Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine - Issue 4

Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine

SURAMYA SUD, KELLETT SCHOOL, THE BRITISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL IN HONG KONG

INCLUSIVE PATHWAYS

TRANSLANGUAGING AND IDENTITY

DISTRIBUTION SUPPORTED BY OUR MEDIA PARTNERS:

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

CONTENTS thank

4: Editor's note 6:“Oh, there’s actually a name for that!”: The relevance of compassion stress injury to education practitioners

12: Support for BIPOC International Educators: AIELOC’s Self Care Saturdays Affinity Group 16: “When they see us”: a vision for visibility and voice in our schools

20: School Spotlight: Branksome Hall Asia 23: Examining different models for inclusive pathways beyond education 25: Differentiation through Connection

9: A look at Wellbeing and Wellness Through a DEIJ Lens: Applying self-determination theory as a strategy towards healing

18: Student article Translanguaging: A Path to Identity and Community

27: Reimagining education: Le Sallay academy 31: All about Mindful Digital Storytelling 34: Speak UP! Podcast [Student Project] 35: Preventing early marriage and teen pregnancy in Bwamulamira village [Student Project] 36: Masking Angola [Student Project] 37: Fitness for Communities [Student Project] 38: Using Strengths to Build Resilience 40: Step by step: Building Resilience in a Ready Made Family 42: Creating Belonging Through School Vision and Values 44: Student Belonging and Agency by Design 46: Outdoor Learning from a Wellbeing Perspective

ARTWORK BY SALLY LEE (DULWICH COLLEGE BEIJING), CLICK ICON FOR AUDIO

Student artwork features: Suramya Sud, Sally Lee, Isabella Ye, Luke Dongwon Hwang, Mavis Mou, Ankita Chakrabarty, Jessica Visagie

THANK YOU wism editor: Sadie Hollins, WISM copy editor: Adam beeson

48: Outstanding Schools Europe Showcases Transformative Strategy and Best Practices in Wellbeing and Inclusion 50: Save the Date: ECIS CHANGE through Partnership Student-led conference 15 October 2022 51: Book review: Raise Her Up: Stories and Lessons from Women in International Educational Leadership 52: The wellbeing library with Nadine Bailey

Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine

WELCOME TO ISSUE 4 OF THE WELLBEING IN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS MAGAZINE A very warm welcome to issue 4 of the Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine!

In this issue I'm really excited to share two new features for the magazine. We have audio descriptions from the student artists themselves, sharing the story and meaning behind their artwork pieces! We also have a 'Reimagining Education' feature which explores different ways of providing education, and for this issue we were very fortunate to learn more about Le Sallay Academy's innovative hybrid learning approach.

I am truly grateful for all of the stories, experiences and knowledge shared in these pages, which I believe have the power to truly advance discussions about wellbeing in the international school context (and beyond!) I can't thank every single contributor enough, this magazine would not exist without you, and the future of education is that much brighter because you are a part of it. This is a jam-packed issue, full of articles that I have no doubt will resonate deeply with some, and will inspire others.

A special shout out to Matthew Savage and Kristin Lowe for contributing to every issue during this first year of WISM - I am very grateful for the chance to learn from you both!

A huge thank you is also owed to Adam Beeson who is such a key part of making WISM what It is - I am so grateful to you for your guidance, wisdom, and support. One more thank you is definitely owed to my wife, Laura Davies, who continuously encourages me and helps me to be better.

We are passionate about including student voice as part of the magazine so please get in contact if you'd like to find out more information, by emailing sadie.wiseducation@gmail.com. I'd also like to give a big shout out to Suramya Sud who did an incredible job designing our front cover for issue 4, and to Sally Lee, Isabella Ye, Luke Dongwon Hwang, Mavis Mou, Ankita Chakrabarty, and Jessica Visagie for their fantastic artwork pieces, I am so grateful to all of your for sharing your work with us!

I hope you enjoy the issue!

Thank you.

Sadie Hollins, Editor

“OH, THERE’S ACTUALLY A NAME FOR THAT!”: THE RELEVANCE OF COMPASSION STRESS INJURY TO EDUCATION PRACTITIONERS

DR RACHEL BRIGGS Schools have a significant role to play in supporting the welfare needs of their students, and this has become increasingly necessary due to adversity and/or trauma associated with, or exacerbated by, the pandemic. Challenges reported include higher levels of child mental health concerns, increased levels of domestic violence within families, financial hardship, health concerns, and bereavement.

Teachers and other school staff are regularly the first professionals that families turn to for support and advice when they experience adversity or trauma. This is particularly the case in international schools where families may be unfamiliar with support in the local community or may feel unable to access it due to cultural or language barriers. In addition, they may be away from their home country and their usual support networks, such as family and friends.

So, it’s not unusual for school staff to hear narratives of children who, for instance, have witnessed extreme violence, have suffered illness and bereavement, who have experienced neglect or abuse, or who are struggling to adapt to a new location and culture. It’s also common for school staff to be working with students who have additional learning and communication needs, social-emotional and mental health needs or physical disabilities unrelated to the pandemic.

This can leave school personnel, often with little or no specific training, and limited resources, trying to meet additional needs of the students and their families, whilst also trying to meet targets linked to academic progress.

Working with those who are living with adversity and trauma can be hugely satisfying, as it provides opportunities for experiencing compassion satisfaction, defined by Wolpow and colleagues as ‘the positive feeling we get when we realize that the compassion we put into working with others is resulting in some relief, growth or healing.’ However, in sectors such as health and social care, there is recognition that ‘dosage effects’ from exposure to traumatic stimuli, rather than (or in addition to) dissatisfaction in the work environment, contribute to work-related stress. There are multiple terms used to express this detriment to practitioner wellbeing, with the most prevalent being: Compassion fatigue – ‘the physical and mental exhaustion and emotional withdrawal experienced by those who care for sick or traumatized people over an extended period of time’ (MerriamWebster, 2021)

Vicarious trauma – ‘the process of change that happens because you care about other people who have been hurt and feel committed or responsible to help them. Over time this process can lead to changes in your psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing’ (Pearlman and MacKay, 2008) Secondary traumatic stress – ‘the natural consequent behaviours and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other—the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person’ (Figley, 1983).

The use of these terms is hotly contested, with some using the terms interchangeably, whilst others argue that this is unacceptable, as they are different concepts. To overcome this lack of consensus, Russell and Brickell suggest using an overarching term which acknowledges that there are nuances between these concepts whilst not seeing them as being sufficiently distinct to be considered separate phenomena.

They recommend using compassion stress injury (CSI) as a unifying term when referring to the emotional detriment from the second-hand experience of suffering, coupled with a desire to alleviate it, rather than a direct personal involvement in a traumatising or upsetting event. They also suggest that CSI more readily incorporates neuro-biological explanations for the related effects.

So, how does CSI occur, what are the symptoms and what can be done about it?

Russell and Brickell explain that CSI occurs because exposure to one person’s emotions can trigger a neurobiological response, creating congruent emotions in another. ‘Catching’ others’ negative emotions in this way when we perceive that they are suffering, could therefore have detrimental emotional effects. As humans, we are predisposed to find others’ distress aversive. If we can’t escape prolonged exposure, we can become overwhelmed by our own distress, moving the focus from another’s needs onto our own.

Alternatively, we can learn to override and regulate our emotional responses through suppression or reappraisal. Suppression enables us to reduce our awareness of others' distress, but this is likely to prevent a compassionate response. However, through reappraisal, we can rationalise others' actions/needs and be non-judgemental. This allows us to help, but helping can use up psychological and physical energy and repeatedly putting others' needs first, whilst neglecting our own, can mean we ‘help until it hurts’, creating the conditions for CSI.

When talking to teachers about this concept, until recently, I’d rarely come across anyone who was familiar with it, regardless of the term used. However, once explained, the response is invariably an immediate recognition of CSI’s relevance to them in their teaching roles, often accompanied by statements such as, “Oh, there’s actually a name for that!”

"This lack of vocabulary and understanding in educators (and those responsible for their wellbeing) needs to be addressed as research on CSI suggests that having a shared language for discussing related risks is an important first step towards protection against its effects."

CSI has multiple symptoms including disturbing emotions (e.g., sadness, hopelessness, guilt and frustration), powerlessness, sleeplessness, hypervigilance, and intrusive thoughts or imagery related to events that have happened to others. Individuals experiencing CSI may find themselves re-experiencing personal trauma or notice an increase in arousal and avoidance reactions related to the second-hand trauma exposure. They may also experience changes in memory and perception; alterations in their sense of selfefficacy; and a depletion of personal resources.

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"In short, CSI disrupts our fundamental sense of who we are, who others are, and our sense of safety and security. My research found that, regardless of role, all participants had experienced symptoms of CSI; mostly this was from the cumulative effects of repeated exposure to their students’ adverse and traumatic experiences but occasionally it resulted from a single, highly traumatic event."

In addition to these second-hand dosage effects, teaching children who have been exposed to trauma and adversity often comes with first-hand experiences of distress and trauma for the teacher. Children living with trauma and adversity may have associated behaviour regulation issues which are often deemed inappropriate for the classroom, for example, they may be clingy and in need of attention, totally shut down and difficult to engage, or violent and disruptive.

Witnessing children violating others, or being attacked themselves, even when they know the circumstances of the child, can be immensely distressing.

For teachers, children’s disruptive behaviour can also lead to feelings of incompetence and a lack of control, which can be particularly stressful when feeling pressures related to accountability practices. Added to this are the more commonly recognised stressors associated with work-related stress and burnout in teaching, such as: workload; lack of resources; seemingly constant scrutiny and high-stakes accountability practices; difficult workplace relationships; and little time to meet one’s own physical needs, such as eating or going to the toilet. It is perhaps no wonder therefore that there are issues with teacher wellbeing, recruitment and retention.

However, there are solutions.

Recognising CSI and normalising discussions about it and its causes and symptoms, coupled with the acknowledgement that it is a natural reaction and not a personal weakness, is vital to supporting educators’ wellbeing. So, as mentioned above, having a shared language and understanding of CSI as it applies to educators is vital. Research has also shown that opportunities to experience compassion satisfaction and to reflect on achievements are important mitigators against CSI and work-related stress.

Training which includes trauma-informed practice, and an explanation of CSI, can help with this; however, training on its own is insufficient and appropriate physical resources in schools are also required.

In the research that I’ve undertaken, to help them cope, in addition to self-care, teachers wanted someone to talk to who ‘gets it’, preferably from a teaching background but who wasn’t a colleague. They wanted opportunities to: offload but also to process and make sense of their emotions; gain validation that what they’d done was reasonable in the circumstances; and to learn, for example through unpicking experiences and seeing them from another perspective; gaining understanding of what had worked and what might have been done differently; or by exploring how they might handle imminent/anticipated situations that they were concerned about.

This type of appraisal and emotional support, in the form of ‘supervision’ is part of the culture in many other ‘helping’ sectors, such as health and social care. Supervision, as it is meant here, is not about being watched, controlled and judged but is about developing what Professor Peter Hawkins calls a ‘super form of vision’ which facilitates a fresh and deeper look at experiences and the impact that they have on us, others and our work.

Although interest in supervision is growing in schools, it is not widely available, particularly for class teachers and support staff who are usually the ones who work most closely with traumatised students. Whilst there is an additional cost to this, research suggests that where such support has been accessed, it has contributed to reducing sickness absence, presenteeism, feelings of isolation and resignation.

The financial costs therefore are offset, with added benefits to teacher/leader wellbeing as they feel cared for and supported. This is good news as there is an increasing body of research suggesting that happier teachers lead to higher academic attainment and healthier, happier students.

Dr Rachel Briggs has 30+ years’ experience in the education sector (SENCo, DSL, deputy head, inservice teacher trainer and SEMH needs consultant). She has worked in England, the USA, The Gambia and Egypt. She provides reflective supervision, coaching and training in educator wellbeing. Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn and Twitter @DrRachelBriggs.

RACHEL BRIGGS

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A LOOK AT WELLBEING AND WELLNESS THROUGH A DEIJ LENS: APPLYING SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY AS A STRATEGY TOWARDS HEALING

BY JESSICA WEI HUANG As a school leader, I have handled my share of personal conflict. Whether the conflict happened between students, between student and teacher, or between faculty and staff, conflict is a part of our school buildings no matter where we live and work. How a school culture interacts and deals with conflict in the community is an integral part of the health and wellbeing of a school.

Self-determination theory maintains three aspects of wellness: autonomy, relatedness, and competence (Ryan and Deci, 2000). When we apply this aspect of wellness to diversity work in schools, we can begin to see the need for skill-building and equity literacy (competence), empowerment to action (autonomy), and healing in community and dialogue (relatedness). All three of these aspects are important to recognize the role of managing conflict as a way to address the health of an organization.

When I was in my first year as a principal of a school, I was frantically trying to manage conflict between two students that had suddenly materialized during the afternoon. As a school in a very limited building space, there were no spare rooms for me to meet with students privately before bringing them together. In a hurry to find a space, I asked a student to wait for me in the security guard’s office.

After school, the security guard came to me to let me know that he felt disrespected that I had offered a student to sit in his office space when that was the only private space he had in the building. He explained that his job was difficult and that he needed a quiet space for his break time so he could rest mentally and physically. When he entered the only sacred space he had on campus, he found the student there who explained that I had given the student access to his private space. In my hurry to mediate conflict, I had violated the personal space of one of my most valued members of the school community. No matter my reasons for doing it, I had a negative impact on him and that was what was important to recognize.

Regardless if it was using someone’s personal space, or a teacher continuously calling a student by the wrong pronoun or chosen name, microaggressions, as defined by Derald Wing Sue, are verbal slights and derogatory insults that happen to marginalized community members at an increased rate (Wing Sue, 2016). The impact of these microaggressions can be overwhelmingly negative to the recipient. If the microaggression remains unaddressed, the perpetrator can go on to continue (most of the time unknowingly) harming other members of the community without the opportunity to make amends, correct behavior, and work towards healing.

Dr. Sean Ginright describes healing as a transformative and collective experience in schools. Instead of seeing our relationships as transactional - to convey information or to get something done - Ginright challenges us to pivot and view relationships as having the possibility to transform ourselves and others in the process (Ginright, 2022). As we work to provide healing spaces for students, we should first turn inward to identify the parts of ourselves that we need to heal.

It's important so that we can be the stabilizing force that students need. In order to start with the engaged healing of the adult educators, schools should provide space for teachers and staff to engage with their whole self, their identity, and their relationship to their community. This is the heart of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice (DEIJ) journey. How do we engage and mend our relationships with each other?

