Seizing success at the National College Leadership Conference

Last week The Learning Escape team made their way to Birmingham to attend the National College Annual Leadership Conference. Named Seizing Success, it brought together world-class speakers to share their insights into modern leadership.

It was a busy three days filled with talks and workshops that observed and challenged the educational system. It sparked some interesting debate and got everyone thinking about leadership in schools.

Some of our highlights included…

Sir Ken Robinson: finding your element

Ken’s satellite link speech wasn’t backlit with the sunny views of Los Angeles like he was hoping as due to clouds over Birmingham it was delivered via a crackly Skype. He shared his views on how schools are a place to find your element. He said that happiness isn’t an economic state, it’s a spiritual one and that we should be doing more to help pupils find their natural talents and live more creatively.

If you would rather see him at his best rather than through a blurry Skype link, his latest TED video ‘How to escape education’s death valley’ is in similar vein, as is his speech that ‘schools kill creativity’.

Mick Waters: this learning life

Mick Waters believes that there are four key elements that influence learner success; teaching, leadership at all levels, curriculum maps and a disposition to learning. Add all of these elements together and you’ll have a quality learning experience. The challenge is to keep arguing about teaching and learning, as well as leadership, as we sometimes forget that these learning experiences will stay with children for life.

Some of the ways he suggested we help children to become what they want to become is to be ready to take responsibility, to be fascinated by the natural world and to be intrigued by our attempts to impact the world.

Pasi Sahlberg: the Finnish school system – killing the GERMS

Current education policies are being infected by GERMs, the Global Education Reform Movement and yet Finland has one of the best educational systems in the world. Pasi Sahlberg suggested that by getting rid of the symptoms of GERMs, Finland has been able to develop a school system that is collaborative, creative, devoid of grading until fifth grade and without any competition. Most importantly, the Finnish education system has based its ethos on trust-based responsibility – key for helping pupils make decisions and improving their leadership.

The conference finished on an encouraging note with speakers reminding us to stay positive, believe in something and never give up. We hope these are messages that are around to stay.