eco-groups, and took the belief and the practice into the classrooms, stairwells, cafeteria, playgrounds and staffroom.
As a school, the PYP met with MYP practitioners and we explored the MYP Approaches to Learning and discussed strategies that could be integrated into the classroom to give students opportunities to manage time, be creative and confident and proactive in their thinking, to solve problems, make decisions, defend positions, think critically, communicate ideas effectively, work well within groups and to be effective global citizens.
We also arranged for Professional Development sessions and visits to other schools so that our teaching staff also had opportunities to develop their own understanding and to build their skills in order to best support our learners.
In the PYP, we reviewed our Programme of Inquiry and curriculum explicitly looking for opportunities for students to have more of a choice in their learning, whilst building the skills needed towards developing global citizens. Our focus was to ensure that there were opportunities within the curriculum for students to make connections with what is happening in class and the relevancy of what they are learning and how it applied to their life, their community, and the global context. Two grade levels rewrote Central Ideas to explicitly address the question of what it meant to be a ‘global citizen’.
These initial steps were taken as a learning community to begin the conversation of developing global citizens. From this introduction a small group of teachers volunteered to look deeper, and we enrolled them in training for sustainability in schools. This group has now taken the lead to continue the conversation school wide about our responsibility as educators and as a school to support learners in their development as global citizens so that they can contribute to their community, no matter their age or context.
15. What experience do you bring in support of teachers and the school in developing rigorous, relevant learning experiences for children?
As a learner myself, I am an advocate in lifelong learning and have extended this support to our community establishing access to coaching and counseling programmes as well as developing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and a Teachers Teaching Teachers weekly programme.
I believe an educational leader is responsible for providing opportunities for professional forums to encourage collaboration and to involve all members of the community in decision making.
Research shows that student achievement is maximised when the learning community takes responsibility together and all resources are utilised effectively using current research, practice and understanding as to how best our students learn.
Our PLCs have worked to review our reporting procedures, assessment strategies and scope and sequences to ensure our curriculum continues to be relevant, accessible and contextually significant whilst being challenging to our students.
I believe that having our students and their individual needs at the centre of our discussions leads to good practice. I encourage and welcome teachers and students to challenge ideas, procedures and to evoke thinking in our community. This culture of collaboration was one that needed to be developed and cultivated over the years, working to develop teams and using protocols to ensure respectful and supportive relationships developed.
Being a PYP educator, when planning learning experiences, we work collaboratively using the model of Understanding by Design (UbD), and plan to ensure quality, open-ended experiences that will challenge thinking and provoke discussion and questions. This collaborative process allows for all to participate for the authentic, learner centred discussions to occur.
I believe that assessment in the classroom should be the driver for all teaching and learning for both the teacher and for the students who are responsible for their own learning. We worked both at WISS and RAK in our teams, and as a PLC to explore and develop a range of feedback models that could be used to drive teaching and learning and to ensure student voice in all conversations.
I am also a believer of using student data and having systems in place to track student progress over time. I have used in the past ISER, MAP, INCAs and PIPs as independent benchmark assessments. The timely use of this data is a powerful tool to use throughout the community to see where learning is happening over time and to address any anomalies and concerns that the data presents so that all students are catered to. Attitudes to the use of data vary, so at both WISS and RAK, we presented to our staff the power of data and ensured that they understood the purpose and why the review of independent data could help to move our students, our practice and our school forward.
17. Describe your experience in long-term planning in the area of financial accountability, performance, enhancement, strategic planning and professional development.
When working at Western International School of Shanghai (WISS) I was part of the PYP Leadership team, and thus working with both the Principal and Early Years Principal. As a team we had overall responsibility for managing our operational budgets throughout the year. This included resourcing – in preparation for the year ahead, but also throughout the school year, the professional development budget and the staffing budget for the PYP.