As a recipient of critical feedback, it’s important we build our own shame resilience. To tolerate the idea that we made a mistake, and to center the other person’s needs as we plan a way forward. Our own desire to explain ourselves and our motivations can wait for another time.

It’s only by being able to center other people’s needs before our own, can leaders start to build trust with the students, faculty and staff that they are called to lead.

What effective and active listening can lead to: As leaders who have positionality and power in schools, we have to enter into these “calling in” conversations as opportunities to learn and to grow.

We may not leave the conversation fully understanding our impact or understanding why the other person was so hurt. But we do have the power to authentically apologize for hurt that we have caused and genuinely try to do our own research and end the cycle of harm.

In many international schools that have begun the brave journey of DEIJ, many introductory workshops focus on bias; its implicit nature, the reason why our brain takes shortcuts, and gives some practical tips on how to avoid bias. This can span from “getting to know each person as individuals, not representing their larger culture or group”, “not jumping to conclusions by pausing before we speak”, and “getting feedback from a close friend who is of a different identity/cultural background”. Although these strategies can help to lessen or alleviate the frequency of microaggressions, no one can truly understand their impact on others unless we learn to listen to each other’s experiences. As we listen, we realize that others experience the world differently from us and we can try on new perspectives.

The power of listening Listening to others should not lead us to argue with others or defend ourselves. Especially if we hold positions of power over the person who has come to us (usually out of great personal sacrifice to themselves). We know explaining our positive intentions (or usually the lack of negative intention) would make us feel better. But does it help the other person feel heard? Usually not. Using the following phrases would be more effective in healing the relationship and providing a positive way forward: Tell me more about what you meant when you said…?

What angers you so much about…?

What hurts you about…?

What feels familiar about this experience?

What do you need or want moving forward?

Adapted from Lee Mun Wah, Mindful Facilitation Techniques

What effective, active listening can do, is make relationships stronger, build trust so that when the hard work needs to be done, we have partners in schools who can do them with us. Whenever I have leaned into conflict as an opportunity to grow and learn, I learn to stretch myself into a part of my own discomfort that helps me increase my self-awareness as well as my personal responsibility.

How do we re-create culture in our schools where conflict has a place to go?

First, we need to build our shame resilience. If someone calls our attention to a mistake we have made, and we feel shame as a result, that shame is our responsibility to deal with. We actually do have control over the reactions we have to making mistakes. From a DEIJ lens, interpersonal conflict is an event that happens when our mental models and internalization of the dominant culture in our institutions remain unaddressed or invisible. Our global communities continue to suffer from the ideologies of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism. How these ideologies show up depends on local context and culture.

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They can also be internalized so that many from marginalized communities believe the negative messages of these ideologies. Microaggressions happen when our unchecked biases exhibit themselves in our interactions with each other.

Students not only reflect publicly on their values, identities, and connections to their larger community, they are able to hear and connect with others who have similar or different experiences, interests and identities. In this way, class time is used to build in significant time for personal reflection and connection in our efforts to teach autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Shifting culture is difficult but we can start this process by: 1. Seeing our individual actions as a focal point to shift larger systems. (Autonomy) 2. Upskill other educators in our community to facilitate difficult conversations. (Competence) 3. Maintain systems that promote restoration as an expectation when conflict arises. (Relatedness) Who are we responsible for?

When we ask ourselves this question as educators, it’s important to think wider than our immediate experience. Are we responsible to our values? Our students? Our parents?

The wider society? Are we responsible for those who benefit from systems of power? Are we responsible to those who experience hardships based on marginalized identities?

Embedding Self-Determination Theory into Curriculum If self determination theory tells us to value autonomy, relatedness, and competence, we need to embed these concepts in the process of choosing what knowledge is valued, how to show it, and in community with each other.

We can lift up these questions in our communities as a central part of integrating wellness and wellbeing into our schools. In a current replanning of our school’s Personal Social Education curriculum, the current team is writing into the curriculum a process for growth and reflection. As students move through topics such as “Personal and Social Identities” and “Social Justice and Self-Awareness” and “Healthy Relationships” we weave in not only content, but skill development. Interwoven throughout the first unit are questions such as: How do we reflect on who we are regularly? How do our identities change over time?

What identities are important to me versus what identities do others perceive?

How do I compensate for the differences in the ways that others see me and I see myself?

At the end of the year, students don’t memorize vocabulary to take a test. They will reflect on personal growth, skills such as conflict management, and choose artifacts and experiences that they are proud of. Using their knowledge and experience, they will build a portfolio of their work that shows personal growth and provide evidence of that growth through written reflection, discussion, and projects.

If we aim to teach students to reflect on their identities, to promote social justice, and to participate in healthy relationships, our schools should be communities that promote and encourage these skill sets in our adult members. From leadership, to teachers, to administrative staff; adults in schools should model the behavior we want to see in young people. We are preparing students for a world where self-awareness and dialogue are critical for the establishment of a global citizenship; a world where diversity, equity, inclusion and justice will be the pathway we need to take towards establishing peace. Without the skills to get to the root of our conflict, we will only be scratching the surface of what it means to be well within ourselves, with each other, and within our school institutions.

Jessica Wei Huang is an educator & school leader with 20+ years of experience as a classroom teacher and leadership coach/facilitator. She has a wide range of knowledge for how to build equitable school communities through her on-the-ground work in schools and her support and coaching of educator leaders and teams. Jessica is currently serving as Vice Principal of Wellness and Wellbeing at United World College of South East Asia in Singapore where she lives with her two children and beloved Taiwanese mountain dog. Connect with Jessica on Linkedin and Twitter.

JESSICA WEI HUANG

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Support for BIPOC International Educators: AIELOC’s Self Care Saturdays Affinity Group

BY TIWANA MERRITT, CHANDRA POOLE, CHERYL-ANN WEEKES AND DOMINIQUE DALAIS The Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC) launched Self Care Saturdays in 2021, an affinity group dedicated to building sustainable self-care practices for BIPOC international educators.

How and why we got started The idea for the affinity group started off in 2021 with Chandra Poole reaching out to the founder of AIELOC, Kevin Simpson, about holding an affinity space for Black or BIPOC international educators. Kevin provides a platform and the freedom to create spaces that meet the needs of those working in international systems. After one of the earlier meetings Tiwana Merritt offered to help facilitate more meetings with Chandra and they began brainstorming future topics.

Both noticed a common theme emerging within the meetings: BIPOC educators in distress. These educators needed a supportive venue in which to talk about and learn tools to navigate the racialized trauma they were experiencing in international schools.

The Self Care Saturdays affinity group was thus born. Tiwana and Chandra decided to focus future meetings around building sustainable self-care practices for BIPOC international educators. Dominique Dalais, a physical health educator, and Cheryl-Ann Weekes, a high school counselor were asked to join the group to add their expertise and insight to the various challenges and mental health issues that were being identified by their peers.

Purpose and topics covered We use guiding questions, reading prompts, mental health information and current events to create presentations. The initial questions were around topics such as what self care means for you as an educator; how you look after your health; and what you do to destress and rest.

The gatherings focus on the different types of self care and, over time, the exploration of topics has shifted and changed. A few examples of topics covered by the group are: 1. Yoga and breathwork are forms of self care that aren’t popular or haven't been explored in BIPOC communities, as traditionally these spaces have been viewed as being reserved for those who could financially afford to practice. There are so many elements and types of practice anyone could engage in that don’t require spandex or folding yourself into awkward postures.

2. The need to set boundaries is a form of self care that is often ignored by educators because we are givers and helpers, but also BIPOC educators feel a sense of failure if we can't help others.

The conversation on boundaries encouraged participants to focus on our own wellbeing by identifying the things that cause us stress and making appropriate changes.

We introduced the different types of boundaries one can set as a way to help participants understand where they need to implement changes. We also discussed how to respond when people ignore or breach your boundaries, since this can often become challenging. We talked about disappointing others as an

example of setting a boundary because it allows you to say no when you can't or don't want to do something. It is one way to honor your mental health by making choices that best serve you.

3. We introduced rest as a form of self care, by highlighting the different types of rest - physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social and spiritual - and the ways we can implement them in our daily lives to reduce our stress levels. Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith wrote about this in the article "The 7 types of rest that every person needs." We felt that this concept tied closely to being more self aware.

4. We discussed physical exercise as a way to release and reduce stress and feel better mentally and physically. The benefits of exercise cause endorphins to be released which can help to reduce pain, increases blood flow which sends energy to our muscles and ultimately helps us to feel better physically, mentally and spiritually. Participants were shown a set of exercises that could be easily implemented within a limited time frame.

5. Therapy was discussed as a form of professional self care because it pushes us to examine the role certain behaviors have in our lives and then to identify and correct habits so we can heal from unresolved trauma. We discussed the limitations of therapy for BIPOC as our communities and families often shy away from this tool due to the belief of stigmas such as, “It is not okay to tell your business to strangers.”

6. We ran a series of sessions focused on readings from My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem to discuss strategies for addressing and dealing with trauma. These meetings also discussed how to address issues such as microaggressions in the workplace and provided a space for participants to talk about specific experiences and get feedback from the group.

What do we plan to focus on for 2022 We hope to continue normalizing conversations about self care, give our participants the tools to provide for themselves the space needed for healing and create room in this community to just be themselves.

We plan to continue to host monthly sessions because those that show up are grateful for the space, and there seems to be very few platforms for these conversations socially. We also know that historically our communities don’t talk about or invest in self care because they see it as frivolous or don’t understand the value of this type of self work.

Asking for help with problems like mental health hasn't been something many of our parents' generation and family members have had the awareness about or access to. These topics were often taboo and out of bounds. Self Care Saturdays are a first step in deconstructing those barriers and opening up channels to information sharing, acquiring new knowledge and means of finding support.

From our conversations we created a resources page for AIELOC members that recognizes several BIPOC individuals and groups that are “taking the lid off the box” and showing up in places like social media to raise awareness about self care, mental health and therapy. We are encouraged by these efforts and motivated to continue our monthly conversations as a resource for BIPOC educators who are seeking a safe space.

Resources for mental health support Melanin and Mental Health The Nap Ministry Therapy for Black Girls 17 Mental Health Resources for Asian Communities Black Minds Matter UK Tiwana Merritt works as a PreK-12 Service Learning Coordinator and Teaching & Learning Coach at the American International School of Johannesburg (AISJ), South Africa. She can be found networking with other educators globally as well as spearheading virtual groups that focus on social justice and service. Connect with Tiwana via email (tiwanam@hotmail.com or tmerritt@aisj-jhb.com), Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Also check out Tiwana on the Leading Equity Podcast, LE 179 - A Conversation About Equity in Johannesburg.

Chandra Poole is an educator with over twenty years of experience. She has designed and delivered instruction to children and adults in public and private spaces in four countries.

Connect with Chandra on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Cheryl-Ann Weekes is a High School Counselor with 24 years of experience who has been working internationally since 2010. In February she founded Weekes Enterprise, LLC so that she can offer workshops for students and educators on mental health awareness, consent, affirmations and boundaries. Connect with Cheryl-Ann via email (info@weekesenterprise.com), website, Twitter and LinkedIn. Dominique Dalais (He/Him/His) is an international IB Physical Educator of over 25 years experience, IB Workshop Leader and BQC Curriculum Reviewer as well as the current lead of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at ACS Schools, in the UK and Qatar. He has worked in international schools in France, England, China, South Korea and Switzerland in a variety of roles and held responsibilities at different levels. Connect with Dominique: Website: www.dalais44.com / www.ibmypphe.com / www.internationalteachersofcolour.com, Facebook Groups: PHE in the MYP / International Teachers of Colour, and Twitter: @Dalais44 / @ibmypphe / @Int_T_of_Colour

Tiwana

Chandra

Cheryl-Ann

Dominique

Click here to listen to Tiwana's audio version

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hello.

“WHEN THEY SEE US”: A VISION FOR VISIBILITY AND VOICE IN OUR SCHOOLS

BY MATTHEW SAVAGE In early November 2021, after a long period of deteriorating health, I walked for the last time. Since then, I have relied entirely on a wheelchair, specialist crutches, a patient physio, the kindness of others, and an extraordinary wife, in order for me to mobilise either within or beyond our Hebridean bungalow. I have a complex neurological disorder which has disrupted many of the brain signals so many of us take for granted, and whilst I may gradually regain (and, in a repeating cycle, re-lose) my mobility in the future, it is also possible that I will not walk again.

I share this not to seek attention or sympathy - never have I accepted either of these comfortably - but rather to frame some of the lessons of #deijb that I have learned in recent years. When I first shared my news with family and friends, several willed me, with nothing but positive intent, to “stay positive”, and I could not work out why I found nothing curative or of comfort in these words. And then I watched a 2014 TEDxSydney talk by the late, great Stella Young, Australian comic and disability activist, and how she responded to the sentiment embodied by many an “inspirational” meme about disability, and I realised why.

“...that quote, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude,” the reason that that’s bullshit is because it’s just not true, because of the social model of disability. No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. Never. Smiling at a television screen isn’t going to make closed captions appear for people who are deaf. No amount of standing in the middle of a bookshop and radiating a positive attitude is going to turn all those books into braille. It’s just not going to happen.”

In my first six months of navigating an ableist world through a newly disabled lens, I quickly experienced what edtech pioneer, Professor Mohamed Jemni, observed: “The disability is not the problem. The accessibility is the problem.” In his work on how edtech could render education accessible to the 80% of deaf people for whom it is out of reach, he talked about “breaking the silence”, and it strikes me that there is both silence and invisibility for most of the characteristics supposedly protected by the UK’s Equality Act (2010) and its international counterparts. Whatever our intersecting identities, too many of us are working and learning, silent and invisible, in a normative world.

Young argued that society needs to listen to and use the stories of disabled people not to inspire able-bodied people and make them feel better about themselves, but to uplift disabled people and give

them agency, and access to the equity, inclusion, justice and belonging so many of us rightly claim to value above all else. In other words, to use the phrase referenced by Emily Meadows in this excellent piece on LGBTQ+ inclusion in international schools, there is an important distinction to be made between intent and impact: the former centring the feelings of the empowered, and the latter the feelings of the oppressed. In my own work on transinclusivity in schools, I describe this as a shift from the condescension of “accommodation” to the emancipation of “adaptation”.

Last year, I was privileged to learn from Jim Ellis, Head of Innovation at ECIS, how design thinking can empower this necessary movement towards amplification and visibility for all, and it suddenly seemed so simple. I learned how metaphorical “spikes”, a feature of hostile architecture, are ubiquitous, often unintentional and unobserved, within every stratum of a school’s function. And I learned how metaphorical “curb cuts”, often simple adaptations, designed for the few but benefiting the many, can significantly augment inclusivity. As Donald Norman, pioneer of inclusive design, observes: “...invariably when we design something that can be used by those with disabilities, we often make it better for everyone”.

