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How to be a trauma informed leader
The coronavirus pandemic – and the response that has been required by the education system, is truly one of the most pressing challenges schools have ever faced. Many school leaders are experiencing serious ‘carers’ load’ and ‘vicarious trauma’ as a result of their staff and students’ challenges.
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Leading through disruption and into the future
The coronavirus pandemic – and the response that has been required by the education system, is truly one of the most pressing challenges schools have ever faced. Many school leaders are experiencing serious ‘carers’ load’ and ‘vicarious trauma’ as a result of their staff and students’ challenges.
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Leadership renewal for women in schools
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, burnout amongst teachers, school leaders and staff was at an all time high. As we continue to navigate the impacts of the pandemic, it is important to find opportunities to reflect, reconnect and refocus.The Australian Schools Women’s Leadership Summit provides a unique opportunity for women at all levels of school leadership to connect, share their experiences, build their leadership capacity and prioritise their own wellbeing.The summit, facilitated by Dr Janet Smith and Dr Debra Kelliher, will cover these three key themes:Where to from here?Guiding our schools through the coronavirus pandemic and continuing to prioritise patient care has placed extraordinary demands on school leaders across Australia and the world. This critical juncture presents a timely opportunity to reflect and learn from our recent experience and rethink the way we have done things in the past.Relational agencyHigh functioning teams are essential to the busy work of schools, yet as a team leader in a school do we know why effective teams work and why there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’? We’ll look at what makes a healthy team, the concept of ‘relational agency’ and the characteristics of trust – the essential foundation of a team. Useful for both team leaders and team members in schools.Inspiration and insights from inspirational women leadersDuring the summit, participants will hear from several inspirational education sector speakers about their leadership/career journeys and the key elements that have contributed to their success.Speakers include:Tanya Plibersek MP, Shadow Minister for Education, Shadow Minister for Women, Federal Member for SydneyDr Briony Scott, Principal, Wenona SchoolKristen Douglas, National Manager & Head, headspace SchoolsDr Jessa Rogers, First Nations Senior Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology; Managing Director, Baayi ConsultingAnd more! The pandemic has placed extraordinary demands on school leaders, who have been on the front lines dealing with unprecedented disruption for over two years. This summit will provide opportunities to be inspired by experts, connect with other school leaders, recharge leadership strategies and envisage and plan for the future. You can find out more and book your seat here. WE NEED MORE LEADERS LIKE YOUYou’re here because you know that great leadership enables better teaching and learning. We’re here to help you be a great leader within your school community. For more leadership news, plus event updates and expert tips, subscribe to our mailing list. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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Understanding and increasing your Social Capital
Our Wellbeing with NESLI series brings you essential wellbeing tools and downloadable resources that enhance the wellbeing of teachers, school leaders and school communities. In this edition of Wellbeing with NESLI, we look at Social Capital.Social Capital is an important factor when considering the wellbeing for your teachers, school staff and school leaders. A school community that enjoys robust social capital for everyone will lead to better student outcomes and boost morale across students, teachers and staff alike.There are three critical dimensions to social capital in the school community. These include:Bonding Social Capital: the day to day, interpersonal interactions that you and your teachers and staff have with each other. You can see this by looking out for friendly conversation, shared interests and a genuine connection and conversation between individuals.Bridging Social Capital: the social interactions and cohesiveness experienced between teams – not just the individuals in a team, but in inter-team cooperation and cohesion. You can see this by looking out for teams that work well together to support the outcomes of the other teams, and are able to identify opportunities for collaboration.Linking Social Capital: the social interactions that occur between different levels of seniority in the organisation – for example, the rapport between a junior member of staff and a member of your school’s leadership team. You can see this by looking for open collaboration and communication between different levels of leadership teams and individuals.This Social Capital poster provides a handy summary.To delve a little deeper, download the Social Capital Dimensions resource here to find out about three other types of social capital to look out for, and to complete a self-assessment of your own social capital.NESLI’s Staff Wellbeing Toolkit builds social capital within schools through a flexible, self-paced program. Find out more here.Downloadable resources:Social Capital posterSocial Capital Dimensions resource WE NEED MORE LEADERS LIKE YOUYou’re here because you know that great leadership enables better teaching and learning. We’re here to help you be a great leader within your school community. For more leadership news, plus event updates and expert tips, subscribe to our mailing list. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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Understanding and using the Ladder of Inference