Although part of a team of 3, the budget for professional development was under my remit as Deputy Principal, Teaching & Learning. Following the PYP and WASC accreditation visits, a 5 year strategic plan for professional development was put in place. This plan was the result of the needs of our learning community as shown by student data, collected through ISER and MAP benchmarks. I was able to manage the professional learning budget in creative ways, and managed to make a profit for 2 years running – through establishing ourselves as a centre of PD, having an open-door policy to all learners and hosting events, we were able to host events such as the IB Chinese language regional conference (1200 people), the IGE conference (700 people) for the Shanghai network, the Central China ISTA celebration (400 students and families) and many other smaller events. By inviting learning professionals onto our campus, opening the opportunity up to others, and by creating teachers teaching teacher sessions, lunchtime carousels, online learning platforms and encouraging mentoring and coaching models, we found not only did we establish ourselves as a true learning community, but were also able to make our PD budget spread further over the staffing needs.
As Deputy Principal, Teaching and Learning, I also saw the need for processes and models to be set up in order to appraise our teachers, put plans in place to help develop areas that needed support, and to ensure that we had a professional, accountable and transparent feedback model in place. We established a professional learning community to investigate current models and finally agree to adopt one we thought appropriate to our context, our culture and the needs of our staff.
When I joined the team at RAK (PYP), it was clear a number of procedures and policies were not in place, and that the lack of these had a direct impact on teaching and learning and thus student performance. As a leadership team, we sat down with the reports and data from various sources, including confidential staff survey, CIS report and the latest PYP report. We also committed to having the whole of the PYP go through a benchmark assessment using INCAs and PIPs so that we would have up to date relevant data to drive the decision making.
Although, normally, through a distributed leadership, it would have been practice to have all staff participate and contribute to discussions, it was felt, that there were too many areas that needed immediate action, and others that could be prioritized at a later time.
We formulated a 3 year strategic plan, which was presented to the board and the PYP staff, along with the student data, and highlighted the priority was to improve student learning across the board. A focus on literacy was agreed upon, and professional development plans, resourcing requirements, and adoption of literacy models such as Big Writing and Words Their Way were introduced.
Policies and procedures including, policy on teaching and learning, policy on child safety, agreements on behaviour management, policies on assessment and reporting were all borrowed from other sources, put in place, and highlighted to review at the end of the year.
I am a believer in collaboration and PLCs, and having multiple perspectives, but I learnt through this experience, that due to the needs of the school and the learners, there are times that decisions and actions have to be taken from a top down position. However, with commitment to a long term strategy that is developed with sustainability in place, this should not be the case and provides a starting place for professional dialogue and reflection to take place.
I have been working in International Schools in the Asia Pacific region for the past 17 years and am currently working as PYP Curriculum Coordinator at KIS International School, Bangkok.
Prior to this, I was the PYP Curriculum Coordinator at International School of Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) in Vietnam, where our vision was to empower, engage and energize our learners through a personalised 'studio' model.
In 2016, I took a year off back in New Zealand, taking time to work on my Masters research, working as an Independent Education Consultant for the IB in Asia Pacific, and providing professional learning opportunities for schools in the Asia Pacific region through Effective Practice Education.
Prior to this I was working in the UAE as Deputy Head of School, Teaching, Learning and Innovation at RAK Academy PYP, and at the Western International School of Shanghai (WISS) where I was part of the PYP Leadership team working as Primary Deputy Principal and PYP Coordinator (2010 – 2015)
I have a BSc from Otago University (NZ), an MBA (Marketing) from Leicester University (UK), a PGCE (Primary) (NZ), and a Graduate Diploma in Educational Administration and Leadership from Massey University (NZ). I am currently working with Otago University on my Doctorate in Education.
We are a third culture family. I was born in NZ to NZ parents, raised in Hong Kong, made China my family home for 6 years and spent a year exploring the Middle East before returning to New Zealand for a year of learning and reflection. My husband is of Scottish and English descent, was born in Kenya, immigrated to New Zealand when he was 8, has lived in Hong Kong for 20 years, lived in China and the UAE, is currently reconnecting with family in New Zealand. Both our children were born in Hong Kong, both carry New Zealand and Hong Kong passports, and have called China home for more than half their lives, spent a year exploring the UAE and the Middle East, and are now re-immersing in the NZ culture and attending school in Lincoln. Our eldest (18 years old) is a blonde blue eyed boy and our youngest (15 years old) is Hong Kong Chinese.