Indeed, my recent work with GEMS Founders School in Dubai has applied this theory in practice, with students and staff conducting a “spike hunt” across the school, and with compelling results. I would strongly recommend such audits in every school, as a means to adapt impactfully to the needs of those the inherited paradigm ignores. Indeed, in the words of George Dei, perhaps best known for his work on anti-racist approaches to education, “Inclusion is not bringing people into what already exists, it is making a new space, a better space for everyone”. Often it needs only a superficial scratch of the surface to reveal the machinery perpetuating inequity and injustice for many of our school community, and the curb cuts then rendered possible combine intent and impact in palpable ways.

In fact, I would take this even further. I often talk about what I call the “5 Cs of visibility”: if we are truly to achieve visibility for all intersecting identities within our schools, we should look for the “spikes” that currently exist for each identity within the campus, communication, curriculum, climate and culture of our schools. However, just as it took a female student of colour at GEMS Founders fully to articulate the spikes inherent within the archaic literary canon still perpetuated throughout our English curricula, so too must we collect, curate and listen to the stories not only of every identity represented within our school, but also those of the world outside our gates. As I often remind schools, inclusivity is one of very few binaries: either we are inclusive of everyone in our community, or we are inclusive of none. And this “street data” will judge us accurately in terms of how far we still need to travel before we can truly claim to be an inclusive school.

Netflix’s incendiary 2019 drama, When They See Us, examines the critical difference between being looked at and being seen, and five Harlem teens have to fight with and for their lives to counter the oppression of a society which had criminally stripped them of visibility and voice.

Too often, these necessary shifts of power, despite being the current of natural justice, occur through struggle. Albeit in a totally different way, I am fighting for visibility and voice from the perspective of my disability, just as we, as parents, fought, relentlessly, for visibility and voice when my daughter was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum at three years old, and just as we have also fought for the same for and with my son growing up trans in a transphobic world.

However, to some extent, we had privilege on our side for each of these battles, just as I still do now, even from my wheelchair. Many of the students in your schools will not be so fortunate, but it should not, as a result, be down to them to fight for what is rightfully theirs. We must provide equitable access to visible success and positive wellbeing for every single student in our schools, not just regardless of their identities and characteristics, but because of them.

Schools can be anonymising places, and children and young people are adept at hiding further beneath the manifold masks they wear, thickly and well, every single day. If we can audit our schools, and their 5 Cs, through the authentic lens of each of the ‘protected characteristics’, then we can start to provide the visibility and voice they need and deserve. To quote the song from musical, Dear Evan Hanson, that I often play as part of my own training, only then can we assure each and every one of them that “You will be found.”

Matthew Savage is an international consultant, trainer and coach, speaker, writer and content creator, determined, through #themonalisaeffect®, to help schools across the world keep #wellbeingfirst and enable every child to be seen, be known and belong. He is also a member of the #deij team at ECIS, and the proud father of two transgender adult children.

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student article

Translanguaging: A Path to Identity and Community

BY HANNAH CHOO When I was younger, I used to love going grocery shopping with my mother. The local grocery store was small so she would let me go off on my own to pick out what I wanted. Once, my mother was standing on the opposite side of the aisle that I was in. I remember we had to shout to communicate with each other because we were separated by a tall rack of goods which was about four feet tall.

효민아 어디 있어?”

“

“I’m still here, Mom!” Back and forth went our conversation. At some point, the lady next to me inquired curiously, “This is just so interesting, but why is one person speaking in English and the other in Korean?”

For a moment I felt my face burn with embarrassment but looking back, I realize that our conversation might have sounded strange to anyone listening.

Korean as a child, English as a student, and Spanish in my middle school world language class. As international students, myself included, we are often exposed to diverse cultures, and with diverse cultures come diverse languages. For many of us, we are bilingual, some even trilingual. Yet, all of us have at least one native language. The one our parents speak to us when we are still learning to form vowels on our tongues. The one that we inherently return to when we are in our crudest forms of character.

한국어

Obviously, for some of us, English is our first language. But for the majority of us, especially here in South Korea, English isn’t our first language. Or at least, it isn’t our only one. But at young ages, we enroll into international schools where English is the required language and thus begins the long, hard process into molding ourselves to be better English speakers. For us, English becomes the norm. The standard.

I want to point out that there is nothing wrong with this. The problem arises when we believe in the common myth that in order to focus on one language and be better at it, we have to retain a strict separation of languages. In order to increase our mastery of one language, we must start pushing away others.

Yet, this hardly ever leads to more favorable outcomes. Growing up around internationally diverse people, I have heard countless regrets about not learning a native language early on or not continuing to practice it after having traveled abroad. This is not unusual as it becomes more difficult to re-learn a language as we age, becoming less neurologically able to absorb information and adapt it as quickly as we do when we are younger. If anything, studies have shown that a deeper understanding of multiple languages leads to more efficient and effective learning of other languages.

Currently, the notion of ‘translanguaging’ is becoming more and more common. Education systems are starting to explore the idea of a fluid approach to the practice of various languages simultaneously and utilizing it as a method of teaching. By speaking in native languages to express opinions, ‘translanguaging’ has been proven to enhance the learning experience of students. As a teenager growing up in a diverse community of people, I firmly believe that it is important to put more emphasis on this especially within international communities where ‘translanguaging’ is not yet evident.

Language isn’t just language. Language also encompasses culture. More specifically, it is the basis for communication within a culture. Losing your language means you’re losing part of your cultural identity and disconnecting from the people in your culture.

As students and educators who are all part of an international community, it is important to embrace our unique cultural identities through the learning and practice of our native languages. Just because English is important in our academic learning at school, it doesn’t place it on a pedestal higher than any other language. If anything, a language that we connect to on a personal level is arguably more valuable.

Whether it is within our capacity to utilize one, two, or three of them, language is what defines us as international students.

And as an international student myself, I would hate to see us losing the very characteristics that make us who we are.

Hannah Choo is an eighth grader at Korea International School. Though she currently resides in South Korea, she was born in the United States and since then, has traveled all over the world. She holds a strong passion for writing and learning different languages.

Click here to read Hannah's article in Korean.

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school spotlight

BRANKSOME HALL ASIA INTERVIEW WITH JENNY BLACKMAN Could you tell us about the wellbeing work that you do at Branksome Hall Asia.

As the health and wellbeing lead at Branksome Hall Asia, my role involves coordinating the health and wellbeing curriculum and developing projects across the middle and senior school.

One of the main goals of the curriculum was to create greater awareness around inquiries into health and wellbeing. My fulltime role of middle years physical health teacher complements this role as they have overarching topics, which I have been curious to explore further over the last 18 months.

The main vehicles of the programme’s delivery are extended advisory lessons, middle school health and wellbeing days, pastoral days, and the Student Health and Wellbeing Committee. Alongside this, the social counselors have worked tirelessly to introduce a health and wellbeing survey to encourage students to reflect on their own wellbeing and seek further support.

At what point do you feel you needed the programme?

What does that look like?

Around 18 months ago, a group of middle and senior school teachers were assembled by the strategic leadership team to explore how the topics of health and wellbeing could be taught and embedded more transparently in the curriculum. At that time, the Covid-19 pandemic was taking a grip on the world, and our students were more sedentary due to online learning and had fewer opportunities to socialise due to social distancing.

Following these discussions, we received a professional development opportunity to attend the 2021 EARCOS Weekend Workshop on health and wellbeing, where we learned from specialist speakers on health and wellbeing, such as Amy Smith, who talked about stress management, healthy coping skills, mental health, and sexual health awareness. There was a strong emphasis on a collaborative approach to learning, which inspired me to invite Amy to be a consultant for our school.

What was your why?

In regards to our cultural context, our international day and boarding school is located on the island of Jeju, South Korea. One of the many reasons that sets Branksome Hall Asia's health and wellbeing efforts lies in its cultural context. Our students and families tend to focus more on academic excellence, and health and wellbeing tends to be less weighed. I believe this particular reason is one of the drivers of our Health and Wellbeing Programme.

The social counselors have worked very hard on creating a survey that gathers information on the students’ wellbeing. This survey has provided a great deal of data about students’ needs and habits. After surveying the students, it was evident that they also wanted more knowledge of how to take care of themselves, and the Student Health and Wellbeing Committee echoed these desires. The survey also allowed students to discreetly request a meeting with their social counselor, and over 70 students did.

What have been some of your proudest achievements in relation to wellbeing?

Without a doubt, my proudest achievement was the creation of the Student Health and Wellbeing Committee. There were three clear lines of engagement with the student voice. Firstly, we created a subject-specific committee in health and wellbeing. Secondly, we encouraged students to network either in their own cohort or with students around the world. Thirdly, we encouraged students to develop a cross-curricular voice, where they interviewed health scientists to gather relevant information to feed back to their fellow students.

This committee was created to develop a cross-curricular voice where the students contributed to International Women’s month by interviewing Dr. Elesa Zernhofer, a prominent researcher and lecturer in health and anatomy and physiology. The students from the Health and Wellbeing Committee created a range of inquiring questions about the challenges that adolescents face in health and wellbeing. The interview was open to the student community, and the feedback from the students was thoroughly reflective: “The presentation was a very precious experience for me. I learnt many tips about how to maintain my health and wellbeing and how I need to be careful using social media.”

(Grade 9 Student) What has the impact been?

When considering the impact so far, it has been insightful to hear students’ wisdom on the challenges they face in their adolescent lives, and fascinating to empower the student voice to guide the provision for their needs and provide cultural context.

The main role of the committee is to discuss the challenges students face around their health and wellbeing at each grade level. The student committee have chosen to currently work on initiatives that revolve around building a broader awareness of mental health, physical health, nutritional health, and student voice through the extended advisory programme. For example, the Grade 10 representatives were concerned that not enough G10 students were physically active so they organised a survey to discover which activity the majority of G10 students would like to take part in during extended advisory sessions. As a result, they organised a dodgeball and bench ball competition for the students.

If you were to give three top tips to schools when devising a wellbeing policy, what would they be? What should schools think about?

The International Baccalaureate (IB) suggests that having a ‘wellbeing policy is one of the most effective means of improving students attainment outcomes’. The ‘what is wellbeing’ document uses evidence-based research to support IB teachers and school leaders to better understand and integrate wellbeing into the architecture of their school policy and practice ensuring the students and the wider community are part of the creation of the wellbeing policy. Secondly, it is also valuable to choose a wellbeing framework such as the PERMA, PERMAH, SEARCH or other frameworks to establish a structure specific to your school perspective.

Establishing a student committee has been extremely useful.

Our student committee was formed by advertising to the middle and senior school students during a pastoral day, which was the launch of our new Health and Wellbeing Programme at the start of the academic year.

Featured: Brook Pauley, Social Emotional Counsellor

21

To get representatives from Grades 6–12, we created 14 places for students so each grade had two representatives. The students were selected based on their passion for improving health and wellbeing.

Thirdly, exploring the Harvard University, EASEL Lab, would be beneficial to further develop understanding of the complex field of social emotional learning. This website provides some really clear diagrams on how different curricular frameworks have strengths and areas for improvement in different areas when addressing social emotional learning, and to have a greater awareness of this is highly valuable.

Staff versus students - how does your approach differ, and can you talk us through how your wellbeing focus supports all of your school community and how the different elements join up?

At the beginning of the health and wellbeing project, I wanted to create a centralised platform for staff to be able to go to for up-todate evidence-based resources, IB policies on wellbeing, and World Health Organisation documents on health. This website is linked to the Health and Wellbeing Advisory Programme, and staff can access resources to improve their own knowledge of health and wellbeing. As the programme has evolved, so has the website, staff are regularly updated on the progress of health and wellbeing projects and student triumphs. As the academic year progressed, we also launched a student and parent website to offer up-to-date evidence-based resources, which is currently in progress.

Engaging with the student voice would also be greatly encouraged with the student committee to consider health and wellbeing challenges locally and globally. There was a chance for students to network globally during a spin-off project with Buddies Without Borders, an international forum where students were privileged to network and collaborate with esteemed global academics and consultants from the World Health Organisation. The challenge for students was to brainstorm solutions to the problems faced by a specific country assigned to their group, researching both the challenges and possible solutions in regards to the global mental health crisis. One of the students stated: “The forum brought people from all around the world to work together and find international and global solutions, and shared ideas with specialists of their cultural context.”

(Grade 9 student) Do you use any products or set programmes to support wellbeing in school? What resources/support is your school drawing on?

I truly believe that the biggest resource is the student voice. Our students have led numerous initiatives and used inquiry-based skills to determine what our students need. While it is sometimes difficult for staff to relinquish control of projects, trusting the students’ passion, drive, and creative ideas is a healthy and fruitful approach. As such, we encourage our students to put on their thinking hats to find solutions to the challenges facing adolescents in the current educational climate.

My newly created role as the health and wellbeing lead has been instrumental in the strategic development of the Health and Wellbeing Programme and ensuring the programme is progressive. We also draw on the support of subject matter experts. For example, over the past year, the school has employed both a health consultant and a wellbeing consultant, and they have worked with various members of staff to understand our individual school and cultural context.

Professional development is also important, and several staff members with particular interests in wellbeing and social emotional learning completed a course in “Teaching and Learning for the Greater Good”, which was particularly useful in broadening their knowledge and perspectives.

I would also encourage schools that follow the IB curriculum to attend the “Leading Well-being in the School Community” course, which offers the opportunity to create ideas for wellness and wellbeing projects for the wider community.

Jenny Blackman has been a Physical Education for 15 years, after leaving her home country of the Uk, she became increasingly interested in health and wellbeing whilst working in Thailand, China, and most recently in South Korea. She is currently working as the Health and Wellbeing lead and Physical Education Teacher at Branksome Hall Asia and continues to passionately disseminate the importance of wellbeing in the school community. Connect with Jenny.

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22

Examining different models for inclusive pathways beyond education

BY MAX SIMPSON Anyone scanning the pages of this magazine will be aware how important inclusion is to wellbeing.

It is, of course, essential to creating a sense of belonging, acceptance and security within any international school setting.

When I launched Steps - Thailand’s first ever vocational centre for neurodivergent young people in 2016 - my aim was to find a way to foster this inclusive environment in an employment setting. Too many young neurodivergent children leave education and find themselves facing barriers. I wanted to help them develop life skills and get hands-on work experience so they could face the challenges of a working environment with confidence.

Until 2021, the Steps model has been small, self-contained vocational training centres, running alongside our businesses which are open to the public. Our centres are nurturing communities of acceptance, where everyone is invited to be themselves with no fear of being cast as an outsider. Our businesses include cafes and business service centres which perform administrative tasks, such as data entry, for external clients.

