Day 4

Day 4

Action planning! Our post it notes from the previous evening had been arranged into order so that we could create our way forward- which were:
Action now - immediate needs
Teacher capacity buildIng invest in teachers so they can empower students
Empowering students giving students the knowledge, understanding and skills to shape their own future
Capacity building - local grow momentum, commitment locally
Capacity building - global big picture projects we can do together
Global networking and support sharing expertise as a whole
Partnerships and actions at a higher level engaging with people organisations who can make a difference
Policy/political working locally and nationally to create and implement laws/policies

Each grouping was taken by a set of interested members, who started to tease out actual activities and a plan for the next 12 months and what we need to do in the next 90 days. The difficulty clearly, was that although many of us represent an association (such as me representing GSA), very few of the members had any power, other than awareness raising and in our own schools. ICP which represents Principals across the globe is an association also, which has little in the way of monetary resources. Clearly there is no quick fix, but the willingness to make the small changes and raise awareness across the world should create a momentum. ICP is planning its next conference in Cairns, Australia in 2013 and the next stages of the process will be taken up there, but it was clear that some key partners should be invited so that some strong partnerships are formed. It was suggested that ICP needed a communications officer on the executive, to be able to create and maintain a website which acts as both a resource and networking vehicle.

Some other good ideas discussed included:
- a mission statement from the conference
- a strap line and logo about gender equity (such as Free Trade endorsing products)
- collating the research that is already available
- promotion in the media (using contacts such as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle O'Bama, Hilary Clinton) with reference to creating a press release for each of us to use on a local level.
- staff professional development through linking schools together
- role of the media in dictating gender models, local radio and community papers

We also had a resource poster, where everyone could write down websites or books which they thought would be of benefit to the rest of the group with regards to gender equity. It was good to know that in GSA we have an excellent grasp of what is available and we felt we added a good number of resources to the collective group.

We finally said goodbye to each other; we had swapped email addresses, made a promise to not forget what we had learnt and to promised to ensure our action plans were fulfilled.

A worthwhile experience for all involved: very humbling and a salutary lesson in commitment across the globe.

Day 3

Day 3

The first session on this wonderful winter South African day (clear blue sky, gentle warm breeze, dry air) involved doing a brain plotting exercise. Although many leaders will have done similar things in the past, the exercise was done with good humour and gusto. The room of leaders had a variety of the four main types: people who nominally work with facts, feelings, form (structure) or the future. (guess which one I am?) The following exercise, taking our overnight task of predicting what the future should look like, in our mixed brain types enabled a creative, collaborative picture of the future for different people in the world ( a young girl, a teenage boy, a young mother, a primary teacher, a school principal, etc) which was optimistic and compelling.

Each group were asked to envision the future as a story and then depict the story in a motif. After listening to another real life story (from the male perspective) we took aspects of our different stories to see how we can create the road map to make them real. This was facilitated by suggesting actions in three categories for both our schools and associations. The categories are:
Identifying immediate actions
Building momentum system change
Creating a compelling sustainable future

Immediate actions were very easy to fulfil; each person's position and place in their world dictated the calibre of the responses. This first section was 'be the action', and what we as individuals could do.

The last section was the hardest, but this was the aim of the ICP conference in reality.
(As well as this arrangements were being made for leaving!!) We were encouraged in this to be visionary, exciting and challenge ourselves to be brave. A room full of post-it notes were left on the wall for the leading team to try to structure before our return in the morning.

The evening ended with a formal dinner and a presentation by some of the returning OWLA girls. Highly professional and entertaining; it was lovely to talk to the girls at the end of the evening.

Regards

Day two

This morning, following a sumptuous breakfast of fruit and porridge, the day feels like a beautiful spring day in the UK. Clear blue sky and a frost on the ground!

We returned to our groups to be questioned about our own worlds, what inspires us, where we are frustrated, what would we want to change. The responses were collated and reflected upon, and we recognised the themes and beliefs which keep us together and make us stronger in our collective work.

A life story from a successful young black women challenged our western perceptions of gender equity and the necessity not to forget the culture of the young people we are educating. We then listened to another presentation from the CEO of the company 'The future of the African daughter'. She ended her very thought-provoking insight into the difficulties of addressing the third Millennium Goal, by challenging the school leaders to:

- Foster interest in stem subjects

- Create a utopia in our schools of equity

- Fight for girls' rights and privileges

- Protect the girls in our care and give them a safe place to learn

- Create an environment of support

This ties in very much with the GSA charter for girls' education that we are trying to develop in the UK. She ended with stating a quote from the New York Times: the best resources of the world are not the oil, coal and water, but the uneducated women and children of the world.

Our final session of the day, we had stories of success from around the world and we were asked to see if we could transfer some of the good ideas into our own schools, before being set our overnight task of stating what we would see as success in 10years time.

At the end of the day, one of our group demonstrated and taught her world famous circus skills of whip-cracking!!

ICP conference South Africa 8-12 August 2012

ICP conference South Africa 8-12 August 2012

The first day was filled with expectations and trepidation. The very scant programme did not help and not knowing where we were staying wasn't helpful either. We were collected from the hotel in central Johannesburg at 10am and travelled in two coaches with our luggage to the outlying area of Henley in Klipton, about 1 hour outside the spread of the city. The countryside was as expected: in this their winter, the reddish-orange land was barren and dusty. The odd, small collection of sheds formed homes for some and there was still evidence of gated houses and communities as we drove further and further away from what westerners would call society.

The Oprey Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls OWLAG, looked like an offshoot of a university campus. Low rise buildings, beautifully spaced out and architecturally elegant were gated behind a fierce looking security system. Our rooms, the girls' dormitories, were also like newly built university accommodation albeit 4 sharing a little suite. Underfloor heating, hot running water, tea and coffee provided whenever: it was lovely for us and must be unbelievable for the girls who come from the most deprived areas of S Africa.

OWLAG recruit 100 girls per year from over 10,000 applicants! The head told us that she looks for spunk, spark and spirit in the applicants; girls who look forward rather than back; who ignore where they come from and focus on what they want for the future. The culture shock for the successful candidates must be huge: they spend 10 weeks three times per year at the school, but have to return to their homes at the end of each term. We were told the majority live in mud huts or shanty towns, with no running water or electricity, so when they come to the school they have little or no general knowledge! The school has now been open for 5 years and the first graduates have all entered either S African or American universities. Oprah must be very proud!

The conference delegates, members of the International Confederation of Principals, come from the whole world; America, Australia, India, Europe and of course, Africa. We are all speaking English, but the variety of accents and vocabulary is astounding. The aim of the conference is to look at one of the Millennium goals, gender equity and girls' education!

The first day, we heard different life stories, discussed timelines, events and expectations. In terms of our own experiences, life, death, birth, marriages, career paths were all very similar across the last 30 years. They may be in different order, at different times, but in reality we all had the human trials and tribulations as well as the successes and failures which shape who we are. We also looked at world events, the social context of our own communities and the needs of girls in our own regions. The resulting discussion was reported in a fantastic 'infographic' produced by a very talented artist. I hope you can see it in the attached.

Regards

Louise Robinson