My husband is a stay at home dad, managing our family life and all that that entails. He is trained as a sports coach, specializing in junior sports of swimming, tennis, rugby and golf, but is also experienced in football, and children’s sports programmes. In the past he has worked in schools as a teacher assistant working with both the Student Support and PE departments. He is a certified Learn to Swim coach and has worked in China, Vietnam and Thailand as a swim instructor and coach.
2. What inspired you to pursue a career in international educational leadership?
3. What sustains your motivation in international educational leadership?
On reflection, I’ve blended these two questions as I feel that both the initial inspiration and the continuing inspiration are one and the same.
Being raised and educated internationally the natural step was to return to Hong Kong and join the international education system as a teacher and coach. The path to leadership began initially from my drive in wanting to learn and to know more, and to explore better ways to teach to ensure those in my class had positive learning experiences.
When I was asked to take on the role of Team leader, this drive was then extended to not only finding ways to support my students, but also support the members of my team. My personal passion in to wanting to be a better teacher, a better team leader has always motivated me in that constant quest for knowledge and experience.
When I took on the role of PYP Curriculum Coordinator the challenge then shifted from a knowledge base, to one of building a community and developing trust and relationships with different teams, all with different needs and strengths. As I learnt to balance the art of managing and leading people, my focus was to develop leadership skills and to learn from colleagues, fellow teachers, mentors, leaders and continuing to find the best way to support those in our community.
I am an active member of social media platforms, learning, sharing and being inspired with my Personal and Professional Learning Network and connecting with leaders and teachers through Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook groups.
As my role continues to develop and adapt to suit the needs of the learning community, I am driven to find the best way forward, to manage change, and to explore innovative ways to do things differently and to inspire others to problem solve, be empowered and to challenge the ‘box’ in an attempt to do better for our community and our learners.
Leadership Style
4. Throughout your career how would peers/supervisors/parents describe your leadership style?
Through the years, I think my leadership style has been through many changes and growth, and with that, I have acquired a number of tools, strategies and the experience to be able to adapt when the situation arises. I think first and foremost, that all members of the community would agree that, as a leader, I am best described as a reflective learner and strongly believe in life-long learning and instilling this in both our young and our adult learners. I am learner-centred and have our learners and their learning as my priority.
I am viewed as a leader in the community who is not only knowledgeable, but is also supportive and approachable. John C. Maxwell said, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care” and I have been fortunate to have had a number of role-models who have guided and taught me that the foundation of any educational institution is the people. As a leader that values distributed leadership, I believe that building positive relationships ensures that everyone within the learning community feels valued and respected, and when issues do arise they can be dealt with in an atmosphere of trust, kindness and mutual respect.
I am described as an integrated leader, focusing both on instruction and distributed leadership. As an instructional leader, I work to support classroom practitioners and oversee curriculum design and development for the PYP in classrooms. I am known for being committed to developing our next wave of leaders and helping our teaching staff to develop their craft to be the best they can be. I view the role also as mentor and facilitator – ensuring support is available to all members of our learning community and that up-to-date, pedagogically sound, effective, teaching and learning experiences are available to our staff and students, whether this being myself supporting others, or other colleagues or outside support. I have trained in cognitive coaching and support my teams as a coach in their own learning and growth journeys.
I am recognized for having strong communication skills and being open to involving members of the community in decision-making procedures and respectfully sharing ideas and opinions. As a leader, I encourage a collaborative approach to decision making, valuing and appreciating the expertise and insight of the community.
I am seen as a visible leader and an active participant in the learning community, managing morning duty, greeting students as they arrive, regularly visiting classrooms, attending collaborative meetings, interacting with students, teachers, hosting parent workshops, and maintaining a working partnership with all members of the community.
5. Describe a challenging professional situation you have faced. How did you resolve it? What did you learn from the experience?