Between these two environments, trainees have access to a social setting which helps them develop confidence and self esteem, and a genuine workplace where they can apply new practical skills, show other potential employers what they are capable of, and get used to working with the public. They also receive UK accredited qualifications from ASDAN.

A change of direction This model has been incredibly successful for Steps so far and we’ve won multiple awards for our work to help young people into employment. But as our organisation has grown, it has become clear to us that the only way to truly transform society to be more inclusive is to encourage external partners to foster an inclusive environment for themselves. So, last year, we took the exciting step of opening a vocational training centre and cafe onsite at St Andrews Sukhumvit 107, a leading international school, part of the global Cognita network of schools, in Bangkok.

Parents and education providers may be curious as to what works best for neurodivergent children looking for a different pathway, so in this article I will be taking a look at the differences between the two models and what kind of needs they both suit.

The small scale training centre With the original Steps model, our training centres generally take 25 trainees at one time. We class ourselves as a neuro-affirmative organisation, meaning we accept and value people as they are and don't see the need to control or reduce neurodivergent 'behaviours'. Many of the trainees at our vocational centres were not accepted into the majority of local or international schools, often meaning they have been home for a long time.

The environment our trainees enter differs from a traditional academic setting: it is not school-like in its appearance or structures. The programmes we offer focus on increasing selfesteem at every opportunity. This really is an essential part of the young people we support believing themselves good enough to achieve new skills and enter employment. We offer them responsibilities in the training centre and workplace, and connect them with businesses who are looking to hire more inclusively once they graduate.

One hundred percent of our graduates are in employment, so we know this model is very effective. However, we also know there are some families with younger children, who would prefer to keep them in a more academic setting before they start looking at transitioning to work, which is where the new centre at St Andrews comes in.

A new vision for inclusive international schools When families receive a diagnosis for a neurodivergent child, they may have access to support and structures at first. But some tell us this support disappears when their child hits 18. By placing the Steps vocational centre within the St Andrews campus, a posteducation pathway becomes much clearer to parents and offers security for the future.

It also offers security to those young people who are not ready to leave the school campus at 18. They have the opportunity to access our Next Steps programme instead.

Placing our centre within the St Andrews academic model also means learners can access vocational training earlier (starting from Y8) which makes their curriculum more complete, purposeful, and in turn prepares them for the future. Peer mentoring offers opportunities for all learners to share their knowledge and support one another, something that is unlikely to happen for our trainees in the mainstream class.

Trainees also have access to extra work experience and internship opportunities within the school including library assistant, office work, coffee shop, and coaching assistant (PE). This makes it even more likely they can eventually have a job which matches their true aspirations.

Marching towards a future of acceptance One of the most important aspects for us of the St Andrews model is its impact across the whole school community. Rather than those with neurodivergence being segregated off site, the school becomes a community which reflects the diversity of the real world.

The training centre is located close to one of the entrances to school, providing visibility whilst still giving the 18 years and up trainees the opportunity to feel they have progressed beyond school. As well as promoting more inclusive attitudes, research shows that supporting others and giving back promotes mental wellness and purpose. There are so many opportunities for all students to do this - whether it’s awareness raising, or using their CAS hours to intern in the training centre.

How can other international schools apply these principles?

As we know, schools are safe environments to try new things with a wide range of job opportunities that all learners can gain insights from, think marketing, ICT, finance, and hospitality.

One consideration could be building internal work experience and internship opportunities into the curriculum or as an ECA. Another could be a student-led initiative such as a rooftop garden like they have at NIST Bangkok or the radio station at UWC Phuket. I’m sure many of us wish we were given the opportunity to experience real work before making the big decisions about our future so let’s find ways to make that happen in our own settings.

All the international learning support departments we work with tell us this is needed. They know that in order to change outcomes beyond school for learners not following the IB/ALevels, school management needs to think differently. Steps is providing inclusion diagnostic and consultancy services to schools who want to begin or review their transition to employment programmes.

Connectivity A final - but important - caveat I would make is that the two models of training centre we now run were never really intended to be entirely separate from each other. The centre at St Andrews is, where appropriate, intended to prepare learners for the environment at our smaller vocational centres. The preskills we teach there and the exposure to a similar environment and structure help make the transition smoother and less stressful for the learners when they reach an age that they need to look for opportunities beyond an academic setting.

Ultimately what we need to do is to focus on how, whatever environment we work in, we can create inclusive spaces which embrace neurodivergent young people and all they have to offer. The more pathways leading to this destination, the better.

Max Simpson, CEO of Steps, has successfully set up 3 vocational training centres and modelled 11 inclusive and sustainable social businesses including coffee shops, bakeries, eco shops, and a business service centre. Max believes strongly in demonstrating the sustainability of inclusive businesses in order to change the narrative around disability, and to empower the business community to replicate these models. Connect with Max on LinkedIn.

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24

DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH CONNECTION

BY DR ALANNA STATON Whether your role is in teaching, leading, or counselling, you have likely been faced with the question of how to support students with diverse learning needs during online learning. In 2020, all of us instantly had to become experts in an area we never trained in, fumbling through the dark to pave a new path through the unknown. Although we all did our best with a stressful situation, it quickly became apparent that some students were falling behind due to the very nature of digital learning. Sadly, some of our students were impacted more than others.

As a current school counsellor and as a mom of an autistic son, helping our school find ways to connect with all students during online learning was my top priority. This was no easy task.

Outside of the charge of ensuring no child joined the COVID cohort of students losing prior academic gains, a pressing issue came to the forefront when many schools realized their digital learning plans were not one-size-fits-all. Whether synchronous or asynchronous, accommodations that were in place face-to-face simply couldn’t always fit into the new learning mold. Stories of students and parents giving up on school altogether were rampant on social media and on the nightly news. Two common themes emerged from the frustrated voices regarding what was missing: support and connection, especially when it comes to neurodivergent learners.

Because we’ve had nearly two years to reflect on our policies and practices surrounding digital learning, we are constantly evolving.

Experts have weighed in on what to do about the digital divide that is creating an even larger gap for some of our students.

Prioritizing the core issue of student wellbeing is key. As Prothero and Sparks (2020) explain:

“It’s tempting to put students’ social, emotional, and mental well-being on the back burner as schools scramble to make up for lost learning and navigate the tough logistical and political challenges of safely opening school buildings. But ignoring social emotional learning could be a recipe for disaster. The fact is: Children can’t process and retain new information if their brains are overwhelmed with anxiety.”

What might come across as an emerging learning need may in fact be rooted in an unmet emotional need.

Nearly all students with neurodevelopmental disorders also exhibit impairments in executive functioning measurements (Crisci, Caviola, Cardillo, & Mammarella, 2021). This includes functions like cognitive flexibility, or the ability to switch between tasks to adjust to changed priorities, and replacing information no longer needed in the brain with newly learned

information. Those two functions alone are at the heart of what we have asked our students to do while learning online.

It is no wonder why many of our students struggled with a sense of wellbeing while learning how to learn in a new way.

COVID has caused an increase in anxiety globally among children. A 2021 meta-analysis found the global prevalence of depression and anxiety among youth has doubled when compared to pre-pandemic estimates (Racine et al., 2021).

One doesn’t need to read the statistics to know this to be true. It would be a near impossibility to escape the pandemic unchanged. As educators, we see this in our students as well as in the mirror.

So, what then can be done to reverse this trend? Because connection and support are the rallying cry of parents, students, and teachers everywhere, perhaps that is the direction to go. Thankfully, an abundance of new research is on the horizon in this area. While most schools have reopened their doors to in-person learning, we want to be prepared to fully support all learners if a campus closure occurs in the future. It is important to discuss differentiation strategies to support all types of learners in the digital classroom.

Vislosky and Hunziker (2021) offer four cornerstones of effective online learning for students with disabilities, based on research findings: Professional development and instructional support Accessibility Family engagement Instructional strategies to support personalization Some of the suggestions within these cornerstones include practicing empathy to accommodate the different learning styles in your classroom, involving students in creating an optimal learning environment by encouraging voice and choice, and using a Design Thinking approach in instructional planning. Design Thinking helps educators tackle problems by redefining them and creating innovative solutions. Each of the cornerstones addresses the need teachers and students have for support and connection.

One specific way schools can address the need for connection is with a strategy known as relationship mapping.

It comes from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and is a way for schools to ensure every child in the building is known by at least one adult. Connection requires intention and does not always happen spontaneously. When intentional relationship building becomes a part of the ethos of a school, everyone’s wellness improves. Both a virtual and in-person relationship mapping support guide is available for educators to download for free.

An excellent resource we utilized during a recent shift to online learning was CloseGap, a digital space for emotional discovery. Our students completed a developmentally appropriate emotional check-in each day and were given self-guided activities tailored to their emotional needs. Their data was then sent to the counsellors so real-time support could be offered. We found many students were more comfortable with this method than they were with approaching counsellors face-to-face while on campus.

When I first began to seek alternative ways to meet every student’s educational and social-emotional needs during the pandemic, I was thrilled to find a nearly 40-page document created by RespectAbility, titled “Virtual Education and Students with Disabilities Resource Guide.” It helped save our team time during the planning process, as there were many websites and apps listed in the guide we could immediately put into practice.

What has been cannot always be. Flexibility must be at the heart of all decisions, inside and outside of the virtual classroom. I saw the greatest growth in my son and in my students when they were offered a variety of options for academic and emotional growth. When teachers are flexible in their approach to trying new accommodations for all types of learners in their classroom, they may begin to see a greater willingness to participate.

If something within your digital learning plan isn’t working, put together a think tank for fresh ideas. It is imperative to involve all stakeholders, including students, in this movement. Too often, we toss and turn at night trying to come up with a solution that may be living in someone else’s head. Seek support and connection for yourself so you are better prepared to do the same for your students.

Dr Alanna Staton has worked as a teacher, principal, and counsellor in schools around the world for nearly 20 years. She is a compassionate advocate for mental-health, equity, and child protection and is currently based in Zhuhai, China.

Connect with Alanna on LinkedIn.

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26

Reimagining Education: LE SALLAY ACADEMY

INTERVIEW WITH ANNA KADIEVA Founded in 2018, Le Sallay International Academy is an innovative independent school for children aged 10-14 that offers a hybrid model of interactive online classes and a threeweek in-person session in France each trimester.

Your team started out facilitating summer camps, what was your ‘why’ for establishing Le Sallay International Academy?

The idea behind the summer educational camp, Marabou, was to show children that learning even the most traditional things, like mathematics, can be exciting and fun. Mathematics was in fact at the core of our idea; but very soon we expanded it to a wider range of topics, from classical music and pop culture to genetics and astronomy. And it was actually the feedback from our participants that inspired the creation of Le Sallay Academy. It turned out that, as far as the children were concerned, their middle schools were not up to par, and wouldn’t it be just great if they were more like Marabou? So we could only oblige!

Could you tell us about the blended learning model of Le Sallay International Academy?

The school year is divided into trimesters, each of them offering an in-person and a distance learning component. In a typical trimester, our students will travel to our campus in France for three weeks of classroom learning and socializing, and then study from home for eight weeks. The face-to-face sessions are held at the Chateau Le Sallay in Burgundy, France. They combine classes with games and activities focusing on improving socialization, interpersonal communication, and emotional self-regulation.

The distance learning bit lasts eight weeks, and each day a student will have five to six highly interactive classes, led by an international team of qualified teachers fluent in virtual education.

Our school does not have classes with fixed rosters. Students of different ages study in small four to seven person groups, and every student has an individual learning plan that takes into account their education goals.

How have you found the model to be inclusive for students with diverse learning needs?

It is important to note that we don’t divide students into those who have “diverse learning needs” and those who don’t. Everyone has needs, and it is our responsibility as a school to create an inclusive atmosphere that would make everyone feel comfortable. And that was one of our objectives from the very start.

The effectiveness of our approach roots in the flexibility of the blended learning model: each student has an individualized study plan; their online schedule is tailored to their personal preferences; they can study in the comfort of their own home, in the audio and visual environment that is not disturbing, and hence they focus better, get to a higher level of motivation that in turn leads them to a higher level of academic achievement. To give a couple of examples why blended learning supports children so well: dyslexic children can benefit from using online technologies helping them to read; for children on the autism spectrum it makes a great difference to be able to learn in a familiar environment and not have to make an extra effort to block out the intruding distractions; ADHD children have less restrictions regarding their behavior during classes and are free to sit, stand and move around as they like.

On-site sessions are run under the supervision of experienced counsellors and psychologists whose job it is to look after the emotional comfort of individual students as well as to monitor the group dynamics. This involves working on group and interpersonal relations, providing psychological comfort and support to students who are away from home through various daily activities as well as group or individual conversations.

It is often the case that full-time schooling is so demanding in terms of time pupils are required to spend together that there is not much space left for either academic pursuits or management of one’s social-emotional wellbeing. Our model gives students the experience of boarding and communal life without the stress of long-time separation with their family, and it is also a chance to study in the comfort of their own home while remaining a part of the school community.

What have been some of your proudest achievements in relation to inclusion and wellbeing, and what has the impact been?

We are a relatively new school, but even in this short time we can testify that all children, as in 100%, who have spent two or more years with us, have progressed enormously, both academically and emotionally.

To give two examples: a student who joined us a couple of years ago and was at first so shy that he actually avoided engaging in conversations, has grown to be one of the most popular students who also demonstrates an impressive academic record - that’s a

proud achievement! Another student was very socially engaged, but academically, she was motivated just enough to do the minimum required to stay at the school. Today, she claims she enjoys intellectual challenges and her genuine interest in academic matters is something we are very proud of.

What have been some of the challenges that you have faced, and how have you tried to overcome them?

The school was launched in 2019, and I don’t think we’ve had a year that would be free of this or that force-majeure. First, COVID and post-COVID, and now the war in Ukraine. On the one hand, we were faced with a logistical challenge of organizing on-site sessions, a key element in our student care, and on the other, we had to quickly develop a virtual version of our social-emotional practices that would step in for those unable to join in-person.

In 2019-2020, when COVID made it next to impossible to travel, we ran two on-site sessions in parallel, in Europe and in the US, and we developed a special online programme to ensure equal involvement of students from both sides of the Atlantic.

We designed an online game where, in order to win, one had to interact with students on the other continent and collect missing information; we held a hybrid conference that boosted the students’ curiosity towards each other; we celebrated birthdays and graduations and created our own virtual traditions that have since helped to maintain a sense of community and companionship among our students.

