September 25th 2021
On Thursday, I was at the Independent Association of Prep Schools Heads’ Conference in Bournemouth, with several hundred other Prep School Heads. The day was packed full of interesting and inspirational talks about the future of education, developments in the sector and leadership.
The Conference also provides an invaluable opportunity to network and share ideas with numerous other Heads, all of whom have been dealing with the same issues as Moulsford over past eighteen months, and more immediately this term. In particular, it has been very useful to learn how schools are currently responding to pupil Covid cases, and also getting the balance right between meeting groups of parents in person (e.g. year group information meetings) and/or going virtual for such events. As a school we have learnt much over the past three weeks to inform our future planning, and thank you for your patience as we navigate through these unusual times.
We had a particularly interesting session with Diana Osagie on Remarkable Leadership. While aimed at the Heads in the lecture hall, the themes of her talk are relevant across all media, and all age groups. With twenty years’ experience as a leader in secondary education, including six years as a successful headteacher in a London state secondary school, Diana works at the cutting edge of leadership development. She is known as a resilient school leader, skilled in urban leadership under challenging circumstances. Diana has had substantial success in developing school-wide models that strategically enhance the quality of teaching and learning across the curriculum and can couple sound strategic vision whilst giving clear operational direction. Diana also founded The Academy of Women’s Leadership; specialising in supporting women to grow the leadership cultures in their organisations and to flourish as leaders.
Two of the key points she focussed on were, first, ask bigger questions, such as: who’s doing things better than us? What can we learn from others? Who is challenging my thinking? In our decision making, are we fearless on behalf of the children in our school - if we’re not, then who will be?
Diana’s second point initially seemed somewhat unorthodox. It was ‘practise dancing’. As Verna Myers said, “Diversity is when everyone comes to the party. Inclusion is when everyone is asked to dance”. We know at Moulsford that we have big strides to take on the issue of diversity, and this is one of the big questions we should be asking ourselves. However, for those boys at the school, our aim is to be both diverse and inclusive ensuring that all boys have the opportunity to ‘dance’ in whatever field they choose. Recognising all boys’ talents and potential, and giving all boys the opportunities to flourish is central to the Moulsford ethos, and leads to a more creative and dynamic experience.
We’re also hoping to see many parents dancing on Saturday night at the Autumn Equinox Party!
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