Building an Inclusive School Culture

Yeah.

And you mentioned the word reflection quite a lot there in that answer.

And it's, you know, what I'm really hearing from you is that sense of taking that time every now and then to step back and to remember where you've come from and the successes that you've had and, you know, how things have developed and grown over the last number of years.

So, like, it seems to be part of your practice.

Would that be right?

Definitely.

I think we all go into teaching because we want to learn.

We all go into teaching because we want to support future generations and make sure children are happy and successful in school and have opportunities in life.

I think the world is changing at such a fast pace that if we are not willing to be open-minded and learn from the people around us, both adults and children and parents and community advocate groups, then we're being very closed-minded and we're not doing our job as well as we can do.

I think it's very important to be an active listener and listening with intent rather than listening to give advice or give an answer back.

If you sit back down and actually involve and meet our conversation and actually properly hear what everyone is going to say, you're going to learn so much from that conversation.

And if you take an opportunity to reflect on what's been said around you, you might actually change what you thought you were going to say at the beginning of the conversation.

So I think that being reflective piece and that kind of self-awareness is really, really important.

And it can be quite hard to do sometimes because we're always in a rush and we always have a million different things to do or we've got 10 more things to get offered to do this before we leave the building.

But taking that time to actually be personable and build a relationship with people and, you know, be proactive in what you're doing to make sure that you're doing the right thing at the right time is really important.

Yeah.

And that key piece of modeling, how you interact with people and the expectations that you have for the school community.

And like for us within IPPN, like our vision is empowered school leadership, helping every child to thrive.

And your discussions there about children and thriving, like there's a sense to me that it's every child, every day, in every way.

So like If I begin to talk to you about the idea of special education, I'd imagine you're probably going to answer me in a way that it isn't separation between education and special education.

It's just being inclusive.

So I'm just wondering, like, is that a vision that you have within your school? Is that something you always had? Is it developed, developing?

I think that's a really interesting question.

I think if you had me here 15 years ago, my answer might be very, very different.

Because I think I've learned a huge amount on the job, doing the job.