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You have centers in France and Eastern Europe, and you are opening a center in the United States. How does cultural context impact your model in these locations, and what does the future look like for Le Sallay International Academy?

In Eastern European tradition, curriculum is often split into a bigger number of separate subjects than in the Americas. For example, literature and language are usually taught separately, although often by the same teacher, as well as algebra and geometry, biology and chemistry. When we were setting up our Eastern European school, we had difficulty not onlу finding teachers who would take on teaching math or sciences as a whole, but also convincing parents that this approach actually works! In the end, we had to adjust our curriculum, and teach some of these subjects separately.

However, these differences do not affect our overall approach to learning, which is based on developing critically important skills, such as understanding conceptual relationships, creative problemsolving, and critical thinking. We are proud of our identity as an international school and seek to avoid focusing on any one culture or viewpoint, opting instead to welcome the traditions of many peoples and nations.

In the future, we would be happy to develop our successful model further, and are open to partnerships with schools or individuals across the globe.

If you were to give three top tips to schools in relation to inclusion, what would they be? What should schools think about?

Each student has their own individual needs that may or may not be related to their medical condition, so don’t think in terms of people “with needs” and people “without needs.” It is your duty as a school to identify whatever needs your students may have and accommodate them.

Make sure this approach is shared by your teachers, so that they don’t think that there is only “one special student” in the group.

Explain this to students, too, so that they don’t feel that someone is “more special” than others, but rather, that they are all special.

If you are dealing with children with a medical condition, make sure the school psychologist is not the only one who knows about that! Provide the necessary training to teachers and teachers’ assistants to ensure adequate and thoughtful reactions to potentially difficult situations.

Anna Kadieva is a co-founder and Head of Le Sallay Academy. She is a strong believer in education and an advocate for creating equal opportunities for students with diverse learning needs. She holds two Sorbonne degrees: in French literature and Cultural management, and before joining Le Sallay Academy had worked for a number of cultural projects in France (European Independent Film Festival; Creative Laboratory «Le Mouilin Jaune» and others).

ANNA KADIEVA

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ALL ABOUT MINDFUL DIGITAL STORYTELLING

BY SHEI ASCENCIO AND LEEANNE LAVENDER Storytelling is an essential part of who we are

The brain and digital storytelling

Try to remember two or three stories that have stuck with you, stories that have made you smile, shiver or cry, the ones that have given you goosebumps, or perhaps angered you or propelled you to take action.

Have you ever listened to a story that has you at the edge of your seat? One that transports you to another dimension?

There is a reason why you feel that way. Storytelling is powerful, triggering the release of different chemicals in our brain.

People love stories; they help us understand our past, narrate our present, and dream of the future. Storytelling brings language to life and immerses us in human experience, and, undoubtedly, it’s always been an essential tool for educators.

Storytelling enhances teaching and learning because the human experience itself is a grand story. Through stories, students learn about the world around them, issues we’re facing, society, religion, culture, and more. In addition, storytelling is a creative process that cultivates imagination and the development of perception and memory.

Research has shown that reading fiction closely resembles the same brain activity of someone going through a real experience. It’s hard to argue the power of storytelling regarding its fundamental role in education.

Many studies have shown that cortisol is immediately produced when we feel distressed or threatened. You have probably experienced listening to an unsettling story that worries you or immediately stresses you out. When that happens, cortisol is released to help us stay attentive, alert, and aware. They got you! The story has your attention thanks to the release of cortisol.

Next comes dopamine. This chemical is produced to get a feeling of reward with pleasure. When we follow the emotionally-charged events in a story, cortisol kicks in, keeping us aware, and then dopamine makes an entrance, rewarding us for sticking with the story.

Next in line is oxytocin. It’s been identified by scientists that oxytocin promotes empathic behavior, which means that this chemical is the one that connects us to a character, protagonist, or hero in the story.

Now, think about it: if we can convey stories that heighten awareness (cortisol), give us pleasure (dopamine), and encourage empathic behavior (oxytocin), we have quite a magical potion.

Powerful stories can teach us and move us in so many ways, and storytelling can also be used to persuade and inform. When it comes to understanding global issues, adopting a more balanced and sustainable lifestyle, focussing more on wellbeing and mental health, and making changes in our lives, stories can pave the way.

Taking it digital Our students are digital natives, and technology plays a central role in their educational and personal lives. Digital storytelling is a powerful way of harnessing the interest our students have in learning and creating online while, at the same time, honouring the deep and powerful tradition of traditional storytelling.

When we think of traditional storytelling, we probably think of libraries and books (which are amazing!) and oral storytelling (also wonderful!). Digital storytelling takes the power of narrative into a variety of forms that can be shared with technology such as blog articles, photographs, podcasts, and videos. It can even include things like infographics and graphic novels. And digital stories can be shared in so many different ways: on classroom and school websites, social media, and platforms like Youtube or Vimeo. There are so many possibilities, and you can tailor digital storytelling experiences to your students’ interests, skills and talents, and to the best methods that enhance your curriculum.

An Example from Fifth Grade As an example, two grade five teachers (Michele Turner and Mark Garcia) at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, have engaged their students in a powerful digital storytelling experience that involves several story forms. They created a class website in the fall of 2021 to help their students share what they were learning about three key Sustainable Development Goals aligned with the school’s vision for diversity, inclusion and belonging. The teachers called their site Impact and began teaching the students how to shoot well-composed photographs on their phones, how to interview community members and how to write news articles.

Immediately, students were engaged with developing skills for digital storytelling, and also with the class learning associated with creating content for Impact.

“My students are excited to publish their work on Impact and I have seen such growth in their skills as writers and communicators as a result,” says Michele.

The students have explored some challenging and complex topics and, with the guidance of Michele and Mark, have experienced deep learning and fostered community engagement through their storytelling work. Other classes have connected with the students to learn more about specific topics, and parents and community members have joined the dialogue.

Digital storytelling at St. Andrew’s is deepening a culture of sharing, thinking and caring about important global issues. It’s a fabulous example of how digital storytelling can be used in any classroom, and you can learn more by visiting the site here.

An Example from Senior Students The Womenify initiative led by senior students from Luanda International School, Angola, portrays beautifully how digital storytelling can bring awareness to the needs faced by many young people. The Womenify website, Instagram account, and podcast immediately divert your attention by taking you to a space where a group of young women dive into real questions, share common experiences, and discuss real issues.

Click on their posts or listen to their podcast, and you will see the power of digital storytelling in action! The stories are highly relatable, covering topics like friendships, body image, and female safety. Special guests are featured in the stories to bring in a variety of perspectives.

The Womenify’s team's use of digital storytelling takes the power of narrative to a different level. Students can apply skills and take action on a real platform, for a real audience, and focus on topics that matter to them, to young people.

Fostering Engagement When we as educators see successful examples of digital storytelling, it can prompt us to think of the infinite possibilities we can offer to all learners to empower them as changemakers and engaged, aware learners.

Shei is an international educational consultant and coach with a passion for service learning, global citizenship and student agency. Shei’s work focuses on amplifying youth voice and guiding schools to co-construct powerful service programs. Connect with Shei on Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram.

LeeAnne is a coach and facilitator for international educators. She specializes in digital storytelling, service learning and global citizenship, and she loved partnering with schools and teachers to create learning experiences that have impact and lead to deep learning. She’s committed to helping educators build changemaker cultures to empower students and equip them with the skills they need to creative positive, purposeful change.

Connect with LeAnne through her Website, Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook.

CLICK ON EITHER ICON TO LISTEN TO SHEI'S AND LEEANNE'S AUDIO VERSION

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Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine Call for articles/artwork As we continue to grow the Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine we'd love to hear from anyone who is interested in contributing a piece related to wellbeing - whether that be as a counsellor, teacher, leader, school nurse, support staff, or from a personal perspective! We're also really keen to share student contributions (written or digital art/ photography pieces)!

If you are interested in contributing an article for the next Wellbeing in international schools Magazine in September then please send an email to sadie.wiseducation@gmail.com.

artwork by Ankita Chakrabarty (International School of Helsinki, Finland), click icon for English, Hindi and French audio

SPEAK UP! PODCAST

BY

CAROLINA VITTORIA AND AMINA DZHAFAROVA

It is evident that the global pandemic accelerated mental health issues like never before. Yet, instead of shedding light on what we have all gone through, it seems that it has only made our society less compelled to speak up for themselves. We spent a great deal of time reflecting on this, and what we can do ourselves to make sure that voices are being heard. As a young generation, though, we often overlook the most simple solution to any issue that targets mental health; that is, to start conversation.

Upon reflection, we both recalled the significant era of our first quarantine, where sitting in our room all day, at one point, felt like it was going to be the end all. It was only the podcasts we both listened to that truly turned our day around. Just plugging in earphones for 30-60 minutes of our day and listening to someone talk about relevant experiences only made us feel less alone. It was a distraction - but in the best way possible.

Our podcast, Speak UP!, was first recorded towards the end of our penultimate year of high school. We desired to be more engaged with our school community, and to spread awareness for social and mental health issues within our age group. It was a way for us to contribute to the school in a non-academic manner, yet maintain a generally scholastic theme and approach.

The target audience is primarily teenagers and young adults, although we touch on topics that could be relevant to anybody.

This project is very important to us, as we put a big emphasis on mental health. Our aim is to provide a safe space for those who struggle mentally and emotionally, support them in any way that we can, and above all, make sure they feel heard.

Student project

While we are still attempting to grow our podcast beyond school grounds, we believe that the impact it has made among our close peers has only been positive. In discussing struggles that many students undergo, we feel more connected and engaged with those who listen to our episodes. Finding a platform that allows us to share our own personal experiences, and to further share our advice, has only led us to develop even more of a passion towards destigmatizing conversations surrounding mental health. Moreover, it has also allowed us to expand beyond the normal range of mental health topics that should be further discussed.

Through different interviews and through sharing our own personal stories, we have therefore learned that change initiates through more conversation. We truly always feel in awe after hearing about someone else’s story, as it is always different and always draws a solution that should be more heard. Despite the magnitude of any mental health issue, we want our audience to know that a huge part of destigmatizing mental health is that recovery isn’t always going to be linear, and that it’s okay. What is important is to continue the conversation and to never be afraid to ask for help.

In the near-future, we want Speak UP! to open more doors for people who have a story to tell. We would love to work with nonprofit organizations that are involved with those who struggle with mental health, and to hopefully release more episodes on different platforms to be streamed beyond the grounds of international schools.

Check out the Speak Up! podcast HERE.

PREVENTING EARLY MARRIAGE AND TEEN PREGNANCY IN BWAMULAMIRA VILLAGE

BY NANTUME MASTURAH AND SHEI ASCENCIO

Student project

XIAN LIANGJIATAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, CHINA

Visualize you are a lady or young woman in your menstruation cycle, and you don’t have a sanitary pad to use.

Since wearing masks is among the simple precautions of Covid19, I embarked on a mission to provide plenty of masks to people in my community and plenty of sanitary pads to young women. The pads and masks I began to distribute are washable and not for single use. I planned to provide young women free pads and make additional pads and masks to raise funds and buy more resources. The additional funds would then go directly to the young women involved in the overall project.

As my work in providing free reusable pads unfolded, I discovered further side effects as a result of the pandemic. After the outbreak, a high rate of young women faced a lot of difficulties that led to early marriage and teen pregnancy. Their major problem was the lack of access to sanitary pads to use as they got into their monthly periods. Attending school became highly challenging, leading them to drop out of school and others engaging in marriage as a better solution.

Poverty is the cause of the above-mentioned problems that young women fall into. I began to do action research and directly talked to the community of young women sealing this primary research.

Covid-19 has caused a hard situation in my country, Uganda, where schools have been closed for two years. This has led to a rising percentage of young women becoming child brides due to restrictions and ongoing lack of jobs. Furthermore, high crime rates have escalated such as raping, kidnapping, among many others.

I’ve always dreamed of helping young women from my own community since I was very young. The IB MYP Personal Project has created an opportunity to turn my dream into a reality.

When I got into MYP Year 5, I decided to make a personal project that would support young women and spread awareness about what young women in my community go through. This gave me the chance to have a community of young women working together and having counseling together.

After sharing my idea for the project with the people of my community, most of the community women were willing to help me freely to teach us how to make sanitary products. This knowledge of making sanitary products was there, it simply needed to spread to the rest of the community. The village leader offered me an office to help receive young women and be able to offer support. This office is a part of the Buganda subcounty building.

With the mentorship and guidance of my teachers from Xian Liangjiatan International School (XLIS), I have had the necessary skills and tools to plan for my project and turn it into a reality in my community. Having supportive teachers has helped reassess many of my initial ideas and reflect on my work.

Furthermore, my school community, XLIS, supported me with fundraising that has helped buy all the materials, which are locally sourced, to use for the project. I’m very pleased with how my project is community driven and it aligns with several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): no poverty, zero hunger, good health, and wellbeing.

MASKING ANGOLA

BY THE MASKING ANGOLA TEAM AND SHEI ASCENCIO LUANDA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, ANGOLA

Luanda International School is committed to fostering compassionate, confident and socially responsible individuals who thrive in the world, and our students’ knowledge, skills and actions continue to reflect that mission through service learning (SL) projects, despite the added challenges that we’re facing due to Covid-19.

The success of the projects is not accidental but is the result of a lot of planning and thoughtful work. The Core Team (CreativityActivity-Service, Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay) begins each year with an experiential-based Core Retreat, where students are placed in real-life contexts, situations, and experiences that force them to learn about needs and issues that communities face. We plan these experiences with clear intentions and deliberately and explicitly teach skills that set our students up for success. This, coupled with focused SL sessions on Cathryn Berger Kaye’s SL cycle and action research’s MISO methodology, prepare our students to embark on well identified projects that give students complete agency.

Masking Angola is an excellent example of how students have found a way to continue to utilize their knowledge, skills, and passion for SL even during remote learning.

Masking Angola was born when a group of five senior students identified a need in a local community in Luanda, Angola. After informally chatting with a nurse, they learned that the residents of the Camama area did not have masks, and soap, let alone hand sanitizer.

The student swiftly began to work on the investigation stage by assessing that identified need and beginning their action research.

This valuable information allowed them to move on to the preparation stage, where they collaborated to develop an action plan to meet their goal, clarified their roles and responsibilities within the team, identified resources, and formed partnerships.

Student project

At this point, the team had set two goals: one, to raise funds to purchase soap, hand sanitizers, and cloth to make masks; and two, to provide the resources to educate the community on the hand-washing techniques and the importance of social distancing.

The team collaborated with a former teacher and independent graphic designer, Hannah Hendrickson (HRH), who also wanted to support communities struggling with Covid-19. This partnership was reciprocal, where both the students and partner collaborated and learned from one another. Masking Angola provided context, knowledge on the community, and creative ideas while HRH designed t-shirts to fundraise and coached the team on the power of graphic design and how to best utilize it.

