Leigh Girven Interview

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Can we go back to,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

because it's on my mind now,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you mentioned the student leadership and that that's really important.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

One of the pieces I'm working on very

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

much focuses on UAE students

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

as global citizens,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but also touches on,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

actually,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

these are skills that all students should have,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

not necessarily leaders,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but they are leadership skills.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And I just wondered how you embed that within the community.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, so leadership at all levels,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think, is so important,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

right? So that starts,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we have a primary student council that starts very low down the school.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have sustainability leaders in the primary school.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have wellbeing champions in the primary school.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then in the secondary school,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

there's quite a complex structure for how student leadership looks.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So we have an executive council,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which is made up of our head boy,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

head girl,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and our prefects,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

our 12 prefects.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Those prefects then act as grade level prefects

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

for one of the grade levels.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So one might be the head of the grade six.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So then the grade six will have a student council where there's

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

two students from every homeroom and they will meet with them once

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

a fortnight,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

talk about any initiatives that they want to do,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

any wellbeing activities that are coming up,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then they will feed that back into the executive council.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We also have leaders who may not be prefects.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

They may just be passionate about particular areas.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So, for example,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

inclusion leaders,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

well -being leaders.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have UAE culture leaders.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

obviously, sports captains and house captains,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

performing arts leaders as well.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So lots and lots of layers of leadership.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And I think that's so important because once students get

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

to grade 12,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they should know what it looks like to be a leader because they have

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

been a member of the sustainability committee or they're on the grade 10

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

student council.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So that when they step into the top roles,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they've got that experience.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then one of the things that I mentioned today that we're doing is all 24 of the grade

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

12 leaders are off timetable for a day.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And we're doing a sort of,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

like we would with senior leaders,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

actually do a leadership retreat with them.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know we give them a little bit of food and they're very excited they've got chocolates on

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

their desk they get a little bit of merch GIS merch but more importantly

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know I led with a session on what does leadership look like you

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

know what characteristics of leadership are important and then that's going

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

then the vice principal's running a session on you know

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

If you're in charge of an event,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

how do you run an event?

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

What do you need to consider?

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Who do you need to get approval from?

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And all of the different stages.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then there's a couple of other leaders also running different sessions.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then they will then work on an action plan.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so for example if they are the inclusion leader they'll work with the head of inclusion to

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

look at their year ahead and what do they want to achieve by the end of the year so

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in the same way that my head of inclusion writes an action plan for inclusion we

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

want the students to write those as well obviously they need support and coaching

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

on how to do that but it needs to be sort

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

of focused and just their action

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

plan feed into your action plan it may do yeah it may do so for

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

example uh you know i'm sure our our head of inclusion is looking at

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

promoting uh stakeholder involvement and

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

inclusion activity so that would feed in there for sure um

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

yeah it's it's about we also have uh

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

all of our not all of our units but in

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

all of the subject areas

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we have a service element in uh not

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

every single unit but maths for example in grade seven in

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

one of the units there will be a service element that they're doing even

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

as part of a maths unit now it doesn't have to it might not look like a

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

bake sale or a charity event it might be that they are

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

They are working with the operations manager,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

using real data to look at how they can cut

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

down on electricity and the DEWA bill in the school,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and they will calculate what the DEWA looks like.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So that's where those,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in the IB curriculum,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

those real -life links,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I always say,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in a British curriculum school,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

good British curriculum schools will do that,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but we have to do that.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have someone come in.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

every four years from the ibn check that we're actually doing those things so

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but obviously we don't just do them because someone's checking we do them because we

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

believe in them but yeah so lots and lots of levels of leadership it's um

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

also trying to get students

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

to understand that it doesn't have to be an event that an

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

initiative is something that can be just as good where the leaders are

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

all working towards the festival of hope next year so that's an ivy

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

global festival that schools all around the world there's

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

sort of loose guidelines of what that festival of hope looks like so

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Our students will be looking at choosing a theme.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You know,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they might want to look at,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

again, it will be up to them,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but they might want to look at global poverty,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

access to education.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You know,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they might even go meteor topics.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

They might look at racism and how we can prevent it.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then they will come up with a three -day festival of...

