Intentionally Small Schools SIG Group: What’s Our Learning Purpose? No, Really! 12 March

This conversation is an opportunity to step back from all the noise, the expectations, the unpredictable nature of leading a small school. It’s an invitation to ask ourselves, “When it comes right down to it, what are we really trying to do here?”. The session will propose an answer to that question, ” To nurture learners who can make sense of the world, and help the world make more sense “.  In other words, it’s a call to start with our end in mind, to focus on our transfer goals, the conceptual understandings, competencies and character that our young learners will carry with them into the myriad contexts they will encounter in their lives.

We’ll look at a Portrait of a Learner…and attempt to define that end-in-mind. That’s just the beginning. We’ll then share a glimpse of what schools can look like: their curriculum, their school- parent relationships, their recruitment, their professional learning systems, the physical environment…if everything in the ecosystem is re-aligned with the shared goal of achieving the Portrait.

Finally, we’ll unpack the unique advantages of Intentionally Small Schools in achieving the systemic transformations made possible by achieving clarity about, and shared commitment to, our real learning purpose…the quality and qualities of the young people we send out into the world.

Kevin Bartlett led schools in the UK, Tanzania, Namibia, Austria and Belgium, where he was most recently Director of the International School of Brussels. He has been deeply involved in transforming international education on a number of fronts, including:

Accreditation

Co-designer of accreditation systems for the European Council of

International Schools (ECIS), the Council of International Schools (CIS)

and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

Governance

Founding Member/Chairman of the Board of CIS, served on numerous other Boards, and led many Governance workshops and conferences.

Leadership

Long-term Writer/Trainer for the Principals’ Training Center (PTC).

Curriculum Design

Initiator/early leader of the IB Primary Years Programme.

Founder of Global Initiatives

The Next Frontier: Inclusion. www.thenextfrontierinclusion.org

The Common Ground Collaborative (CGC) www.thecgcproject.org

National Level Contributions

Recently keynoted the Annual Conference of the Chilean National Council of Education. Currently serving on a Focus Group on Governance and Leadership for the new Indian Educational Policy.

Author/Speaker

Regular author, keynoter/workshop leader at international and national conferences.

Awards

School of the Future (IS Brussels) The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) International Superintendent of the Year (2014) The Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE) and The Association of American School Administrators (AASA). The Award for The Promotion of International Education from The European Council of International Schools (2015).

AAIE Hall of Fame for contributions to international education (2019)