What CollectivED means to me, and could mean for you too

I first heard about CollectivED when attending a Whole Education conference in 2017. Rachel Lofthouse was talking to us about how coaching, mentoring and working collaboratively could move schools on in their thinking of what is possible. Her helpful comments aligned with what I was trying to do in our primary school, and I left London that day not only thinking that here is a woman who completely understands what schools are like in terms of the demands and pressures, but also knows how to get the people in the schools to talk about and action the things that they know needs to happen. 

More importantly for me personally, I came away thinking that I, too, had valuable contributions to make and should make them. So I went away and wrote a ‘practice insight’ paper for CollectivED, which was subsequently accepted and published. It wasn’t the most exciting or eloquent paper ever published, but it was a start, and it was published for others to read. It gave me confidence that what we were trying to do as a school was both valuable and good.

I then attended a packed CollectivED conference in Birmingham. Within minutes of the start, the fire alarms were ringing out and we were evacuated outside. The sun shone and the conversations flourished. In many ways this is the hallmark of CollectivED – a community of conversations where all can be nurtured and flourish. I can wholeheartedly say that I am nurtured every time I meet with others from this community – both online and in person. I have flourished too and have now completed two further postgraduate courses with Leeds Beckett, researching the practice of my school. I am thrilled to accept the Senior Fellowship awarded to me this week.

Why not step inside and be nurtured and flourish too, you won’t regret it.