Transforming Education Summit
Imagine a world where education is the cornerstone of a healthy, equitable and sustainable world…
Without a clear vision, there’s nowhere to go; we’re just adrift
If you’ve ever time-travelled to 2100, you’ll know that the world feels very different from life here in 2024. It’s flourishing with wildlife – a place where people are active in their local communities, and the world feels nourished, energised and inspired.
We were fortunate enough to travel there earlier this year with 15 leaders from across the educational landscape as we gathered for the Transforming Education Summit at the Centre for Future Thinking in Stroud. We travelled to a point in the distant future to really visualise a place where learning is all about helping the world to flourish.
Over the three days, we journeyed together through the ‘What if’, ‘What is’ and ‘What now’ of education, meeting the challenges being faced while envisioning a healthier future to work towards. At one point, we time-travelled together to 2100—to a time far beyond our own lives—to focus on a healthier horizon and then actions to bring this to life by legacy building; practicing long-term thinking and bold action for changing the system at large.
“This summit allows you to pause, take stock and peel back the status quo. From this point, you can more clearly see what can change for the better. The community really encourages you to keep swimming upstream, even if just in small streams, to be part of a groundswell of change which will ultimately become a turning tide.”
Headteacher, UK
Identifying the real problem is the starting point for any good mission
The growing recognition that education needs to transform is ever-more apparent in our current climate, as school absenteeism soars, levels of mental ill-health skyrocket and a disconnection from the natural world continues to grow. Symptoms of our global ill-health are showing up across our school communities, and it is clear that our education system is falling apart…
And yet, every leader in education holds within them a deep knowing that things don’t have to be this way and for some there is the drive within them to co-create a healthier future of learning.
Committing to swim upstream towards a healthier horizon
The magnificence of this Leadership Summit came from the courage and conviction of the leaders who gathered, for this is a summit designed for leaders who are not just aware of the need for change but are willing to make things happen to get there. We welcomed Headteachers, Trust leaders, Directors, Governors, Psychologists and Educators from across the learning landscape - all recognising the need for systems-transformation in education to allow everyone to thrive, not just survive. Systems-change might perhaps feel complex and overwhelming, yet when we bring it down to simple practice, it becomes incredibly exciting.
Throughout the summit, we used the metaphors of the Hawk (big-picture thinking), the Tree (relationship-building); the Wolf (ecosystem-transformation) and the Salmon (journeying upstream) to focus our attention onto systems-change in action. What emerged is a collective who see themselves as the ‘upstreamers’—leaders in education not afraid to push against the dominant narrative, as they know that they are helping to shape a healthier education—one in which the wellbeing of people and planet sits at the heart of our intentions.
Pledges set our direction; practice propels us forward
As the summit came to a close, each person made a pledge: to bring acts of self-care, people-care and earth-care into their work and home lives. What was so energising when the group met again, one-month on from the summit, was how active they’d been in putting words into action, and how much transformation had already emerged. From the Headteacher embedding Triple WellBeing® practices into her staff meetings, to the Director recruiting for a Triple WellBeing® Lead for their school, to the teacher building a tadpole pond and a chick enclosure in his classroom - the ripples of culture change on a micro and macro level felt infectious.
The essence of this gathering is to deepen relationships with ourselves, others and nature, with the opportunity to be relating together woven throughout the fabric of the summit design.
Relationships were nourished throughout the activities; through time spent in the woodlands and meadows of the grounds; through shared meals and heart-felt conversations and - of course - by sharing lots of tea and homemade cake. Knowing these relationships will only continue to deepen into the future is the purpose of the gathering; helping individuals journey together to transform education towards that 2100 landscape of flourishing.
As one Headteacher reminded us, ‘The future isn’t somewhere we go but something we create.’ That world of 2100 begins right here right now, with us fully showing up in the world, willing and ready to co-create ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.’
What did the leaders think about the summit?
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