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

different activities and initiatives that we can do within that.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So that'll be the first time that we've done the Festival of Hope next year.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So yeah, we're really excited about that.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then eventually,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

hopefully,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we can involve the other five Talim IB schools.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So I'm actually,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I don't know, I'm the principal of this school,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

obviously, but my other role is I'm the Talim Executive Principal for the IB

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

schools.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So I work across the,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so there's Jamira Baccalaureate School.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Uptown School and then the two Raha International Raha Gardens

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and Raha KCC and Abu Dhabi so I work with those principals as

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

well and sort of

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Lots of different things.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I mean, my focus is on education,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

teaching and learning.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But we sort of foster collaboration and

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

alignment,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

part of the reviews that we do there.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But one of the big things that we're trying to do is just draw on

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

the expertise within the group.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So we're lucky that,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We might only have one computer science teacher in our school,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but there's one in five other schools as well.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So we can get them together,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

whether they're doing DP moderation of coursework.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have job -alikes once a term where those people

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

get together.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

What did you call that?

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Job -alikes.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

What's job -alikes?

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Job -alikes.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It's like it.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

People do the same job.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Ah,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

okay.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

The new term we're using next year is PLCs,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Professional Learning Communities.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Nice.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which is a more modern title because people ask questions like,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

what on earth is that?

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But essentially they get together,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it might be the eight heads of maths and they get together for a term.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

They have a,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we assign one of them as a leader and they work on different projects

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

throughout the years.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I love that.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We had it because in...

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

The UK, when I was a drama teacher,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

quite often you were the only drama teacher in that school.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So you had consortiums and it was the best professional development because you've

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

got so many strengths within that team that is still your specialism.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So yeah, they were my favourite things.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, and you could share resources and ideas.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, tips.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I mean,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

to be honest,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

the main reason we do them is to just build the relationships between

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

those people so that if they need...

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I don't know, maybe they need to borrow some costumes for the show so they can

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

just reach out and they've got people to draw on,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

as well as things like moderating

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

together and sharing resources.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, yeah, that's great.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And you touched on in the student...

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I just wanted to add as well about the student leadership.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It feels how you're talking about it.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I've seen schools just have it as a tick box.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It doesn't feel like that here.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It feels like it's purposeful and it's really embedded within the school.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I would say we're still on a journey.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think the structures are definitely in place.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think...

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, I wouldn't say that we're absolutely at the end point.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

There's lots that we're trying to do,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but I think the structures in place allow that to happen,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and also the IV nature allows it to do.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Like I said,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we don't...

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Students have to do it.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

They have to do CAS and they have to record their CAS all the way down from grade

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

6.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

In primary it looks a bit different.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

In primary we call that taking action.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So within their units of inquiry,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which is like a topic if I compare it to a British curriculum,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

every unit they have to take action.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But that might be,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know, it's age appropriate.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It might be when they're grade 1.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

tell their family members to turn the water off when they're brushing their teeth to save water

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

yeah um but yeah and then another great thing at the

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

end of each of our programs so the pyp myp and the dp

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

is that they have to do sort of a celebration of

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that so pyp do what we call an exhibition

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and they choose one of the SDG goals,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and they have to do research,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they have to take action,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then they present that,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and we do a sort of a big celebration of learning,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we invite the parents in,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they all had to make a website this year,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's amazing actually,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they used AI,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we used SchoolsBuddy,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and they all had to use it.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

use AI to make their own websites these are these kids 10 years old all

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

making their own websites presenting because we I hate

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

the old -fashioned boards you know that you put up and the kids put on their work because I mean I don't

10:13

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

know in your job but I've never made a board if I have to present something I make a presentation

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

or a video or you know so we had they

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

all have to present using technology

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

They did some TED Talk,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

some of them.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Great. So that was really cool.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so that happens at the end of grade five.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Same thing at the end of grade 10,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but it's called Personal Project,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and obviously it's a little bit more,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they have to create a product themselves,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

or product or a service,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and talk about the journey and how they came up with that,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then they reflect on whether it was effective,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

et cetera.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So, yeah, it's all sort of building on not just their

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

knowledge, but their skills as well.

