Tanglin’s Coaching Culture

Over the last two years, Tanglin has been working on developing a coaching culture. This has evolved into a successful programme that has a huge positive impact on the staff and students across all three schools. How did it all begin? Krista Magee, Arts Faculty Technical Executive (Film Studies) and accredited Coach, tells us more.

The student community also has access to coaching, especially when senior students lead initiatives. Students learn coaching through LifeSkills lessons as well, and their feedback has been extremely positive about this.

WHO IS LEADING THE COACHING CULTURE AT TANGLIN?

I’ve been incredibly privileged to lead Tanglin’s coaching culture with Sarah Aldous (Head of Faculty for Maths and Computing) and Flora Xu (Chinese teacher). For the past two years, we have been proudly taking the coaching programme to new heights. Between us, we have amassed 400 coaching hours, trained 24 coaches and still counting! But that’s not all we do. We have trained as supervisors so we can support Tanglin coaches with their practices.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Tanglin coaches have attended ‘Coach Up’, an international school conference on Coaching in Education, where some have presented their thoughts and lessons on coaching in schools. We will be hosting the next ‘Coach Up’ in September later this year and we also hope that as COVID-19 restrictions ease, we would be able to open our doors to the parent community. Parents will not only get the opportunity to train as coaches; they will also enjoy insights on coaching as a parent through ParentWise workshops. Many parents at Tanglin are already coaches themselves and we look forward to welcoming their viewpoints soon, as Tanglin’s coaching culture goes from strength to strength!

John Ridley, Director of Learning, said, “It’s hard to overstate the power of coaching to both support and challenge individuals. Developing a coaching culture has been an important strategic goal for the school and it has been really exciting to see our pool of in-house coaches reach a critical mass, led by Krista, Sarah and Flora. I’m proud of what they have achieved so far and looking forward to the next steps on Tanglin’s coaching journey.”

JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHER The coaching learning journey has been one of self-discovery and adaptation. The accreditation has altered what I perceive a good leader to be and the leader I would like to become. My understanding of communication and collaboration has deepened, and I can see how a generative thinking meeting can be so impactful and foster a meaningful rapport. To support others through coaching is something I am looking forward to.

WHAT IS A COACHING CULTURE?

Coaching is a way of framing conversations by inviting people to focus on their goals and the route to achieve them. People are motivated to achieve more when they are more aware of their goals and are challenged to go for a greater one. A coach believes that the ‘coachee’ can attain astonishing heights. By demonstrating this belief, a coachee feels recognised and empowered to reach for gold.

This works with students too, because teachers already have the ability to inspire, motivate, and create positive behaviours in their classrooms. That is one of the reasons why coaching in schools is so successful. When the whole community is engaged in this endeavour, everyone’s possibilities are valued.

WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON THE TANGLIN COMMUNITY?

There are currently 30 active coaches among Tanglin’s staff and more are being trained. Coaching is available to all staff for free. This can support them with new projects, managing teams, building positive relationships with colleagues and students, and raising their self-awareness.

HERE’S WHAT SOME OF OUR COACHES AND COACHEES SAY

STUDENT COACHEE I have learned how to effectively revise and complete a seemingly impossible task by breaking it down into chunks that I can do each day within a certain amount of time.

STAFF COACH [I now know] that I can do it, and anyone can. People often doubt themselves, as to why they are not able to do the things that they do and why they aren’t ‘good enough’ to do something they really enjoy. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is your passion and drive to achieve either an aim or objective that is personal to you. ■