Our Wellbeing with NESLI series brings you essential wellbeing tools and downloadable resources that enhance the wellbeing of teachers, school leaders and school communities. In this edition of Wellbeing with NESLI, we look at the Ladder of Inference. Do you ever jump to conclusions without carefully considering all the facts? Sometimes, it is easy to take a raised eyebrow, pause in conversation, email or a glance at a mobile and immediately assume that a fellow teacher doesn’t support your suggestion, or isn’t interested in your pitch for a new activity in the classroom. However, this isn’t always the case.The Ladder of Inference model, created by Chris Argyris, gives you a framework to examine the conclusions you draw from everyday interactions at school. To strip it back to the basics, the Ladder of Inference reminds us to use all the data we have available to us to draw a conclusion – not just the data we immediately notice. The example below gives a summary of how you may move quickly up the Ladder of Inference without considering all the information available.There are four steps on the Ladder of Inference: See and hear: you see a parent looking at their phone while their child does a presentation at assembly.Constructing a story: you might quickly assume that the parent is not interested in their child’s work and effort because they aren’t paying attention.Think and feel: you could feel frustrated or angry with the parent, and sympathy for the child who is being ignored. You might think that the parent does not care enough about the child’s learning.Say and do: you might communicate less openly and positively with the parent, or even ask them to look away from their phone and give attention to their child. You might give the child extra feedback and attention.In this scenario, the information you might be missing is that the parent also has a sick child at home, who needs assistance. The parent may also have an urgent work-related matter to attend to, or an elderly parent who needs something. Therefore, what you have inferred from their actions (that they aren’t supportive of their child) is unfounded, and your subsequent reaction is not proportionate.It is easy to move quickly up the Ladder of Inference – most of us do it subconsciously, and in seconds. Taking the time to recognise when you are climbing the ladder, and to then come back down to examine the data before coming to a more rational conclusion is an important skill for leaders in school environments.Here are some questions that can help you unpack your assumptions and reactions: How many times have I leapt up the ladder in the last week?What were the beliefs I held or the assumptions I made?Were the assumptions I made fair and accurate?Do I have all the information I need to know what is going on here?What impact will my actions or words have in this situation?How can I be more curious about the situation, and mediate my response? You can find out more about the Ladder of Inference by downloading the Ladder of Inference poster. Sharing this model with your team and colleagues can create a shared language and understanding, and can be a helpful prompt for team building. WE NEED MORE LEADERS LIKE YOUYou’re here because you know that great leadership enables better teaching and learning. We’re here to help you be a great leader within your school community. For more leadership news, plus event updates and expert tips, subscribe to our mailing list. SUBSCRIBE NOW
After one of the hottest summers on record, Australian teachers went back to the classroom with lesson plans, camps booked in and a few excursions and incursions to look forward to. After the black summer we had endured, we welcomed our students, parents and the wider school community back through the gates for another year of learning, growing, laughing and developing as a whole, relieved that the worst seemed to be over.
Here at NESLI, we were excitedly planning events, developing new programs for school leaders across the globe, and looking forward to continuing to support school leaders at all stages of their career, as they in turn supported the school community.
However, by March, students (and teachers) were being sent home across the country, and the around the globe. Some only for a couple of weeks, some for a month, and for students and teachers in Victoria, for almost half the year. Lesson plans designed for face-to-face lessons went out the window, excursions and incursions got put on hold and camps were cancelled in a year I think we can all be truly grateful is a ‘once in a lifetime’ event.
Teachers were working in unprecedented circumstances and having to adapt so quickly from face-to-face to online instruction, a pivot that was nothing short of heroic on their part. There was more pressure on teachers’ time, energy and resources than ever before. Something we noticed at NESLI while facilitating leadership development programs during this time was the importance of ensuring that teachers had peer-to-peer and wellbeing support. While this could be found in their own school environment, having contact and support from people outside of their school community was often also beneficial. Despite the extra support we were able to provide, our surveys confirmed what we had observed; teacher wellbeing declined during this time.
However, one bright light in this time was the calls from many different groups in society to finally recognise, appreciate and celebrate the role of teachers, school staff and school leaders. It was long overdue, but finally, it seems that the crucial role that teachers play is finally being recognised.
Post lockdown, things began to get back to something resembling normal for some states and territories, much quicker than others. We noticed a marked sense of relief from teachers, school leaders and school staff at NESLI, as one by one, people got back to school. For Victoria, the reprieve was brief, before they went into a hard second lockdown. While teacher wellbeing is gradually increasing to pre-pandemic levels, there is still a long way to go. The leaders we have the privilege of developing and supporting have done a magnificent job of supporting their school community, and we are proud to support them in turn.
As always, we looked for opportunities to support teachers, school leaders, school staff and school communities across the globe. A bright light for NESLI this year is the opportunity to partner with the Association of International Schools Africa, who are giving 80 of their member schools the opportunity to undertake the Staff Wellbeing Toolkit with NESLI. Locally, we have continued to work with many long time partners to support their staff internally.
Looking forward to 2021, we are crossing our fingers that everyone was right when they labelled COVID-19 a ‘once in a lifetime’ event. We are hoping that people will continue to remember the incredible work and sacrifice that school communities made to ensure that kids were able to continue learning, growing and developing during a pandemic. We look forward to having the opportunity to support more teachers and school leaders to improve their wellbeing and develop their leadership skills. And we trust that we will get to see you all, in person, at some point during the course of the year.
A very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all.