10:52

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

great.

10:54

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You mentioned wellbeing leaders.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

How do you,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

wellbeing's obviously hugely important,

11:00

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but such a huge focus within the UAE at the minute.

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

How do you support that with your students and your staff?

11:06

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, so we actually,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we have a huge commitment to wellbeing at GIS.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So our secondary students have...

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's a homeroom lesson every day for 50 minutes so

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

four 50 minute lessons a week which we call our thrive lessons so

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

thrive's the name of the umbrella name for our well -being program so it includes

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We deliver the PEAK curriculum,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so positive education curriculum,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then they've got some PSHE work they do,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then they also have their UAE,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

MSC,

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S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

moral, social,

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

cultural, all within those Thrive lessons.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So it's a big commitment for us to give four lessons at 50

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

minutes a week.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Most schools do 15 minutes at the beginning of the day.

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um so it is huge to us we do things like we have uh

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we use the komodo or uhq we're moving to next year where we assess

12:01

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

the um we give like a survey the kids three times

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

a year where we're looking at things like their online

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

number of hours online are their digital well -being uh

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

how they're feeling as a school um primary do one standalone well

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S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

-being less than a week as well we were actually you know explicitly teach kids

12:22

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

how do you be a good friend what does being a good listener look like

12:26

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um you know certainly in my day we never got taught anything like that

12:30

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so and it it is we have a in secondary we have a

12:34

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

well -being leader so a senior leader who is

12:37

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

his whole job is well -being he

12:41

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

student leadership falls underneath well -being as well he leads the uh

12:46

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

obviously students but we we have a staff well -being committee as

12:50

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

well um that that kind of come up with different initiatives and things

12:54

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that we do but yeah well -being is hugely important i mean in the ib school

12:58

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we have something called the learner profile so these are nine attributes that all students

13:02

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

have and one of them is balanced

13:06

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So, yes,

13:07

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we want students who are academically able and go on to top universities,

13:11

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but we also want them to be balanced as well.

13:14

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So,

13:15

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

yeah, that's a huge part of what we do in that Thrive session.

13:19

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Do you think in Dubai there's a...

13:24

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It's all new to me because I'm a relatively new mum,

13:27

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but we can overplan for our kids in terms of holidays,

13:31

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in terms of homework.

13:32

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think there's just so much going on in Dubai,

13:34

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in the UAE,

13:35

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and I feel I've got to do something every day today.

13:38

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You mentioned balance.

13:41

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I feel like that's...

13:42

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

yeah a danger yeah absolutely and I'm a mum too I've got a seven

13:46

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

-year -old uh I've got two older kids but a seven -year -old as well and

13:50

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

particularly at this time of the year it's hard to I think we're we're I'm

13:55

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

from New Zealand and where we would have just my mum would have just opened the door and said go

13:59

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

outside and play you just can't do that so much but I think that's where schools

14:03

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

are so much more than schools and that they are a community and

14:07

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

parents are looking at us to offer a full sort of

14:12

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

service of ECAs and programs to support

14:16

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

their kids I like to think that some of them are although

14:20

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it might look like it's busy in the schedule that the actual activity is

14:24

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know fun and what the kids want to be doing but yeah I

14:29

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

do think that that can happen absolutely I think you can

14:33

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

do everything in moderation that's kind of my mantra at the minute in terms of life yeah

14:37

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

absolutely yeah and you mentioned sustainability

14:41

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And this school,

14:42

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

did you say, is 20 years old?

14:44

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Nearly 20 years old.