Unfortunately, as for many others, there have been a few challenging situations over the years. I have been faced with angry and upset parents, with families in crisis, with ineffective or unprofessional staff, with unhappy staff members and with issues or concerns of governance and school leadership.
One recent situation came when we were having issues with a classroom language teacher. Although, as a school we were committed to an inquiry approach, we were seeing evidence in her classroom teaching of a more traditional approach to learning. There had also been complaints from parents and students about disciplinary practices in the classroom.
This teacher had been with us for 18 months, and had started well. She was partnered with an experienced co-teacher who, on reflection, also struggled with the inquiry model. We had begun the year with all language teachers discussing and developing essential agreements as to what we believed in how children best learn, and developed as a team a unit of inquiry that would have the scope for all age groups and language levels. This teacher was actively involved in this discussion.
A meeting was arranged where we shared with her our concerns and a summary of the complaints we had received, however, we also apologized to her as we felt that we had not taken action or given feedback early enough and had not provided the best support for her development. This apology helped to dissolve the tension and made it clear from the beginning that we were committed to work together to support her and her teaching. Together we put in place a 6 week time-line, and made arrangements for her to co-teach with another strong inquiry based teacher, and to observe a number of classes and different strategies throughout the next two weeks. We met as a team weekly to review differentiated planning, and the language coordinator scheduled times to support in class and to observe her development. Although the plan put in place was there to support her, and developed through mutual agreement, this teacher found the inquiry model and developing open–ended tasks too different from her own beliefs and training. She chose to not renew her contract at the end of the year, and joined a more traditional school in the community. Although she chose to leave us, all interactions were professional, and as her employer we felt that we had been respectful, professional and supportive of her and her development whilst she was in our employ.
I believe that in any difficult situation, maintaining professional standards and a calm, respectful manner is paramount and that communication, transparency and respect are a big part of resolving issues and maintaining relationships.
To take some of the stress for all parties out of the situations, I have learnt to ensure that meetings are organized to be proactive rather than reactive and that there is always one other person present as a witness to the discussions, and that minutes are recorded, and, if appropriate, an action plan is developed.
I have learnt in all situations to ensure the purpose and the preferred outcome is known by all from the outset, and to ensure that the protocols are in place to ensure that all parties maintain professional respect and boundaries. I have been fortunate to have been trained in the use of cognitive coaching models, and have introduced and developed these within our learning communities.
6. Tells us about your readiness for a position change.
I am currently working at KIS International School, Thailand as PYP Curriculum Coordinator. Previous to this, I was at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) as PYP Coordinator, Head of Learning and Teaching (Primary). I am a member of the founding team of Studio 5 Advisors piloted in 2017. Studio 5 is a model of self-directed learning. We believe that education is at a turning point and that learners learn bet when they are provided time and space for agency. We have removed some of the barriers to learning, highlighted our strengths such as personal , social and emotional connections during CAR time, and redesigned our timetables to allow time for prolonged inquiry.
Before this, we took 8 months back in New Zealand to reconnect with family and to follow up on my Masters research. During this time I was invited by the International Baccalaureate to continue my role as an IB Educator and to visit schools in the Asia Pacific region either to run workshops for teacher development, or to take on the role of Team leader in verification and evaluation accreditation visits.
As part of my own research, and learning, I am also took time to visit schools in the Asia Pacific region and NZ to observe different models in teaching and pedagogical practice and to talk to those in leadership as to how they are supporting their teachers’ development and continuing practice.
My professional goal continues to be to work as part of a leadership team that has strong educational and social values, that leads by example, and has high expectations of themselves, their staff, their students and other members of their community.
The organization I am looking to join has students at the centre of its conversations and decision making process and is committed to challenging themselves as they explore innovative teaching and learning practices as they prepare young global citizens for their next steps.
7. What is your personal commitment to global citizenship?
Jerome Bruner said “Education must be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of skills to explore them".
As an IB practitioner and leader, I am committed to developing and nurturing global citizens who have the skills to interact with and help others within their local community and beyond are empowered to act and take on responsibility, to confidently express themselves and live the attributes of the IB Learner Profile.
