Regenerating Leadership Programme

THREE questions:

1. Have you ever questioned some of the things you’re asked to do as a leader in these increasingly challenging times?

2. Have you had to make decisions that you knew were only addressing the symptoms, not the root cause, of the problems being faced in your school?

3. Are you ready to help your community shift from ‘just surviving’ towards a place of thriving?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, this programme for you.

Regenerating Leadership is a training programme for Headteachers, SLT and wider education leaders exploring how to shift the culture of our communities to embed care for ourselves, each other and the planet right at the heart of learning. This programme is designed to support you to grow resilience as a leader and strengthen practical experience alongside a community of peers on a journey of transforming education together.

In this module we will be focusing on the practice of systems thinking to take a wider-lens perspective to look at the wellbeing of our school communities, drawing on the Hawk to guide our learning by focusing on three principles:

1. In the air: Seeing and understanding the bigger picture

2. Hovering: Slowing ourselves down and being ‘in the pause’

3. On the ground: Focusing attention on purposeful action

In this module we will be exploring resilience and wellbeing, focusing on practices to connect and strengthen your school community on a deeper level, drawing on the Tree to guide our learning by focusing on three principles:

1. Mycelium: Building resilience through strengthening relationships

2. Soil-health: Cultivating the conditions for a healthy culture

3. Mutual support : Enabling and supporting healthy stakeholder relationships

In this module we will be exploring authentic leadership through a values-based mindset to support a more relational approach to leadership, drawing on the Salmon to guide our learning by focusing on three principles:

1. Stages of evolution: Exploring our own journey into leadership

2. Inner voice: Connecting to our authentic self in practice and purpose

3. Going upstream together: Strengthening our collective energy to ‘do things differently’

In this module we will be exploring points of intervention, thinking about how to positively disrupt a system to allow healthier relationships to flourish. We will draw on the Wolf to guide our learning by focusing on three core principles:

1. Points of intervention: Exploring ways to positively disrupt an ecosystem

2. Trophic cascades: Understanding the potential for rapid systems-change

3. Balanced ecosystems: Exploring ways to enable healthy relationships to flourish

WHAT IS THE TEACHING & LEARNING PHILOSOPHY?

Our work at ThoughtBox is relational, inquiry-based and co-creative. We draw upon a rich landscape of research and practice to design our learning journeys and programmes, with over a decade of active research into transformative and regenerative learning cultures; culminating in the Triple WellBeing framework which underpins this course.

This course is strengthened by our collective experience as teachers and leaders in both national and global contexts. As a team, our extensive classroom practice combines with leadership experience in systems-change and transformative learning, working alongside a diverse range of educationalists across the world.

We will draw upon the wisdom of two core teachers in each module to guide our learning, blending cutting-edge neuroscience with the wisdom of natural systems. Using the transformational frameworks of Otto Scharmer’s Theory U and Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects, we will support you to explore ideas from a place of deep authenticity and integrity.

We actively encourage you to bring your own wisdom and leadership experience into this programme.

WHAT IS REGENERATIVE EDUCATION?

REGENERATE(v): to be formed again; to restore to a healthier state; to improve a system by enabling it to flourish.

Regenerative education is a process of allowing and enabling all aspects of education to be restored and rebalanced to a healthier state. It follows the same principles as regenerative agriculture, as it is a process of cultivating the conditions for healthy growth: if you get the soil conditions right, everything you plant within will naturally flourish.

As it is with a healthy school culture. Creating the conditions for healthy growth and development is foundational to this work. It begins by putting healthy relationships at the very heart of teaching and learning. The good news is that schools are wonderfully dynamic places that can respond and adapt to what is happening around them – just like any natural ecosystem. What we need is bold leadership to enable and allow this regeneration to happen.

RACHEL MUSSON
Rachel Musson is an international speaker, educator, facilitator, RSA fellow and thought-leader on regenerative education and wellbeing in schools. As a secondary school teacher and curriculum designer with 20 years’ experience, Rachel has shared progressive, transformative and practical ideas through her work with students and teachers whilst living in the UK and across the global north and south. Rachel is currently working with global industry leaders and education ministers on education reform policy, hosting student workshops, empowering educators through professional development and delivering keynote speeches on transforming education at international conferences.

MAYA BAHOSHY
Maya Bahoshy has worn many hats over her career - from behaviour change officer for humanitarian aid projects, to community manager at a global university. She is at heart a facilitator, educator and coach, with a core focus on supporting young people on their journey towards a deeper understanding of self and the world around them. Across her work, Maya focuses on designing interactions that encourage people to connect consciously and compassionately with themselves, others and the rest of the natural world. She has incorporated these values into the design of educational experiences ranging from youth workshops, to on-going coaching relationships with students and professionals.