Lynda will share her school’s journey to become a trauma-informed and neuroscience-aware learning centre where students, teachers and leaders now know more about the relationships between the brain, emotions, stress and the nervous system. This learning has transformed the school environment to one where the behaviour and interactions of students (and teachers) is calmer and better-regulated. Behavioural incidents are now rare and stand-downs and suspensions non-existent. All staff now have a much better understanding of what hinders and enhances learning, especially for children who have experienced home lives of stress, neglect and transgenerational trauma. However, these understandings are also relevant to learners who experience sensory challenges and are neurodiverse, and in fact to all children and adults – we all experience stress and intense emotions.  Lynda will share her personal PLD journey to become a trauma-informed leader including her training with Dr Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model in Education.  She will recommend relevant readings and other resources, including Glenview School’s own ‘Te Āiotanga’ framework: A te ao Māori lens on NME.

Bio

Lynda Knight-de Blois

Lynda Knight-de Blois has been an educator for 30 years, in a range of schools in Wellington, Auckland and England. She  is currently principal of Glenview School in Cannons Creek, Porirua and Co-lead of the Porirua East Kāhui Ako. She has a Master of Education, specialising in Special Needs and Pacific learners and has trained with Dr Bruce Perry in the Neurosequential Network. In early 2021 she completed the Neurosequential Model in Education Trainers’ Certificate. She is passionate about sharing what she has learned about neuroscience, learning, behaviour and wellbeing and has led neuroscience workshops in Porirua and Wellington.

About the Leaders’ Connect online series

Leaders’ Connect is an interactive, relational, online space for education leaders. These one-hour online hui occur fortnightly and the aim is to:  

• Provide a safe place of connection for education leaders within NZ
• Support leaders’ wellbeing 
• Gain fresh leadership knowledge and capacity 
• Create professional connection via an online platform
• Provide a space for learning and sharing innovative practices and ideas 

“The topics for these Leaders’ Connects are so relevant. I have attended as many as I can since the start of the year. My school is a smaller rural school just south of Auckland, so the opportunity to discuss these types of topics with others in the education space is great, Kia pai to rā”, Kris Burden, Tumuaki, Hunua School.

Leaders Connect was initiated by our team during the COVID19 lockdown in March 2020 and facilitated 15 Leaders Connect sessions in 2020.  In October 2020 the Ministry of Education agreed to sustain this initiative through resourcing it till the end of 2021.

Videos from past events

https://leadershiplab.co.nz/videos/