NEWS ARTICLE

The state of wellbeing in international schools – insights from outsiders

Oct 18, 2021

Wellbeing has become a key talking point worldwide. This has resulted in new initiatives and breakthroughs within the education sector. The recent ISC Research Edruptors conference delved into this subject in a discussion led by Nalini Cook, Head of EMEA Research at ISC Research, alongside a panel of four popular education podcasters.

The state of wellbeing in international schools – insights from outsiders

Oct 18, 2021 | Data & Trends, Good practice

Wellbeing has become a key talking point worldwide. This has resulted in new initiatives and breakthroughs within the education sector. The recent ISC Research Edruptors conference delved into this subject in a discussion led by Nalini Cook, Head of EMEA Research at ISC Research, alongside a panel of four popular education podcasters.

You can view a soundbite of this session on our YouTube channel. It includes advice for international schools on the most important teacher skills when wishing to develop schoolwide wellbeing.

If you missed our recent Edruptors Conference, here are just a few of the key messages from the wellbeing discussion…

Kyra Kellawan, host and creator of the PilotEd Podcast offered advice on how schools can create a wellbeing focused community. Kyra discussed the value of schools developing open mindedness, resilience and building communication between staff and students to empower one another and form an allyship.

Nicholas McKie, Associate Professor and Director of Persyou, presented a thought-provoking message about how a holistic environment is achieved through “collaboration not isolation”. Nick discussed how schools need to set the conditions for flourishing, by forming a different mindset, moving past targets, and instead looking at relationships and compassion.

Richard Henry, a school Head and Where’s Your Head At? Podcaster, debated whether current curriculum and pedagogy models are helping or hindering the wellbeing of teachers. He highlighted how recent disruptions have shown that assessments can be done differently: “Let the teachers do their thing and change the direction, let the students drive the direction”.

Sophie Bailey, Founder and Host of The EdTech Podcast, drew attention to how technology has made schools more creative around their curriculum and how it is taught. “Technology has brought focus to support networks and collaborative means moving to a hybrid learning model and rethinking the environments we learn in to support student and teacher wellbeing, social and emotional needs fuel our learning success”.

For more valuable discussions from the conference, take a look in the September and forthcoming issues of International School Leader Magazine. To participate in more informative discussions, we hope to see you on our forthcoming webinars or presentations, or at next year’s Edruptors Conference in July 2022.

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