Educational Origami

…and what a week it has been too.

The school is on the cusp of making several key decisions regarding ICT in our senior school, and rather than just leaping in and making a executive decision, a process that does limit staff buy in. The school sent 2 principals, 1 Deputy principal, 6 Heads of Faculty, the director of ICTS and myself to look at peer schools in Australia. Inspired!

The week had us visit 2 major cities, 5 schools, one university, many advanced and collaborative learning spaces and have uncounted discussions. The result was the development of faculty and school vision and direction. Its inclusive, informed and exciting. Its based on best practice, sound advise and a clear vision of what is best for our students. The theme overlaid throughout the tour was the learning and development of our students.

The schools we visited showed us a no nonsense, warts and all, look at there systems, processes, facilities, successes and failures. Refreshing oh so refreshing.

Beyond this, I had the privilege to catch up with educators from around Australia. The Blogger’s Feast in Melbourne was a great highlight. Jo and Helen are 2 outstanding educators I have known virtually for over a year. So the opportunity to meet F2F was brilliant. What followed was an excellent meal, great company, honest discussion and much hilarity. Superb evening and one I will continue to reflect on. Thank you for your hospitality and I hope to offer you similar when you make it across to NZ.

The only disappointment of the whole trip was the return flight from Melbourne which was delayed by over 2 1/2 hours, with power black outs on the onboard before we left (Interesting to see the much talked about emergency lighting strips on the floor), hydrolics that creaked and groaned and an aircraft in sorry need of some attention. The inflight entertainment was a contradiction in terms and most of us would have obtained more pleasure from watching “the greatest All black defeats at the hands of the Ozzies”. The Aircrew however were brilliant and the on board announcements added a level of monty pythonesce to the flight.