14:45

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And you've done a lot of additions and refurbs and you've got a whole

14:49

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

new primary,

14:50

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which I can't wait to see.

14:51

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

How are you building sustainability into daily practices and even maybe

14:55

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

the design of the building?

14:57

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, absolutely.

14:58

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So we've got solar panels.

15:00

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

That's a really big one.

15:01

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We use biofuels in our buses.

15:04

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So that is,

15:07

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I'm married to a greenie.

15:08

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So I don't know if you know Brett,

15:12

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but he's the principal at DBS Emirates Hills.

15:14

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

He was the principal at Arbor School.

15:18

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So very passionate about...

15:21

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

everything green but um so i know from him that

15:25

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

uh the things that really have an impact are food fashion

15:30

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and fuel um okay so the the fuel obviously

15:34

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we've got the biofuel uh the food we work with lila's lunches

15:38

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um and they are quite a small company uae based company um

15:43

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and they are very proactive in um

15:47

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in their the food

15:50

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that they offer the kids so they have looked at carbon miles

15:54

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

for all of their food items and I know that they have

15:58

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

taken items off the menu I think there was a particular I think it was

16:02

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

a ham and cheese croissant that just was

16:07

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they didn't feel like the number of carbon miles

16:11

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

kind of

16:12

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

reflected yeah so they took that off the menu so that's something that that's really

16:16

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

unique in the UAE to have a food company absolutely yeah absolutely and

16:20

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they our students have met with them before and spoken

16:25

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

about what what we can do we don't have recite

16:29

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we use like metal plates and cups and things in the

16:33

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

canteens we're also a member of TASS which is

16:38

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

the

16:39

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You've said so many acronyms.

16:41

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I hope you've got them all in your head.

16:43

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

No,

16:44

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's great.

16:44

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So TAS is a sustainability alliance,

16:48

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so it's basically a group of schools.

16:51

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You pay a membership,

16:54

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's a very small membership,

16:55

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and it's just a group of schools that all

17:00

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

work together to share ideas and work towards sustainability goals.

17:03

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So they put on different events throughout the year.

17:07

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um leadership events for for people like myself but also

17:12

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

for students so last year they put on one um that we

17:16

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

actually we hosted it uh and and it was bringing in different

17:20

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

providers for example legalist lunches who are our food provider

17:24

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um to show different way really practical ways that schools

17:28

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

can um you know improve their carbon footprint we have

17:32

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

i mean we

17:34

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Every one of our students in the primary does a unit called Sharing the Planet,

17:38

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and that's a unit,

17:39

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

so the way our IB works is there's six units of inquiry,

17:43

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and you teach the same unit every year,

17:45

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but it becomes more conceptually difficult,

17:48

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

obviously.

17:48

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So Sharing the Planet is something that all the students do right from grade

17:52

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

one. So when I say,

17:54

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

when I was talking about the exhibition they did at the end of grade five,

17:58

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and they're talking about the SCGs and sustainability goals.

18:02

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

they all know,

18:02

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know, I see,

18:03

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

why have you chosen number 15?

18:05

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Oh, that's about protecting life under the ocean.

18:08

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And they all know those.

18:09

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So it's kind of embedded in everything that they do.

18:12

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, that's really good.

18:13

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, it's very cool.

18:14

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So you're really walking the talk.

18:15

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah, hopefully.

18:17

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And two more questions.

18:20

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You talked a little bit about how

18:24

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

students...

18:25

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

make friends and that can be quite challenging and I just wondered what

18:30

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

your approach is I guess for the little ones or new students or how is

18:34

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it a skill just a discussion really is it a skill

18:37

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

To learn how to make a friend.

18:39

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Again,

18:40

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I watch my son who's just learning about his four and a half.

18:43

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So he's learning about the social skills of you can't just go up to someone and stand like this

18:47

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then they'll be your friend.

18:48

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And how do you say your name?

18:49

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And I just wondered how you approach friendships and building friendships

18:53

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and what it means to be a friend within your community.