The action stage involved implementing their plan via indirect service. They continued collaborating with HRH and building on their understanding of the Camama community. Based on the knowledge they gained, they designed posters for the community aimed to encourage hand washing and social distancing.

During this action stage, students also identified a second partner, Roque Online (RO), an Angolan based independent business with a strong commitment to social responsibility. RO collaborated closely with the students to obtain soap and hand sanitizers. And recently, an Angolan/Portuguese company contacted Masking Angola looking to expand their project to other provinces and communities in Angola.

The reflection and demonstration stages have been alive throughout the project. Students regularly reflect on the process, challenges, successes, skills needed to be developed, collaboration, and more! Reflection informs their project and allows them to continue growing as learners. The Masking Angola team has been demonstrating their process by capturing and sharing their contributions with LIS and the wider community via social media.

FITNESS FOR COMMUNITIES

BY ANANDINI MITRA AND ARNAV PANDEY OBEROI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL JVLR, INDIA

The Grade 10 students at Oberoi International School JVLR explored giving back to the community in physical and health education. The unit directly looked at how students can make the community around them healthier through regular fitness sessions. Through this, we focused on the community’s wellbeing development and holistic maintenance.

Throughout the process students had to identify problems, creatively and critically think of solutions, while most crucially being active physically as members of their community, while keeping in mind the wellbeing of their clients.

The teenagers you know may range from extremely active individuals to those who sleep on the couch all day. Our aim here was to target the entire demographic, by reaching out to our own friends and family in order to help them make fitness a regular habit. With the pandemic still going on, fitness was often not a major priority for teenagers, and our aim was to change that.

We wanted to target the different areas of wellbeing for the audience. As teenagers, we are often stressed about summatives and studies, exercising helps with a mental break. It also helped us interact with others our age, enhancing our social and emotional wellbeing.

Throughout the process we also paid close attention to our interpersonal skills as trainers in order to maintain a close yet professional relationship with our clients. We were able to exercise constant and clear communication which is a key aspect of creating a fitter community for everyone.

Student project

“The sessions were incredibly helpful in allowing me to develop a regular fitness routine, while also helping me improve my capabilities while exercising. Having coaches with me, helped me push even further and improve.”

Another student group approached a similar situation but with a different audience, addressing the growing problem of isolation of the elderly during the pandemic. The group designed a fitness program which focused on senior citizens to alleviate loneliness through a series of six sessions. We utilised a lot of different online tools and technical skills to enable a smooth flow to all of the sessions.

Even though physical wellbeing was a critical part of our focus, we also targeted the senior citizens’ intellectual and emotional wellbeing. Not only did they learn about their bodies and health, they also learnt how to use technology. As a team, we taught them the necessary technical skills and methods, which they were able to perfectly utilise by the end of the six sessions. As for the emotional and social wellbeing, we elevated the loneliness of the community, which improved their well being in this isolated lockdown.

It was an extremely rewarding experience, which came with a largely positive response from the senior citizens. One very interesting aspect of this experience was that we had to speak in local languages to ensure that they understood the instructions. This meant that in order to maintain the clients’ interest, apart from speaking in different languages of Hindi and Bengali, was to play Bollywood music. It immediately gathered a positive response from the clients, and truly brought out the youthful side of them!

USING STRENGTHS TO BUILD RESILIENCE

BY KRISTIN LOWE, MAOP, ACC, CPPC In my first article of this series, I introduced the construct of Positive Psychological Capital, a set of four internal resources that can be built intentionally to support wellbeing and learning. Those four elements spell out the easy-to-remember acronym of HERO: Hope Efficacy Resilience Optimism In my previous article, we looked at ways to build wellbeing by developing efficacy and confidence. In this article, I’ll share more about the R of HERO, including what resilience is, where our resilience comes from, and a step-by-step process for creating a personalized, strengths-based resilience plan for yourself and with your students.

What is Resilience?

Resilience can be defined in terms of how we move through adversity. It can be seen in resistance – our ability to adapt and continue functioning relatively normally through challenges.

Resilience is also seen in recovery – our ability to move from a negative state to our normal self, or “bounce back.” We also see resilience in reconfiguration – our ability to “bounce back and beyond,” using adversity as a catalyst to become our best possible self.

Resilience is not only related to negative or unpleasant situations; it grows through positive stretch experiences as well.

Positive life circumstances often require and increase our resiliency, such as planning a wedding, becoming a parent, acting on an unexpected opportunity, receiving a promotion or becoming a leader, or choosing to live/work somewhere new.

A trauma experience or period of acute or chronic adversity can build resilience through a positive transformation known as Post-Traumatic Growth. This often results in new insights and several types of growth, including an increased sense of personal strength, new ways of relating to others, identification of new goals or possibilities, feeling a greater appreciation of life, and experiencing spiritual or existential changes.

Where Does Our Resilience Come From?

Much of our resilience is rooted in our childhood environment, or how we were nurtured when we were young. Having stable living conditions, a nurturing and supportive caregiver with a constructive disciplinary style, and positive relationships with peers are important protective factors that are established in our early years. However, people who grew up without a resiliencebuilding environment can still become highly resilient.

Nature also plays a role in our resilience. Resilient children and adults generally have higher levels of intelligence, a positive self-image, an easy temperament, and a growth mindset. They have a low tendency for rumination, have a sense of humor,

and are driven by goals, values and a sense of meaning or purpose. Resilient people of all ages tend to be confident, creative, flexible thinkers with a positive outlook who excel at problem solving and emotion regulation.

Step 2: Turn These Strengths Into Resilience-Building Strategies Once we’ve identified some ways we manage obstacles when pursuing things we love, we can dig a little deeper to identify patterns of thinking and behaving that help us cope and persist. Think back to the strategies you’ve already developed to stay resilient through the challenges that pop up when you’re pursuing that activity you love, and list out as many as you can. Then try coming up with a metaphor to describe you at your best when being resilient. This will give you an easy-toremember image that you can use to apply your resilience “personality” to more difficult challenges.

We Can Learn to Build Our Resilience The great news about resilience is that it can be proactively developed at any age. Dr. Ann Masten, a prominent resilience researcher says, “Resilience comes from the everyday magic of ordinary, normative human resources.”

Many of the predictors of resilience into adulthood are learnable ways that we can create this “everyday magic” for ourselves.

These include building supportive social networks (and reaching out to them for help as needed!), finding mentors and champions, increasing our autonomy and available resources, practicing empathy and making contributions to others.

Step 3: Apply Your Resilience-Building Strategies to Current Challenges Many of your resilience strategies are transferable, with a bit of creativity and adaptation. Think about a challenge you’re facing currently that drains your energy. What are the common obstacles you face when dealing with this challenge? Write down as many as you can think of. Then look back at your list of resilience strategies and think creatively about how some of them could help you persist and/or practice acceptance the next time you’re struggling with this current challenge.

We can also build our resilience through maintaining good health and seeking education and training to develop cognitive coping strategies, a realistically optimistic mindset, and emotional regulation skills. Our past experiences, both good and bad, also build our resilience by helping us develop coping strategies, experience, and know-how.

Building a Personalized Resilience Plan

Step 4: Practice Building Your Resilience through Common Challenges

As we can see, resilience looks different for everyone, and there are many pathways and combinations of strengths that can lead to resilience. We all have resilience assets which we use regularly, but we may not think of our everyday behaviors as keys to resilience.

When we become more aware of how we’re already using adaptive processes to manage everyday challenges, it helps us become creative about applying our strengths to more difficult situations.

Focusing on our strengths through adversity helps us replace a reactive coping mentality with a proactive one. This can even create a new perspective about adversity, helping us view challenge and change as opportunities to grow and become more resilient.

Here’s how to create a personalized, strengths-based resilience plan, based on the work of Padesky and Mooney.

Step 1: Search for Your Existing Strengths in Everyday Experiences Considering how we persevere and overcome obstacles when pursuing things we love doing gives us clues about our existing resilience assets and strengths. Think about something you do regularly because you enjoy it and really want to do it, something that brings you into a delightful state of flow when you’re doing it.

Next, reflect on what helps you keep going when you encounter obstacles while doing this activity. Even when we love something, we can’t always pursue it all the time, in exactly the way we want to.

Once you’ve come up with a few creative ways to use your existing strengths and strategies to help yourself be more resilient through the current challenge, think about how you can test this out in real life. Design a mini-experiment to use your coping strategies in specific situations. Make a prediction about how you think it will go, and then observe what happens in reality. The goal here is resilience-building, so pay attention to how you’re being resilient during difficulty - not whether you resolve the challenge. Then think about how you can continue building upon what worked well, and design another little experiment.

Start Building Strengths-Based Resilience in Your School Today The four-step process above is easily applied with adults and students. To get started with creating personalized, strengthsbased resilience plans, Click here for a downloadable handout/poster.

Kristin Lowe is a former international school teacher now working as a Positive Education Consultant and Certified Solution-Focused/Positive Psychology Coach. She helps school leaders build a culture of wellbeing through Positive Peer Coach training and strengths-based, solutions-focused professional development programs.

CLICK ON ICON TO LISTEN TO KRISTIN'S AUDIO VERSION

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STEP BY STEP: BUILDING RESILIENCE IN A READY MADE FAMILY

ARTWORK BY JESSICA VISAGIE (GREENBRIER MIDDLE SCHOOL, USA), CLICK ICON FOR AUDIO

BY NICKY VISAGIE Packing up your life and moving to another country is no joke.

Aside from the excitement and apprehension that comes from leaping into the unknown, I’m sure we’ve all got tales of the challenging adjustments, hilarious exploits and awkward faux pax that comprise the baptism of fire that is being a newbie on the expat circuit.

I found Bahrain - a tiny, eclectic melting pot just off the coast of Saudi Arabia - an assault on my senses in the best possible way. The traffic, the heat, legendary brunches, people and traditions were like nothing I‘d been exposed to before. The juxtaposition between my life left behind and the one I was now living jarred against my small-town self, and I grappled to find my sense of equilibrium amongst the unfamiliar and exhilarating.

Everyone’s story about living abroad is different, and now, six years later as a seasoned expatriate, I’ve managed to summarise my own chapters into a few short sentences.

“I’m from England, my husband is South African. We met and married in Bahrain. We were supposed to get married in South Africa in 2020, but that obviously didn’t happen hahaha. He has two children from a previous marriage. They used to live here and spend half the time with us, but now they live in the States.”

Of course, the intricate specifics of this were somewhat more complex when lived out in real time. I’ll gloss over the absolute circus that was trying (and failing) to organise a destination wedding with guests from four countries during the COVID-19 pandemic; that’s a story for another day!

I met my now-husband just five months into my new life, and without wanting to sound like a motivational poster, it was like all the stars aligned, and I was rewarded for being a brave little soldier and boarding that plane. I was, and still am, happy as Larry, and the presence of two children and an ex-wife also on the island didn’t faze me. After all, I’m a teacher. Kids are my jam.

Of course, teaching other people’s children and raising other people’s children are two entirely different things, and I very often lost my way. I was incredibly concerned with being brilliant at this new challenge, but not so brilliant that I overstepped any boundaries, and I struggled with conflicting thoughts most days: “I’ll read them a bedtime story, that’s a nice thing to do, but I mustn’t go to Sports Day because I’m not their mom. I can help with their Romans project, but I can’t ask for a weekend off in case they think I’m mean. I’ll drive them to school, that’s helpful, but I can’t tell them off because they’re not mine.”

Whatever I did, thought or said was dissected by my inner critic telling me I was wrong or falling short.

Being a teacher abroad means you never really know what the future looks like beyond the next academic year. That was fine when I only had to consider my own needs, however I was now faced with the ominous realisation that every joint decision we would ever make had consequences for two little people that I didn’t create. And that every choice their mother made, would have ripples of impact for us.

Small-time issues, such as changing contact time or birthday party organisation, were easy enough to manage with clear communication and some courtesy. That in itself was a process on all sides. Bigger conversations, like schooling, finances, and their recent move to the other side of the world, were significantly more difficult for us to navigate whilst maintaining a healthy mindset.

Fortunately, tough times develop resilience, and as we moved through each passing year, better processes for steering through challenges began to evolve. We made a conscious effort to make compromises, check in with each other daily, and participate in calm, honest communication, not just with each other but with the children and their mother too, not always easy or pleasant when emotions are running high. We learnt to speak kindly and listen respectfully, understanding that while both of us wanted the best for the family, we were coming from entirely different head and heart spaces.

For example, I enjoy time with the children very much, and I’m so lucky that they are incredibly interesting, polite, fun, affectionate people to be around. But there are times when I need some quiet space and a break from tween spirit, particularly at the end of a school day where I’ve heard my name eleventy-million times. And while my husband likes his door handles un-peanut-buttered as much as I do, his reactions to child-related annoyances are warmly cushioned by the soft haze of paternal biology.

Understanding our individual perspectives means we’re both more aware of how to support each other and make decisions that ensure everybody’s happiness. We both contribute more effectively when we’re relaxed and feel appreciated. To get that, we have to be honest about what we need, whether that’s an empty house for an hour, some one-on-one kid time, or a date night.

The rollercoaster of stepping into a pre-existing family escalated my emerging professional confidence and competence, and at school I found myself growing as a teacher and a colleague, more than I knew I was capable of. Where difficult parents, speaking in assemblies and challenging behaviour used to result in varying levels of anxiety, I found myself quickly becoming more confident in my abilities. I stopped seeing so many problems, instead finding solutions or opportunities for growth.

Now, with an incredibly difficult year behind us, I’m quicker to hug, slower to judge, and steadfast in my knowledge that I can stand back up after every bathroom floor I-can’t-dothis moment (see also: art cupboards).

Maybe you’re reading this and your situation is completely different. Lord knows I’ve not met many expatriate families like ours in the Middle East. However, life and lessons come in all kinds of packaging, and that old quote, you grow through what you go through, is a good starting point for building a more positive mindset.

We can’t build strength if we’re never flexing our muscles.

We can’t find new ways of doing things, if we’re forever participating in the old. We can’t create solutions if we’re never exposed to problems. And as important as lesson plans are, we can’t truly teach our students how to build resilience, until we’ve laid a few bricks of our own foundations.

Nicky Visagie has been a teacher for 7 years and has spent the last 6 years as an international teacher in the Middle East. She is currently Reception teacher and Vice Principal at EtonHouse International Kindergarten in Bahrain.

Connect with Nicky on LinkedIn.