I believe as a leader, that the commitment to developing global citizenship must be aligned with the school vision and mission statement. As a learning community we should exemplify the values we wish to promote and ensure that the curriculum, the learning processes, and relationships between all members of the community reflect and reinforce these values.
We should also be committed to developing global citizens that have respect for self and for others, and develop emotional intelligence where resilience and intrinsic motivation enable creativity and critical thinking to develop, whilst simultaneously ensuring that communication and collaboration are everyday events in our students’ development.
Over the past 18 months, I have been on a personal learning journey and have enrolled in professional development courses focussed on DEIJ to support my understanding how we can work in International schools to ensure our commitment to International Mindedness and Global Citizenship in these important areas.
As part of our schools CIS Accreditation and our IB Evaluation, I worked alongside our Global Citizenship committees as we, as a school, worked to strategically ensure a shared understanding of Global Citizenship. My own role was to ensure the documentation of our journey, evidencing our commitment to Global Citizenship in our curriculum and preparing our Programme Development Plan for presentation to the IBO.
8. What is your personal commitment to Child Protection?
I believe that Child Protection and welfare considerations should permeate through all aspects of school life and should be embedded in all of the school’s policies, practices and activities. Too often this is implicitly referred to within other school documents and policies, but not explicitly discussed, agreed upon or understood by all stakeholders in the learning community.
In all cases, the most important consideration to be taken into account is the protection of the child.
As part of the schools mission and culture there should be in place support for the child, their family, the teachers and care givers and the school itself. Some international schools have guidelines and support from the host country and government policies, but others are ‘an island’ and thus have no set guidelines within their host country context. It is the responsibility of the school, who have been entrusted with the care of children, to take on the responsibility to have an explicit understanding that the protection and welfare of children is of paramount importance, regardless of all other considerations. I believe they should work with available agencies and relevant statutory authorities to set up their own guidelines and policies on behalf of their learning community and work in relation to child protection and welfare matters.
As part of the teaching and learning, schools should provide students with the support and skills to recognise and respond to unsafe situations, seek assistance effectively and establish and maintain relationships, whilst strengthening attitudes and values related to equality, respect and responsibility. Teachers should be provided training, support and the approved curriculum materials to assist in developing student knowledge and understanding about child protection issues.
The Learning community, including the board, leadership, teachers, support staff should all be involved in developing a practice of openness with parents and encourage parental involvement in the education of their children; and fully respect confidentiality requirements in dealing with child protection matters.
9. If you were writing your professional growth development plan today, what would you identify as areas you need to develop and/or strengthen in order to make you a more effective administrator?
I am very much a reflective person, and often look back on not only my own practice and growth but also how it may, or may not have had an impact on the teaching, support and administrative staff that I am working with and on behalf of.
Reflecting on those areas which I would like to continue to develop, I have 3 areas that are currently my focus:
- To further explore models and protocols that will continue to support the learning community as they work together to develop professional and respectful dialogue, to manage difficult conversations, and to coach teaching staff through their own development and to develop a culture of professional dialogue.
- To investigate and explore the ‘best way’ to support and develop teachers and middle managers in their own growth and to inspire others to lead and take responsibility. I believe that our adult learners need to be given opportunities and resources to continue to develop their own personal and professional growth. I view the role of leadership is to support, encourage and empower, so that they can continue to be the best they can be and to be both competent and confident educators.
- To continue to develop my understanding in DEIJ, and my own anti-racists practice as an educator.
Board/Community
10. Describe your experience of working with various governance models.
The schools I have been a part of, have unfortunately, not had strong governance models in place. They have, for the most part, been owner run, for profit and there has been either no board or governance set up, or a skeleton board which met intermittently.
I have also been a part of a school where single members of the board were very much involved in the day-to-day operational decisions, rather than the overall strategic decisions of the school, leading to many issues and concerns aligned with the running of the school.
These past lessons and experiences have highlighted to me the importance of having a solid and balanced governing body that oversees both the long and short term strategic development of a school and puts its trust in the leadership of the school.
I believe the governing board or committee should be a balanced committee, made up of members of the extended community, the learning community (parents and teachers) and the active heads of school and should be elected through a transparent procedure.