18:56

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think that is something that we would cover in our Thrive program down into the

19:00

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

primary school.

19:02

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think a lot of it comes from culture as well,

19:05

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

like the culture and ethos of the school.

19:07

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I always say at the school there's no normal.

19:09

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

We have 87 different nationalities,

19:13

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but most schools in Dubai will tell you that they have a similar number.

19:16

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But I think the difference with GIS is that

19:21

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

no one nationality exceeds 12%.

19:25

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay.

19:26

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So there's no dominating nationality,

19:30

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which means that...

19:32

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

everyone's so diverse I think we had a classroom uh

19:36

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

last year where there was not two no two children from the same country

19:40

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in the class oh wow yeah that's pretty unique yeah yeah very unique

19:44

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

um and it just means like we really are international um

19:49

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

you know there's there's no normal there everyone

19:53

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

is accepted um nationalities religions

19:58

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

languages most of our students are not native English speakers when they arrive

20:03

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But, you know,

20:04

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

some of our top achievers,

20:06

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

in fact,

20:07

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

all of our top achievers,

20:09

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

English is probably not their first language when they arrive in either the school

20:13

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

or the country.

20:14

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So I think that really helps with the acceptance and because

20:18

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that is what making friends is really is.

20:20

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It's just accepting everyone.

20:22

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So,

20:23

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

yeah, I guess we do teach it explicitly,

20:26

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but also it's just that culture of we've got a really

20:30

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

active parents association as well.

20:32

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

who organise lots of different events throughout the year because

20:37

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's not just the students that need to make friends it's the parents

20:41

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that need to make friends as well so yeah the parents

20:45

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

will support one another to assimilate I guess into often

20:49

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's Dubai but mainly GIS

20:53

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay, great.

20:53

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And has anyone from schools compared been to visit you before?

20:57

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think so, yeah.

20:58

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I met one lady.

20:59

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I don't know which company it was with one of the two,

21:02

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but yeah, we have had someone recently.

21:04

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Was it Tabitha?

21:05

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Maybe.

21:06

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Carly or Susan?

21:07

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Maybe it was Carly.

21:08

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

From which media?

21:10

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think so.

21:11

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I just wondered what the changes would be when you take me around

21:15

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that we would see from the last person,

21:17

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but it might be that...

21:19

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I think we have had an update,

21:20

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but I can talk to Tatiana about that.

21:22

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

She'll be able to give us more information about exactly what is

21:27

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

there. Because I think,

21:28

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I read an article a while ago and I thought it was pretty outdated.

21:31

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay.

21:32

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah.

21:32

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay.

21:33

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So let me have,

21:34

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

I'll check with Tatiana.

21:35

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay, yeah.

21:36

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

But in terms of what we're going to see,

21:37

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

a whole new primary.

21:39

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Whole new primary building.

21:40

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So upper primary building was a tennis court.

21:43

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So that turned into a tennis court.

21:46

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

It's still there, but it's now on the roof.

21:47

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Okay.

21:48

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

You moved it all.

21:49

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Yeah.

21:49

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

All of the early years has been gutted and renovated.

21:54

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

The building itself is not new,

21:56

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but every single piece of it.

21:58

S… Speaker 2 (Leigh Girven Interview)

Within the last year?

21:58

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

No.

21:59

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

The early years was done two years ago.

22:02

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then the new primary building was opened a year ago.

22:06

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

And then the secondary school,

22:08

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we've done the canteen,

22:09

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we've done the auditorium,

22:11

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

we've done what we call our DP lounge,

22:14

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which is like a six -form common room,

22:16

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

and then our library,

22:17

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

which is no longer a library,

22:18

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's more of a shared communal space.

22:21

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

So we haven't done the secondary classrooms,

22:24

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

that's something that will come,

22:26

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

probably not,

22:27

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

it's a couple of years away,

22:29

S… Speaker 1 (Leigh Girven Interview)

but a lot of the shared spaces within that have been done.

Leigh Girven Interview

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