6 minute read
Brighter fields: the Global Leaders Mentoring Program
Kate Brown Head of Junior School Debbie Tarrant High Potential Learning Co-ordinator
Three Pymble staff participated in the Bright Field mentoring program in 2021/22, connecting the College to girls’ schools in the United Kingdom, the United States and India. The program is facilitated by Ian Wigston, co-founder of Bright Field Consulting, and aims to support leaders of girls’ schools around the world to provide leadership and growth opportunities for their students and staff.
Click here to read Punam’s article on page 36. Participants are firstly paired with a mentor from a global context, whose specialisation extends beyond the field of education. Online mentoring allows the participant to explore areas of importance to them in their practice as a teacher-leader. Additionally, participants are paired with a teaching colleague from a girls’ school in another country and work on a project together which is implemented in their schools.
Head of Junior School, Kate Brown, High Potential Learning Co-ordinator, Debbie Tarrant, and College Chaplain, Reverend Punam Bent, were Pymble’s first participants in Bright Field Global Mentoring. Kate and Debbie share their experiences in this reflection and Punam’s can be found in Edition 6 of Illuminate, 2021, p.36-41.
KATE BROWN, HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL
Participating in the Global Mentoring program challenged me to reflect personally and as a leader. The program assigned me a mentor, Marjon, who coached me to identify, reflect upon and manage challenges in my leadership journey. A key aspect of our coaching conversations has been on how I can manage my energy and my day to allow me to carve space for creative and strategic thinking and to pursue personal goals – not easy whilst leading a school through a pandemic! Marjon worked closely with me so that I could understand how my predisposition and behaviour influence my performance as a leader. I was surprised by how open I was prepared to be with Marjon from the outset,
showing how effective the choice of her as my mentor was. Ian used the Insights Discovery Personal Profile to match us. Through the mentoring sessions, I have grown in reflective practice and know that this positively impacts my capacity as a leader.
Alongside working with a leadership mentor, the opportunity to work with an international educator developed my perspective on the concerns and challenges of our young people globally. Partnership with an educational leader at The Philadelphia high school for Girls, a selective High School in Philadelphia, USA, enabled us both to share our action research and community project ideas, ultimately shaping a focus relevant to both our contexts. My partner Nichole’s focus was to introduce balance for her students. Acutely aware of the increasing levels of anxiety in their high-pressured academic environment and the negative impact on their girls’ wellbeing with the isolation of lockdowns throughout the pandemic, Nichole sought to explore the impact of introducing a mindfulness program. The Philadelphia High School for Girls wanted to analyse whether a 12-week mindfulness program would enhance students’ academic ability and teach them how to de-escalate their own stress.
With the instability in society over the last three years, my focus was on the power of kindness to empower young children to have a voice, a sense of hope and the confidence to be agents for positive change in their community. The broader perspective I gained through many conversations with Nichole heightened my belief in the power of kindness and its capacity to empower young people as learners and leaders.
Our combined action research focus was ‘Investigating how a focus on social/emotional learning enables girls to flourish as learners.’ Nichole and I then explored this focus through our own lens. My primary focus group has been Year 5 students as the future leaders of the Junior School. My action research will culminate in the College’s inaugural Children’s Kindness Convention on 15th June, 2022 where 100 children from schools across Sydney will collaborate on solution finding for social issues they identify through the lens of kindness.
Our data and the narrative around our respective journeys as researchers will be shared at the Coalition of Girls’ Schools Conference in Boston in June 2022. This opportunity has encouraged me to think deeply about what matters to me as a leader and why. Working alongside Dr Sarah Loch and the Pymble Institute has helped me grow skills as a researcher and has brought the joy of watching our Year 5 students see themselves as researchers and hearing them articulate their capacity as change makers with kindness as their super power. Working alongside Dr Sarah Loch and the Pymble Institute has helped me grow skills as a researcher and has brought the joy of watching our Year 5 students see themselves as researchers and hearing them articulate their capacity as change makers with kindness as their super power.
The most important aspect of the Global Mentoring program for me has been the opportunity to work with a mentor in the field of Education. Bright Field Consulting expertly match participants with fitting mentors, using the Insights Discovery Profile, and I have had the privilege of partnering with Maxine. Despite only speaking on “Zoom” a handful of times, Maxine has helped change the way I see myself and the direction of my career.
From the outset, Maxine was keen for me to get a sense of who I am as a leader, asking me probing questions about my goals and ambitions. I realised that I have been so immersed in my career that I have not allowed myself time to think carefully about my destination. Over the course of the year, Maxine has helped me develop a clearer sense of where I would like to be in ten years’ time and to take some decisive steps to get there. I have never spoken so frankly with anyone about my career before and, although it was difficult to do at first, it has enabled me to understand myself better. I am thankful for Maxine’s expertise as a mentor – her wise counsel and her ability to build trust and rapport, which facilitated this growth in me as a leader.
The Global Mentoring program has also afforded me the opportunity to learn about another school’s approach to Gifted Education. Working on a joint research project with Laura, one of the school leaders at Redmaids High School, has sharpened my vision for ‘High Potential Learners’ at Pymble. What a rare opportunity to engage with someone on the other side of the world in the common area of Gifted Education! Laura and I look forward to one day visiting each other’s schools and experiencing, in person, the Gifted Education programs we have spent many hours discussing on “Zoom”.
I hope other staff will have the opportunity to take part in the Global Mentoring program! It is not an overstatement to say it has been transformational. It has been a timely reminder of the power of mentoring, and I am very keen to share this experience with the students at Pymble as we develop our own Student Mentoring program.