In an ideal setting, I believe the focus of a governing board and committee should be:
- to set the vision and strategic direction of the school in-line with the school culture and to ensure this vision it is observable, measureable and committed to by all stakeholders.
- to manage the hiring of the Director or Head of School and ensuring they, as Head of the School are committed to the vision and strategic direction of the school and develop an accountability system to ensure educational performance under their leadership.
- to oversee the financial resourcing and strategic management of funds for the long and short term needs of the school.
- to meet regularly and have the minutes published and available to the learning community.
- to put in place a system of delegation and responsibility across all board members to manage different policies and procedures and ensure accountability of all to ensure that the board has fulfilled its responsibilities to the school and community.
11. Describe your involvement with building a sense of community and establishing key stakeholder relationships
The development of a learning community and a culture of community within a school involves nurturing respect for all, building a sense of belonging and helping all members of the community become responsible and active global citizens.
I believe it is the role of the leader to lead, model and develop their community of learners and encourage all members of the community to work and learn together, share best practice, but also their questions, concerns and inquiries through respectful dialogue, discussion and communication.
In my leadership role I have been actively involved in ensuring all members of our community are invited and involved in decision-making procedures and respectfully share ideas and opinions. Research shows that student achievement is maximised when the learning community takes responsibility together and all resources, including expertise and people, are utilised effectively using current research, practice and understanding as to how best our students learn and with that, the quality of teaching, learning and behaviour improves.
In the past I have developed Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) which include the involvement of students, staff and parents to give feedback and review our reporting procedures, assessment strategies and scope and sequences to ensure our curriculum continues to be relevant, accessible and contextually significant whilst being challenging to our students.
As a leader, I support a collaborative approach to decision making, valuing and appreciating the expertise and insight of the community, and believe it is essential to include staff members in consultation processes and make as much use as possible of their personal insights when leading a team. Having risen through the different levels of responsibility, and been given the trust and support from my mentors, I am attuned to the expertise of our teaching staff and middle leaders, and am always eager for all to be a part of any initiatives that are aimed at improving the school’s performance. I would extend the same respect and invitation to our parent community and welcome the expertise from within the extended community.
I believe in an open door policy in school, developed under the understanding of respect and purpose and that continuing to build positive, respectful relationships ensures that everyone within the learning community feels valued and respected, and when issues do arise they can be dealt with in an atmosphere of trust and respect.
Instructional/Teaching & Learning
12. Describe your experience with various curriculum models and commitment to academic excellence.
As a teacher, I have worked with the NZ National Curriculum, the National Curriculum (UK) and the Primary Years Programme (IBO).
As a pedagogical leader I have worked primarily in the Primary Years Programme (IB). As an International curriculum committed to the development of internationally minded learners, the IB and its member schools strive for excellence through its implementation of standards and practices, through rigorous assessment and expectations in academic achievement. The PYP, in particular, has evolved and continues to be reviewed using the latest research to ensure that its practice and application align to its beliefs on how children best learn, how we are best preparing our students and how we can ensure the needs of our learners are best met through its international framework.
I have been a member of the IB Educators Network since 2012, and ensure that, not only the school and staff from my school have access to the latest updates, developments on research and articles pertaining to educational practices, but also those schools I support as a consultant, a workshop leader and a school visitor.
13. Do you have experience with international accreditation models? If yes, please outline.
I have sat on and led committees as part of the IB, CIS and WASC accreditation processes. The scope of these committees varied between a focus on curriculum, assessment and student progress, reflecting on continuum practices through the school, reviewing and developing schoolwide procedures and policies and developing a professional culture within the community. As PYP Coordinator in 2010, I led WISS through their self-study for the PYP evaluation and subsequent visit.
I have also worked on behalf of the IB (PYP), working with both CIS and WASC representatives on joint visits to schools as part of their accreditation processes.
I am a believer in the self-study process, as a reflective process that provides learning communities the opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses and be able to reflect on these and plan accordingly in a strategic manner.