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CREATING BELONGING THROUGH SCHOOL VISION AND VALUES

BY MATT SEDDON How do we know if we really belong? This is an incredibly nuanced question which is difficult for any adult to answer. It is even more challenging for teenagers! Whilst there is much about my formative years I have forgotten, the continual struggle to find my place in the world is something that I remember vividly. I suspect that this is the same for many of us.

I am fascinated by the places people find belonging; whether through sports teams we play with or support, the music we love, or through faith, community, activism or fashion. We find belonging with each other when our passions and values align.

There is a tremendous amount of research which shows that wellbeing is enhanced through a positive sense of purpose, a term which Martin Seligman (2011) described as “belonging to and serving something you believe is bigger than the self”.

Recently, I have spent a lot of time thinking about belonging in the context of schools, because this is where students and staff spend most of their time. If wellbeing is important to us, then surely we must ask ourselves how we can

ensure our community feel that they belong in their school? And how can we ensure that our schools are part of something much bigger?

Below are five thoughts on how an authentic vision and set of values, which are cherished by a school community, can provide a real sense of belonging and purpose.

Have authentic values Recently, I was discussing values with a colleague who told me about an interview that they had. In it, the Head admitted to them that their school values were only in place to keep the parents happy, and that the day-to-day reality was quite different. My colleague was so disappointed by this revelation that they withdrew their application. It really highlighted to me the different approaches that schools may take towards their values, and the importance of getting this right.

The world of education is rapidly evolving and expanding to provide real choice for parents, students, and teachers. If we really want to help each other decide if a school community is a good fit, it is vital that school values set the tone of everything they do. Why would we want to onboard a colleague if our values are not aligned? Why would we want to bring in new families to our school if we were aiming for completely different things? Getting this

wrong can result in negative experiences for everyone involved, but getting it right can provide a real wellbeing boost.

Teach your values For values to be an authentic part of school culture, it is important to know where they are implicitly taught in the curriculum. For example, a school whose value was bravery could create an audit map which clearly showed how they taught and explored the definitions of bravery, where we identified bravery through history and literature, and where we were creating opportunities for our students to actively demonstrate bravery through their actions. A high-quality audit would challenge thinking to consider if every opportunity was being taken to explore the value, or if there were any gaps.

My core values of community, empathy, hope, and perspective are written at the bottom of my email signature because I want to be held accountable to them every single day. They serve as my moral compass when I am faced with difficult decisions to ensure that the outcomes align with my values. They also helped me to feel secure through interviews that Patana would be a good fit for me. I was confident that I would find a sense of belonging here.

Conversely, doing this may help you to realise that it is time for a new adventure if your schools' values do not align with your own.

There are many resources online, but this (non-exhaustive) list is a good starting point.

Have a bold vision

One of the most valuable commodities a school has is time, and I have always believed that if you value something, you should commit time to it. It is such a powerful demonstration of authenticity when a school’s values are explicitly taught in the curriculum, appearing in black and white on student timetables.

At Patana school we are currently working on how we can do exactly this with two of our values: global citizenship and wellbeing. Both values have been the focus of significant work across the school, but next year we will take this work further by introducing a new global citizenship curriculum, and then rearticulating our wellbeing curriculum so that it appears explicitly on the timetable too.

Embed your values Following a recent visit to a hospital, my family were asked to fill out a feedback questionnaire. I was fascinated to see that they asked no questions about the quality of medical care, the standards of hygiene, or how good the food was. Instead, they asked about the empathy, kindness, and compassion of their staff. These values were clearly important to the organisation, and so they designed their processes to ensure that their values always shone through.

Schools could do so much in this area. Do we request parental and student feedback around how well we deliver our values?

This could be in the classroom, but also at parents’ evenings, in our written communication, or when we are receiving phone calls. Have our policies been critically reviewed through this lens? Do we have healthy conversations about the way we meet our values as a systematic part or our performance reviews?

Approaching this systematically requires vulnerability and openness to change, but process drives outcome, and the benefits will be felt by all.

“What if we created a school whose whole reason for existing was to inspire students to solve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?” This is one of the most inspirational questions I have ever been asked. The conversation developed. What if the reason you learnt maths at this school was to provide you with the tools to help engineer SDG solutions? What if the reason that you learn to read and write is the same? What if a school was that explicit?

It is a bold vision that really challenged my thinking. Staff, students, and parents joining a school with a vision like this would know exactly what they were buying into. If this was their passion, then they would feel a real sense of belonging. They would be part of a movement which transcended the schools' boundaries, and was inspiring its students to be part of a global movement to bring change to our world.

Whatever a school's vision is for their students, I would encourage it to be big, bold, tangible and have a reach far beyond its own doors. Coupling this with an authentic set of values which permeate throughout the whole school provides a real sense of purpose and belonging that will enable the community to thrive.

Matt Seddon is the Secondary Principal at Bangkok Patana School and has previously been a leader in schools in both Hong Kong and the UK. He passionately believes in prioritising wellbeing and social development at the heart of a school so that its students can flourish and make a real difference in the modern world. His core values are community, empathy, hope and perspective. Connect with Matt on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Define your personal values

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Have you ever made time to identify your personal core values?

I was surprised to read that only 1 in 10,000 people have done this despite research showing that those who can articulate and actively use their core values enjoy a sustained wellbeing boost.

43

STUDENT BELONGING AND AGENCY BY DESIGN

BY SIAN MAY Definitions:

Prototyping: Prototyping is a quick methodology which allows an individual or group to test an idea, theory or model by making it tangible. A prototype can be a sketch for example which can be used as a prop that invites others to experience your idea and helps you transform an abstract concept into a meaningful product or service.

Belonging: Peggy Kern defines belonging as the deep desire (that most humans possess) to connect deeply and intimately with others.

Belonging enables us to feel valued and supported to safely share our thoughts, emotions, and life with others.

Fundamentally, all wellbeing approaches should ask us questions about our own beliefs, values and practices as educators. They act to help us to critically and positively question the systems and cultures in which we participate. In this second part of our discussion regarding student agency and self-determination, we will bring to life highly effective evidencebased approaches to learning which have wellbeing intrinsically at their core.

Belonging International schools can provide a unique perspective on wellbeing, possibly due to the multicultural, multilingual staff and student body as well as the relatively high frequency of transitions between schools. Relationships potentially take on a more poignant meaning for such communities and individuals.

Therefore, generating a sense of belonging becomes a key mission in creating an international learning community.

What does the evidence say?

The review of empirical data conducted by Kelly-Ann Allen and Peggy Kern unsurprisingly showed a positive correlation between motivations in wellbeing and school belonging. This was found to be much more influential than peer support or friendship groups on both learning and wellbeing outcomes.

Data from 90,118 students across 132 secondary schools,

Anderman (2002) found a student’s grade point average was positively related to school belonging. This appears to indicate a reciprocity between these factors.

learning but also to social emotional skill development.

Therefore, it would make sense for schools that have not already done so to consider this approach.

Stevens, Hamman and Olivarez Jr (2007) explored the effect of teachers who also used mastery goal orientation (learning new skills, and mastering new situations, focused on the process of learning) versus a performance orientation. Students reported feeling a greater sense of belonging when their teachers had a mastery goal orientation. An additional study found teachers who encouraged student ideas and requested that they explain their academic work (i.e., emphasising the learning process) fostered a greater sense of belonging and better academic performance (Stevens et al., 2007). Therefore, for effective learning the wellbeing of the whole student must be prioritised. Peggy Kern and Kelly-Ann Allen further recommend the adoption of pedagogies and processes which include prototyping, recognising a diversity of skills and student agency.

Kelly-Ann Allen’s work further indicates that students who feel they do not belong to their school are exposed to mental health risk factors. They are also statistically more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and have suicidal thoughts. A low sense of attachment to school can also increase the “academic achievement gap”. School belonging is positively associated with optimism, self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-concept and sociability. It can reduce the likelihood of mental health problems, promote resilience when mental health difficulties arise and reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

Design thinking for learning has a compelling connection to belonging, as it connects the learner to a culture of prototyping; i.e., the process of an idea requiring testing and not being perfected immediately but rather requiring a growth mindset. Design thinking practices and their ability to emotionally activate students in learning by using methods of personalisation can be found in the work of Lindsay Portnoy. This work is pragmatic and focuses on a learnercentred paradigm. Design Thinking in Portnoy’s work focuses on 5 elements:

So, how should we respond to this evidence?

Kelly-Ann Allen and Peggy Kern advocate for actively working to build belonging into a student’s experience of school, whilst focusing on the following themes: 1. Connecting with teachers 2. Connecting with parents 3. Connecting with peers 4. Connecting with oneself 5. Connecting with learning 6. Connecting with support These areas of belonging must be embedded in school processes and culture as well as within any available taught curriculum. The evidence also advocates for allowing students to undertake thinking such as a SWOT analysis of their school to analyse what they perceive the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to be. This approach allows teachers and parents to intervene to redirect energy back to the strengths and opportunities which might be available to students to work towards increasing a sense of belonging.

Design thinking: what does the evidence say?

1. Understanding and empathy: students engage in thoughtful needs assessments, exercise empathy and flex other key social-emotional skills.

2. Identify and research: students develop their own sense of competence, efficacy and agency.

3. Communicate to ideate: students grow their voice and efficacy 4. Prototype and test: receiving and reflecting on feedback are essential students’ skills.

5. Iterate and reflect: acquisition of valuable skills of persistence and failing forward whilst developing deep content knowledge and skills’ development.

These methods which are engaging for the educator as well as the student provide us with a much-needed alignment between learning science and wellbeing science. If we can identify practices which promote and nurture both in tandem, we are surely better able to focus on relationship building and other meaningful aspects of our vital work. As Antonio Demassio reminds us “We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling machines that think.”

Sian May, Director of Senior School for Education in Motion (formerly Dulwich College International), most recently was High School Principal at the International School of Lausanne following her tenure as Head of Middle School at Sha Tin College (ESF), Hong Kong.

Prior to her overseas positions, Sian taught Philosophy and Religious Studies at Aquinas College, UK and has continued to teach Theory of Knowledge and Philosophy during her journey into Senior Leadership. A passionate advocate of innovative practices in Student Mental Health, feedback and assessment, Sian has helped create dynamic student leadership models. She has also led the way in implementing professional learning communities in schools, partnering with educators to develop talent amongst colleagues, student autonomy and self-management agendas.

Connect with Sian on LinkedIn or Twitter.

The University of Texas refers to Design Thinking as Humancentred Design owing to its focus on empathy and its application to real world solutions. The method itself is well evidenced and applied in many industries globally. However, it has been slower to impact schools. However, as Peggy Kern’s evidence shows, prototyping is a powerful method not just of connecting to

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45

OUTDOOR LEARNING FROM A WELLBEING PERSPECTIVE

BY RHIANNON PHILLIPS-BIANCO Having taught in The Netherlands for seven years, I have recently moved to a new role in Rome, Italy. Two very different settings, in two very different climates, with very different needs and priorities. Except for their English curriculum, they don’t have much in common, and I am enjoying the challenges of adapting to a new school environment.

Despite these differences, to my delight, both schools appreciate the enormous value of outdoor learning.

As a leader of wellbeing and positive education, I can’t help but focus on the significant benefits to both student and staff wellbeing that come from outdoor learning. Indeed, the UK education watchdog, OFSTED, concluded in a 2008 report analysing the impact of outdoor learning that “when planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom contributed significantly to raising standards and improving pupils’ personal, social and emotional development.”

Through my wellbeing and class teacher roles, here are just a few examples of how I have witnessed this.

Sensory Exploration During wellbeing sessions, students have connected with nature through their senses. Activities have included walking barefoot on grass (it’s surprising how many students have never done this), cloud gazing and learning to identify plants through scent alone. In the moment, most students are visibly more relaxed and enjoy the opportunity to take a step away from the more demanding rhythm of the classroom. Yet it has often been later that I have understood the true benefits of these sessions.

Parents have shared, amazed, how their child chose to cloud gaze to calm down after an argument; play-time supervisors have noticed when a frustrated student decided to take some time out in the ‘Quiet Garden’; and children have described how they collected lavender from their garden to put in a

pouch under their pillow to help them sleep. Whether planned sessions or spontaneous, short activities, remember that simple opportunities like this are helping students build up a precious toolkit of coping skills, even if you don’t notice it at the time.

Daniel Melbourne, the Outdoor Learning Specialist at my current school, radiates enthusiasm for the many benefits of embedding it into the school curriculum for all ages. He reflected that: It creates new and unusual opportunities for students to demonstrate learning and leadership skills and usually it’s the students who aren't so confident in the classroom who get more from it.

It can make classes bond together in a different way, having a shared experience with the whole class and not just a group of friends.

It’s an amazing equaliser; it doesn’t matter what you have at home or how much you have, it brings everyone to a level playing field, and it’s more about your effort to complete something.

Being away from technology and social media is one of the best things about being outdoors for me, especially in teenagers. Giving them the space to be away from it but also an excuse to not be on it. It makes us focus on the people we are with, not the versions of people we see online.

Ultimately, it’s a chance to reset and forget about the stresses of day to day life.

Active, Outdoor Brain Breaks In the UK, many schools have adopted the Daily Mile; in The Netherlands, my previous school uses the Brain Break K; and in Rome I sense my class needs to move and whisk them outside to break up the day. Research shows how invaluable movement is for concentration and, therefore, learning; add to that a few minutes to reconnect with nature, and the benefits can only increase. Whether it’s a ten minute run around the playground or star jumps and running on the spot where space is more limited, it provides a welcome blast of fresh air, gets heartbeats racing and often inspires moments of laughter, connection and collaboration. All of this is conducive to a more vibrant, positive learning environment once returning to the classroom, benefitting students both academically and emotionally. As Dr J.J. Ratey explains, “…not only does exercise help the brain get ready to learn but it actually makes retaining information easier.”

Structured Outdoor Learning Lessons In both of my schools, I have had the privilege to work with teachers who are qualified outdoor learning practitioners.

Whilst watching and learning from them, apart from the benefits already mentioned, it struck me how important these structured lessons are for developing resilience.

All too often, our students are in their comfort zones and/or protected from taking risks. Outdoor Learning provides a valuable opportunity to step away from this. Under the guidance of qualified instructors, I have watched them thrive on the challenge of tasks such as building a shelter in the pouring rain and lighting a fire with fire-strikers. Neither task was easy and, on completion, the sense of satisfaction, pride and joy was highly evident. Once again this is both positive in the moment and beneficial for the future. On the next occasion a student is struggling, they can be reminded about the resilience they showed when fire-making, as well as all those positive emotions they experienced having persevered and succeeded.

