We’ve had some rather exciting news this week, with the appointment of Cassie Kitani to the position of Associate Director (School Partnerships).
We reckon Cassie is amazing … but you’ll be the judges of that when she starts showing you what she’s capable of in 2021!
GIFTS
Join Amy on Tuesday at 5pm where this week she gives you a sneak peak inside our Teacher Wellbeing Partnership. Jump on to find out the 5 Domains of Teacher Wellbeing and how each of these contribute to your wellbeing both in and out of the classroom.
If you have a question or point of discussion for Teacher Talk send it to Amy at amy@realschools.com.au
OPPORTUNITIES
Teacher Wellbeing PL for 2021 Teacher Wellbeing is on the agenda for many schools at the moment, so to help, we have a limited number of opportunities available to partner with us to help you improve Teacher Wellbeing in your school.
This includes combining our Teacher Wellbeing Partnerships with PL days, in school support, mentoring for school leaders and coaching for teaching staff. Knowing that each school is different, we have the ability to tailor an approach that meets your school’s needs. If you want know more, send an email to info@realschools.com.au and we will be in touch.
THOUGHTS by Simon Dewar
Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of working with a number of different schools to review and revisit their values in preparation for the year ahead. It was great fun and we had plenty of rich and robust discussions.
What I really found fascinating was despite every school being extremely different, there were common themes that emerged.
I’m not going to unpack the themes today, but I do want to touch on one theme that struck me as important. As we started to dig deep into their values, every school arrived at the realisation that we often default to think about the behaviour of our students and their ability to ‘live out’ the values. We rarely place the same weight or focus on the behaviour of our teachers.
What I loved about these schools was their determination to ensure that their values weren’t just pretty signs around the school or in the newsletter. They wanted to be clear on the behaviours that they could model to their students that were in line with their values.
I could write a whole paper that unpacks the high-quality discussion, but today I want to share my three take-aways that again, became common themes.
- A culture of respect starts with the professional relationships of staff.
- When we are burned out, unhappy, stressed and resentful, it can easily lead to being impatient of, and disrespectful to our students.
- When the adults in a school engage in respectful interactions, it creates a respectful culture for our students to thrive.
When we role model our values, we don’t need to spend hours explicitly teaching them. Our influence is by what we do, not what we say.
EPIPHANIES by Amy Green
Let it simmer.
New ideas can be like a new haircut – you have to let them simmer before they get the green light.
Sometimes, when we hear new ideas, find out something we weren’t expecting or a decision is made we don’t necessarily like, we can find ourselves reacting rather than responding.
At the end of each school year lots of changes and decisions are made; you may find out you are teaching Year 6 when you had your fingers crossed for Year 1, your teaching team may not be exactly what you were hoping for or the leadership position you really wanted wasn’t meant to be.
This is where letting it simmer can help. If something happens and it wasn’t what you were hoping for or it takes you by surprise, let it simmer for a little while. Give time and space to see the opportunity, solution or possibility. This takes time, hence, let it simmer.
Warm regards,
