IBSC Annual Conference
The 25th IBSC Annual Conference took place at The Southport School on the Gold Coast 8-11 July. It featured over 600 delegates from some 14 countries. Taking advantage of the proximity of this year’s conference and the opportunity to expose our staff to the world, we sent a delegation of 43 staff, selected from across our campuses and from executive, teaching and support teams. Scots staff gave 6 presentations, including a Featured Speaker session on research and innovation in boys’ schools in conjunction with Eton College and St Christopher’s School. Science Teacher Nick Little won the Action Research Award, the top in his global cohort, for his year-long study of how boys learn in our Graeme Clark Centre activity-based learning environments. He has since been asked to speak on the topic at a major conference in Melbourne. Staff who attended the program were effusive in their reflections on the ideas and inspiration this gave them for their work at the College.
IBSC Pre-Conference Adventures: ‘Ventures and Adventures in the Real World: Educating boys experientially’
As a boost to the Annual Conference and an opportunity to show delegates the College’s programs and the Australian environment, we organised a 3-day experiential learning program at Glengarry, Bannockburn and Bellevue Hill. We had around 60 delegates from leading schools in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, India, China and Peru. They engaged in a range of activities and sessions built around our experiential approach to teaching and learning, as well as our 5 Patribus Initiatives. Leading thinkers spoke to the guests, such as Jason Pellegrino, Old Boy and MD of Google Australia/New Zealand, on entrepreneurship, and Prof Kees Dorst (UTS) on design thinking and creativity. A highlights video of the conference can be seen here. This program provided a unique opportunity to share and build on the world-class work of our staff, and provide a new model of professional learning for future IBSC conferences. One attendee had this to say about Scots:
“Not only is your school outstanding, but the way you present yourselves to the outside world, especially those of us from outside Australia, is a genuine inspiration.”