NELP Training

Published 15th March 2006, 12:35pm

"The course was informative, refreshing, interesting, motivational, appropriate and useful!" A comment made by one of the participants in the recent National Education Leadership Programme (NELP) training workshop summed up the feelings of the sixteen senior managers of Cayman's government and private schools who came together in the lecture room at the University College of the Cayman Islands on February 15th, 16th and 17th. The training was organized by the Schools' Inspectorate and led by two educational consultants from the U.K. Pat Clark, a senior consultant with the London Centre for Leadership in Learning at the Institute of Education, University of London, and Simon Williams, an independent educational consultant, provided an interactive and inspiring three days which marked the beginning of a two year programme for a second group of school leaders. NELP is a part time, two-year programme developed in partnership with the London Centre for Leadership in Learning. It provides principals and other senior managers in Cayman's schools with effective tools to develop the vision, leadership and management skills to take our schools forward into the 21st century. Participants use study material based on the National Standards for Principals in the Cayman Islands, and, over two years, complete written assignments, take part in training workshops with overseas trainers and come together regularly for further training and opportunities for discussion. They also carry out a school improvement project in their own schools and then go through two phases of assessment before they earn their NELP certificate. Quite a few participants admitted to feeling tired and overworked and were not looking forward to 'even more work'. However, they listened, shared ideas, watched videos and reflected on such questions as "What makes a highly effective school?" "Why are values and vision important, and how can they make a difference?" "What are the characteristics of effective and ineffective leaders?" At the end of the three days, participants unanimously stated that their expectations for the training had all been met and that any apprehension or uncertainty had disappeared. "I started tired and finished energized," one person said. The National Education Leadership Programme strives to ensure that senior staff members in our schools are up-to-date and prepared to become the leading professionals in education. It is a welcome contribution to continuing efforts to reform education in Cayman, as it supports strategy 10 as defined in the 'National Consensus on the Future of Education' document, produced as a result of last September's education conference. This strategy is one of ten, which were modeled to bring about necessary improvements to the education system, and is concerned with the development of high quality teacher training and professional development opportunities for educators. The excellent start that this second group of school leaders has enjoyed through NELP is another promising sign that these improvements are well underway.