The processes I have been a part of, both as a school visitor and as a member of the school, have proved to be critical learning curves that made the teams stronger, more cohesive and resulted in procedures and protocols being put in place for consistent assessment practices, recording, tracking and reporting student progress against learner outcomes and the development of benchmarks.
14. Describe how you inspire students to develop and demonstrate the skills necessary to be effective global citizens, environmental stewards, and to serve others in order to build a vital and caring community.
16. What should we be doing to ensure that our graduates will be prepared to experience success and to contribute meaningfully to their communities?
I see these two questions connect and thus, have blended my response.
John Dewey is quoted as saying, "Education is not a preparation for life, it is life itself."
As a PYP and IB educator I believe our ultimate goal is to develop young learners who are able to confidently express themselves, have responsibility for themselves and their own learning, interact with and help others within and beyond the classroom environment, or as the IB refers to as developing global citizens and lifelong learners.
We often have in our mission statements that we are student-centred and are developing responsible learners and global citizens, but this needs to be embedded within school practice, our curriculum and our culture.
Our aim is to develop global citizens who have a sense of the wider world, who take responsibility for themselves and their actions, and who respect and encourage diversity, and is an active part of their community. To do this we need to ensure that within our practice we are providing students with more choice, more control and opportunities for collaboration. Research has shown that academic achievement is improved if students feel they have a voice in their learning.
Following our WASC/ CIS accreditation, developing student voice and agency became a focus within the school. We ran staff meetings to discuss what this may look like in different areas of the school, and then developed a 4 step plan to help all those involved move towards having more authentic, relevant and engaging opportunities in place within and outside of the curriculum. This focus as a staff, and then the follow up presentation to parents, helped us move past the student councils, prefects and eco-groups, and took the belief and the practice into the classrooms, stairwells, cafeteria, playgrounds and staffroom.
As a school, the PYP met with MYP practitioners and we explored the MYP Approaches to Learning and discussed strategies that could be integrated into the classroom to give students opportunities to manage time, be creative and confident and proactive in their thinking, to solve problems, make decisions, defend positions, think critically, communicate ideas effectively, work well within groups and to be effective global citizens.
We also arranged for Professional Development sessions and visits to other schools so that our teaching staff also had opportunities to develop their own understanding and to build their skills in order to best support our learners.
In the PYP, we reviewed our Programme of Inquiry and curriculum explicitly looking for opportunities for students to have more of a choice in their learning, whilst building the skills needed towards developing global citizens. Our focus was to ensure that there were opportunities within the curriculum for students to make connections with what is happening in class and the relevancy of what they are learning and how it applied to their life, their community, and the global context. Two grade levels rewrote Central Ideas to explicitly address the question of what it meant to be a ‘global citizen’.
These initial steps were taken as a learning community to begin the conversation of developing global citizens. From this introduction a small group of teachers volunteered to look deeper, and we enrolled them in training for sustainability in schools. This group has now taken the lead to continue the conversation school wide about our responsibility as educators and as a school to support learners in their development as global citizens so that they can contribute to their community, no matter their age or context.
15. What experience do you bring in support of teachers and the school in developing rigorous, relevant learning experiences for children?
As a learner myself, I am an advocate in lifelong learning and have extended this support to our community establishing access to coaching and counseling programmes as well as developing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and a Teachers Teaching Teachers weekly programme.
I believe an educational leader is responsible for providing opportunities for professional forums to encourage collaboration and to involve all members of the community in decision making.
Research shows that student achievement is maximised when the learning community takes responsibility together and all resources are utilised effectively using current research, practice and understanding as to how best our students learn.
Our PLCs have worked to review our reporting procedures, assessment strategies and scope and sequences to ensure our curriculum continues to be relevant, accessible and contextually significant whilst being challenging to our students.
I believe that having our students and their individual needs at the centre of our discussions leads to good practice. I encourage and welcome teachers and students to challenge ideas, procedures and to evoke thinking in our community. This culture of collaboration was one that needed to be developed and cultivated over the years, working to develop teams and using protocols to ensure respectful and supportive relationships developed.
