Emerging Leaders' Summit

What a full on and excellent weekend!  The speakers were all of high calibre

Here's a link to the team leaders' shared Prezzie presentation of the event

Mark Osborne started, with a great presentation on leadership, including the differences between leadership and management.
One of the great quotes on effective leadership that he passed on to us was "Focus on strengths, ignore non-talents and fix fatal flaws."
The primacy of relationships was clear, along with the importance of mentoring.

I was very interested and impressed with his promotion of John Kotter, author of Leading Change. There was excellent discussion of why people may be resistant w=to change of on how they perceive change - is it cognitive (in the head) or affective (in the heart)? Turning it round by seeing change as an opportunity is the way to go. Kotter's 8-step process, although embedded in business culture, still has many elements worthy of consideration and practice in an educational setting, eg identifying a sense of urgency, building a guiding coalition, forming strategic vision, removing barriers to change and communicating clearly how the change has led to wins or improvements.

Janelle Riki-Bennett gave an excellent presentation on cultural responsiveness, acknowledging Maori and Maori and engaging with them on their terms.
It made me reflect on the things we are doing well at West Melton (eg kapahaka, Moira signage, the relationship with the local runanga, marae trips) but the clear need to keep reflecting on how to be more effective.

One of my favourite sessions was Rebbecca Sweeny's on the cycles of inquiry. She really promoted focus very closely on the learners, really taking time to get to know them and more clearly identify their needs. Working collaboratively with colleagues, the learners and their parents leads to more powerful inquiry. I really feel that this session, in particular will be of benefit as I work collaboratively with others through teacher inquiry cycles to improve outcomes for learners.

Finally, Mark Osborne presented again, this time on innovative learning environments, including furniture and spaces. He reiterated the primacy of relationships, even in this aspect of learning, for example by giving learners a sense of ownership in the learning environment.

It was great to have the opportunity to engage in high quality professional development and reflect on new learnings with equally engaged colleagues. A well-worthwhile course to attend!