Discussing outdoor learning with such an enthusiastic specialist was an important reminder to me as a class teacher that I must make time for it; and as a wellbeing leader that I must encourage my team to do so too. As with many other areas of our role in supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing, we can’t afford to allow ourselves to fall into the trap of prioritising academics over emotional and social skills. The two must be taught in parallel, with equal priority, and Outdoor Learning is an excellent example of how that can be achieved.

Rhiannon Phillips-Bianco is a Year 6 Class Teacher and Leader of Wellbeing and Positive Education (3-18) at Southlands British International School. Twitter: @RhiPhillipsB

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47

OUTSTANDING SCHOOLS EUROPE SHOWCASES TRANSFORMATIVE STRATEGY AND BEST PRACTICES IN WELLBEING AND INCLUSION

BY ADAM BEESON How do schools support the most vulnerable students in their learning communities to thrive inside and outside of the classroom? What is the role of context in building more cohesive communities and equitable educational practices? And how can ARTWORK BY JESSICA VISAGIE (GREENBRIER MIDDLE SCHOOL, USA) data be used to maximize and monitor student and staff wellbeing?

These were just some of the questions addressed in the wellbeing and inclusion stream at the 2022 Outstanding Schools Europe Conference, which took place online March 8-10 and featured more than twenty expert speakers shaping the future of wellbeing in international schools throughout Europe and beyond.

Professor Deborah Eyre, founder of High Performance Learning, chaired and opened the conference with discussion on the need to rethink the approach to teaching and learning for the future of education. With reference to the 1965 Pygmalion in the classroom study, Eyre noted the power of expectation in the classroom. “As a teacher, what you believe is what you will get,” she said. “If we don’t have high expectations, we won’t get high level outcomes.”

Speaking at a time of conflict, with Ukrainian children fleeing their country for safety within the European Union, Eyre noted that the student outcomes we seek are not uniquely academic; schools must focus more broadly on graduating young people who can thrive in an uncertain future. For that, she believes, wellbeing is fundamentally crucial.

However, the only way we can sustainably, effectively support youth wellbeing is through the development of contextual wellbeing in schools, according to Dr. Helen Street. In her keynote address, Creating Positive Schools from the Inside Out,

Street called for schools to shift their focus from the pursuit of wellbeing - teaching wellbeing as if it were a separate subject from the reality of the lives that students live - to living well.

Contextual wellbeing is a systems approach to understanding wellbeing. It is “the belonging and engagement that arises from meaningful connection to a healthy social context,” Street said.

“When we have belonging and engagement it improves every aspect of our lives, including academic performance and motivation.”

Cautioning against the “dangerous trend of seeing wellbeing as some kind of competition, as if you could earn a badge for being well,” Street urged a shift from developing individual wellbeing programs to creating a thriving community that meets the needs of young people more effectively and more equitably. To accomplish this, contextual wellbeing places focus on people, prioritizing healthy relationships and building cohesion; policy and practice that meets the needs of the entire community in equitable, inclusive and respectful ways; social norms built from a school’s core values; and physical space that reflects these values and norms.

At the classroom level, schools should aim to make wellbeing and inclusion easier to do than not to do, according to Daniel Sobel and Leo Thompson, who discussed this idea and more in How to Promote an Inclusive Classroom Environment in Your School. Sobel argued that, while inclusion has become a priority for schools in recent years, many of the practices, such as pulling students out of the classroom for additional learning support, result in exclusion in the name of inclusion.

The best form of inclusion is simply good pedagogy: as a teacher, ensure you are teaching every student in the classroom. To support teachers in this practice, Sobel founded the Global Inclusive Teaching Initiative, a new, ground breaking, global, teaching programme, supporting SDG4 and UNESCO. In Removing Barriers to Education and Providing Quality Learning Opportunities for Students with Learning Needs, April Remfrey, moderated a panel of international school leaders from across Europe to discuss what strategies and approaches work in delivering effective and safe support to meet the complex learning needs of students in the classroom and online.

Dr. Johanna Cena, director of teaching and learning at the American School of Barcelona, expressed the importance of structuring differentiation into the fabric of the school. This includes timetabled, collaborative meeting times during which teachers can discuss the needs of all students together and to plan strategies accordingly. Caroline Cullen, whole-school deputy principal, director of student support, and WLT strategic lead for safeguarding at St Julian's School, Portugal, emphasized a systematic approach to inclusion, including the development of a coaching culture in which a student’s sense of belonging becomes a core part of planning a lesson, not an addition at the end of the curriculum. Anna Kadieva, executive director of Le Sallay International Academy, highlighted the vital role of technology - such as breakout rooms for small group work, private messaging for student feedback and special fonts for dyslexic learners - to provide more inclusive teaching and learning experiences for those who thrive in an unconventional classroom.

Other conference sessions included interactive roundtable discussions on restorative practices in international schools and getting character education right, a fireside chat on how and why international schools must take a proactive approach to safeguarding and a panel discussion on implementing a wholeschool approach to happiness, wellbeing, and social and emotional learning.

This approach is central to #themonalisaeffect, the method Savage developed to help teachers and school leaders use data to look at what lies beneath the masks that children and young people wear and, keeping #wellbeingfirst, help them change their story. “My mission as an educator is that every child has a fundamental right to be seen and to be known,” Savage said, “and only if they are seen and known do they stand a chance of belonging and only if they belong will they thrive.”

To get started on this journey, Savage proposed two questions educators can ask themselves: how well do I know my students, and how well do I use that information to make their lives better?

He offered five ways in which schools can collect data on attitudes and wellbeing: 1. Observational data collected at the school gate and between peers 2. Check-in data through tools like mood cups, happy or not, and circle time 3. Survey data such as the PASS Survey, KHDA Census, Anna Freud Centre and EPOCH 4. Counselling data which identifies group hotspots, common issues, referrals and trends 5. “Everything else” data, which includes information on attendance and punctuality, behavior, achievement, progress, retention and more “Every school has a number of students who are lost; never experiencing visible success; never experiencing truly positive wellbeing,” Savage said. “If only we can use this data for good instead of ill, then a child like (that) can be found.”

Join Outstanding Schools at their next Wellbeing and Inclusion stream on 5-6 October 2022 at Outstanding Schools Middle East Conference in Dubai.

The final keynote of the wellbeing and inclusion stream, Using Data to Maximise and Monitor Student and Staff Wellbeing, was delivered by Matthew Savage, former international school principal, educational consultant and founder of #themonalisaeffect, who explained why schools must use data as a force for good and as a critical tool in their diversity, equity and inclusion toolbox.

“Data should be the great leveler,” Savage said. “If schools can truly understand each child who sits before them, then they can identify which groups of children are not experiencing the same quality of learning and wellbeing as others. They can identify where there is imbalance and inequity in front of them and they can actually do something about it.” Savage noted that data and assessment in relation to wellbeing can affect a redistribution power, but that change can only happen when schools find each individual student, know each individual student, and look at who they actually are in their instruction, teaching and learning and pastoral care.

Adam Beeson is copy editor for Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine. He has more than a decade of international school teaching and leadership experience in the United States, Austria and Costa Rica.

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn.

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49

SAVE THE DATE:

ECIS CHANGE THROUGH PARTNERSHIP STUDENT-LED CONFERENCE 15 OCTOBER 2022

BY JIM ELLIS What is CHANGE through Partnerships?

In October of 2021, Kam Chohan from ECIS and Richard Parker from ISL London met in person to begin the steps to a new partnership between the two organizations, one that places students at the center of meaningful relationships with community partners.

ARTWORK BY JESSICA VISAGIE (GREENBRIER MIDDLE SCHOOL, USA)

Traditionally called service learning, there is so much learning to do with how we as international schools apply our time, resources, and shape goals as we send our students out into the community. For some time now, many schools have been innovating and growing their capacity to foster long-term and equal partnerships with community partners by putting listening, setting realistic timelines, creating achievable goals and at the center of experiences.

Yet, maintaining this level of programming is not easy and many international schools have not yet been able achieve such goals. It is here that Kam Chohan and Richard Parker met as they seek ways to impact ECIS member schools and their service programs in a dramatic way.

This is where CHANGE though Partnerships was born, a new program named by students during our February 2022 planning event on Zoom that involved international school students and refugee students in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Shortly after this gathering, committees were created to study the aims of this program and to make decisions about the upcoming October 15th, 2022, conference. Just like the current committees, the conference will be student-led and will feature students from around the world participating, presenting, and even performing music at the event.

It is the promise of participation, presentation and performance that are exciting for all of those involved. Not only will the CHANGE though Partnerships program help school build or maintain their best partnerships in the name of service, but it aims to build community among students themselves, to have a peer audience, a peer learning community, and a peer support structure.

Save the date: 15th October 2022 Find out more information at: https://www.ecis.org/events/change-throughpartnership/

BOOK REVIEW RAISE HER UP: STORIES AND LESSONS FROM WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

BY DEBRA E. LANE AND KIMBERLY CULLEN

By Sadie Hollins The book Raise Her Up: Stories and Lessons from Women in International Educational Leadership by Dr Debra Lane and Kimberly Cullen presents a collection of uplifting and powerful narratives from a number of women working in a diverse range of leadership roles in the international school context.

The fact still stands that women are largely underrepresented in leadership roles in education.

As a recent survey in 2021 by CIS, Diversity Collaborative, International School Services, and George Mason University found, head teachers at international schools are three times more likely to be male than female. What’s interesting here is that whilst 75% of the international schools surveyed had a male head teacher, the leadership teams were much more balanced, consisting of 52% male and 48% female staff, whilst the teaching body, on average, is composed of 61% female and 29% male staff. This research continues to show a trend whereby male staff often climb the leadership ranks ahead of women, despite women making up the majority of the international teaching workforce.

This book is essential reading for all who identify as women and are working in the international school context as a leader, or an aspiring leader. As a new middle leader, I found myself nodding in agreement at many of the points raised. In particular, Michelle’s story really resonated with me. In an early career teaching position, Michelle was asked to take on a huge amount of (largely unpaid) responsibility. Her journey of boundary setting, negotiation and growing sense of self worth, was uplifting to read. When I read the reference to Shonk’s (2021) notion that “women negotiate more effectively for others than they do themselves”, a lightbulb went off for me. I had often found myself in this exact situation - willingly facing conflict in order to advocate for others, but struggling to do this for myself.

There was something incredibly affirming about this observation, and I found myself thinking about it for some time after. As I read on, I continued to experience moments like this throughout the book.

The strength of this book can be found in each and every one of the stories shared. There are ten stories in total, alongside commentary from Debra and Kimberly, which help to tease out the leadership lessons learned. Additionally, the authors pose questions to help you reflect on your own journey. Chapter 10 brings the book to a close by summarising the five central threads presented through the different stories; self-awareness, authenticity, courage, connectedness, and resilience. In this summary chapter, Debra and Kimberly also provide some helpful exercises and resources for developing your practice in each of these areas.

As the book highlights, working in an international context can present a series of both familiar and unique challenges, and the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles can lead to feelings of isolation at times. This book speaks to those challenges, whilst surrounding the reader with stories that demonstrate how the women before and alongside you have overcome them. The book feels like an invisible mentor, providing you with the courage and resolve to create your own roadmap. I am grateful to Debra, Kimberly and all of the contributors for sharing their journeys, and am thankful for the opportunity to read them. The book certainly serves to raise us all up!

Raise Her Up: Stories and Lessons from Women in International Educational Leadership is available to buy in print and Kindle version at Amazon, Solution Tree, and Blackwell.

Information about the book, the authors, the community, and professional learning opportunities can be found at www.raiseherup.net.

For targeted professional growth designed for women leaders and those dedicated to raising them up, go to https://www.solutiontree.com/leadership/pd-services or email contact@raiseherup.net.

Watercress by Andrea Wang, Jason Chin (Illustrator) (ISBN: 9780823446247) Picture books have a way of using very few words, yet conveying so much depth. This story of an immigrant family stopping by the roadside for the parents to pick Watercress and then making it into a meal. You watch the protagonist move through shame, rejection, acknowledgment, and understanding. What a powerful book.

Suitable for all ages from Kindergarten.

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald, Freya Blackwood (Illustrator) (ISBN: 9781921714764) One of my favourite books on translanguaging and bilingualism.

Cartwheel and her auntie flee their country to the safety of another home. She is isolated and lonely: “When I went out, it was like standing under a waterfall of strange sounds. The waterfall was cold. It made me feel alone" until another young girl reaches out to her and helps her communicate in her new environment. The analogy of weaving a “word blanket” with two languages is just beautiful, as are the illustrations.

Suitable for read-aloud for all ages from 6 years.

Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh (ISBN: 9780525632023) Considering belonging by appearances can be deceptive. Max is a thirteen-year-old American boy living in Brussels, Belgium where he’s feeling lonely and homesick and unable to fit into his new school. On the other hand, fourteen-year-old Ahmed fled Aleppo, Syria, and lost his father along the way and his every-day existence is a struggle. The two boys meet and find they have more in common than it first appears. An excellent book for these times of migration.

Suitable for ages 10 and up.

Puberty is Gross, But Also Really Awesome by Gina Loveless, Lauri Johnson (Illustrator) (ISBN: 9781635653533) Books on growing up and puberty have really “grown up” in the last few years and this volume is another welcome addition. With great graphics and illustrations this is the ideal book to either read cover-tocover or to dip in and out of as needed depending on the topic. It also received the endorsement of my middle-schoolers who like the nononsense factual approach to topics that may concern them.

Suitable for students ages 10 and up and their parents.

Growing Up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School by Danau Tanu (ISBN: 9781785334085) Tanu brings the old ideas of the “expat kid” into the 21st Century.

Her ethnographic study, based at an international School in Indonesia updates our vocabulary and understanding of international mobility while growing up. For example the traditional “Third Culture Kid - 3CK” from missionaries and Western executives to “Transnational Youth” who come from a melting pot of diversity including national students with varying backgrounds. The politics of language, identity and belonging are delved into, as are how both linguistic and social code-switching occurs as students move between groups.

Suitable for teachers and school counsellors.

How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Creating Trust, Cooperation, and Community Across Differences by Jennifer Brown (ISBN: 9781523085170) Written for a corporate audience, this book is also applicable to the educational environment. Brown identifies four stages of inclusionminded leadership: Unaware, Aware, Active, and Advocate. The continuum is not linear but has a spiral or cyclical nature. The book explains the psychology of exclusion/inclusion and the types of biases participant, confirmation, self-enhancement, unconscious, and distance bias.

Suitable for teachers and administration.

Nadine is a middle school teacher-librarian / technology integrator at the Western Academy of Beijing. She's passionate about multi-cultural books and resources that reflect the diversity of students in International Schools. You can check out her blog at: https://intlnadine.org/

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