Being a PYP educator, when planning learning experiences, we work collaboratively using the model of Understanding by Design (UbD), and plan to ensure quality, open-ended experiences that will challenge thinking and provoke discussion and questions. This collaborative process allows for all to participate for the authentic, learner centred discussions to occur.
I believe that assessment in the classroom should be the driver for all teaching and learning for both the teacher and for the students who are responsible for their own learning. We worked both at WISS and RAK in our teams, and as a PLC to explore and develop a range of feedback models that could be used to drive teaching and learning and to ensure student voice in all conversations.
I am also a believer of using student data and having systems in place to track student progress over time. I have used in the past ISER, MAP, INCAs and PIPs as independent benchmark assessments. The timely use of this data is a powerful tool to use throughout the community to see where learning is happening over time and to address any anomalies and concerns that the data presents so that all students are catered to. Attitudes to the use of data vary, so at both WISS and RAK, we presented to our staff the power of data and ensured that they understood the purpose and why the review of independent data could help to move our students, our practice and our school forward.
17. Describe your experience in long-term planning in the area of financial accountability, performance, enhancement, strategic planning and professional development.
When working at Western International School of Shanghai (WISS) I was part of the PYP Leadership team, and thus working with both the Principal and Early Years Principal. As a team we had overall responsibility for managing our operational budgets throughout the year. This included resourcing – in preparation for the year ahead, but also throughout the school year, the professional development budget and the staffing budget for the PYP.
Although part of a team of 3, the budget for professional development was under my remit as Deputy Principal, Teaching & Learning. Following the PYP and WASC accreditation visits, a 5 year strategic plan for professional development was put in place. This plan was the result of the needs of our learning community as shown by student data, collected through ISER and MAP benchmarks. I was able to manage the professional learning budget in creative ways, and managed to make a profit for 2 years running – through establishing ourselves as a centre of PD, having an open-door policy to all learners and hosting events, we were able to host events such as the IB Chinese language regional conference (1200 people), the IGE conference (700 people) for the Shanghai network, the Central China ISTA celebration (400 students and families) and many other smaller events. By inviting learning professionals onto our campus, opening the opportunity up to others, and by creating teachers teaching teacher sessions, lunchtime carousels, online learning platforms and encouraging mentoring and coaching models, we found not only did we establish ourselves as a true learning community, but were also able to make our PD budget spread further over the staffing needs.
As Deputy Principal, Teaching and Learning, I also saw the need for processes and models to be set up in order to appraise our teachers, put plans in place to help develop areas that needed support, and to ensure that we had a professional, accountable and transparent feedback model in place. We established a professional learning community to investigate current models and finally agree to adopt one we thought appropriate to our context, our culture and the needs of our staff.
When I joined the team at RAK (PYP), it was clear a number of procedures and policies were not in place, and that the lack of these had a direct impact on teaching and learning and thus student performance. As a leadership team, we sat down with the reports and data from various sources, including confidential staff survey, CIS report and the latest PYP report. We also committed to having the whole of the PYP go through a benchmark assessment using INCAs and PIPs so that we would have up to date relevant data to drive the decision making.
Although, normally, through a distributed leadership, it would have been practice to have all staff participate and contribute to discussions, it was felt, that there were too many areas that needed immediate action, and others that could be prioritized at a later time.
We formulated a 3 year strategic plan, which was presented to the board and the PYP staff, along with the student data, and highlighted the priority was to improve student learning across the board. A focus on literacy was agreed upon, and professional development plans, resourcing requirements, and adoption of literacy models such as Big Writing and Words Their Way were introduced.
Policies and procedures including, policy on teaching and learning, policy on child safety, agreements on behaviour management, policies on assessment and reporting were all borrowed from other sources, put in place, and highlighted to review at the end of the year.
I am a believer in collaboration and PLCs, and having multiple perspectives, but I learnt through this experience, that due to the needs of the school and the learners, there are times that decisions and actions have to be taken from a top down position. However, with commitment to a long term strategy that is developed with sustainability in place, this should not be the case and provides a starting place for professional dialogue and reflection to take place.
