One of the key leadership practices that forms part of the Instructional Leadership Cycle is the principal summit.   This annual practice encourages principals and department directors alike to capture and share the vision for the school or department, and lays out the strategic objectives that they anticipate will lead to improvement.  While most leaders carry an implicit vision in their minds, the summit is designed to make that vision explicit to the school community.  It represents an opportunity to practice and refine how you talk about your school and your focused efforts to improve.  It provides a general overview – what you are working on, why you are working on it, and what you are planning to do.  

The principal summit is also one of my favorite moments with members of my leadership team.  In the context of the Lincoln School where I currently am the General Director, we gather offsite and run through a protocol that allows each school principal and department director the opportunity to share their vision for the team and department that they lead.  We leave time for questions and feedback.  This process creates a collective sense of purpose and helps us better understand the priorities and improvement strategies of our colleagues.  

The day to day operational demands of a school can be so intense, that having the protected time and space to share such big picture thinking can easily get crowded out of the agenda.  Developing institutional clarity about plans for improvement and growth requires not only good ideas and clear thinking, but written overviews and opportunities to then share plans with stakeholders, get critical feedback, then revise and strengthen plans.  All of those steps require time and space.  

I look forward to the opportunity each year to hear and see the vision each of our directors has developed in collaboration with their teams.  Armed with our strategic plan for the entire organization, we can ensure that our areas of focus align with our strategic anchors, all in an effort to build coherency throughout the organization.  

One of the pillars of our strategic plan calls for a holistic, student-centered educational program and experience for our students.  More specifically, we explicitly outline our desire for a more inclusive school community, where all of our students have a genuine sense of belonging and can thrive as they grow and develop.  Our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a school include increasing the diversity of our student population and developing policy that ensures we are an inclusive school in practice.  

Those aspirations were in part responsible for our decision to invest in the International Baccalaureate’s comprehensive “Diversity and Inclusion in the IB” session, for our entire secondary team.  The session took us through a full review of what inclusion means, how it is applied in different contexts, how the IB program supports inclusion, and how schools can foster an inclusive learning environment.  On day one, our session leader asked a critical question, “what are the elements of a strong system of inclusion.”  A fascinating discussion followed, as our staff discussed their perspectives on what it takes to foster an inclusive school.  

Of course to my mind came a few technical aspects of being a strong inclusive school.  Specifically, the presence of high quality inclusive instructional practices that form the foundation of what happens in every classroom across the school.  Perhaps more commonly referred to by educators as Tier 1 instruction, the idea is that the every student in every classroom has access to a skilled professional who integrates inclusive practice into his or her daily instruction.  Yet, for as good as that foundational practice might be, there will inevitably be students whose unique challenges and strengths push for additional support.  To that end, a strong inclusive school has developed a comprehensive system of services and supports, informed by expert experience and knowledge, that can provide the right services to complement what is happening in the classroom.  

While we certainly discussed these matters, an even more urgent suggestion came forward, pointing out that it is the collective sense of purpose amongst the school community.  A shared “why” so to speak, that drives any commitment to a set of inclusive practices.  It is a commitment to a shared universal high regard for all students.  In other words, we pursue inclusion out of a genuine love and desire to serve every student we have the privilege to have on our campus.