Government School Leaders receive First Part of the International School Leadership Certificate

 On the 12^th November, 2015, ten school leaders in the Cayman Islands Government Education System received Part 1 of their International School Leadership (ISL) certificate. This programme is offered through the Ontario Principals Council (OPC) and is recognised internationally as offering excellent support for current leaders and preparation for future leaders.

The leaders awarded were Chabienauth Samaroo, Delton Pedley, Elvie Clarke, Jane Kelly, Joseph Wallace, Kimberly Litrico-Watler, Lyneth Monteith, Gloria Bell, Richard Wildman and Vickie Frederick. The Ministry has since been informed that Yvonne Lawe-Gonzales has also successfully completed Part 1 of the ISL and will be presented with her certificate when it arrives.

On hand to present the certificates was Minister for Education, Hon. Tara Rivers. Commenting on this achievement, Minister Rivers said, “Congratulations to our school leaders on completing this first stage of the International School Leadership Certificate. Your commitment to our education system is admired and appreciated.”

Minister Rivers continued, “The recent baseline schools inspections and the education governance review identified strengthening leadership and management as a key component in achieving local school success. The Government is committed to supporting our educators and providing them with targeted opportunities to develop the additional skills they need to perform as highly successful instructional leaders.”

Also on hand to recognise the achievements of these leaders were Councillor to the Minister for Education Mr. Winston Connolly and Chief Officer for Education Mr. Christen Suckoo.

Councillor Connolly echoed the Minister’s sentiments, saying, “Having recognised international qualifications and training is essential to ensuring the continued development of our education provision in the government schools. Congratulations to our school leaders on this achievement.”

Three more school leaders in Cayman Brac will also be recognised for completing Part 1 of the ISL when Minister Rivers travels to the Brac in the coming months. These leaders are April Tibbetts, Devon Brown and Margaret Juman-Khan.

Chief Officer Mr. Suckoo explained the purpose of having the school leaders complete this course. He said, “Education research highlights the importance of high quality instructional leadership in schools, and, where this is lacking, schools almost inevitably fail to improve. The International School Leadership certificate programme has functioned for many years to prepare school leaders in one of the most successful English speaking regions, Ontario, Canada. This programme has been taken overseas to many countries, for example in Demark and Ecuador, where it has achieved comparable results.”

Part 1 of the two part programme spanned 9 months and consisted of face to face sessions with instructors from the OPC. The framework used for the delivery of the training was based on international best practice but the Ministry also needed to ensure that the training met local needs. As a result a member of the OPC team worked with a group of principals, the Department of Education Services and Ministry staff to ensure that the programme was best suited to meet the needs of the Cayman Islands Government School System.

There were a total of 6 modules covered which required written assignments. The modules were: Principal Leadership for School Improvement; Characteristics of Effective Schools and Systems; Building Relationships and Developing People; Setting Goals and Expectations Using Data Informed Decision Making; Leading Improvement in Classroom Instruction: Meeting the Needs of All Learners; and Instructional Leadership Project Proposal Development: The Application of Theory to Practice.

The Ministry of Education is requiring all current government school leaders to complete this programme by the end of 2017. Beginning next month in December 2015, a second cohort of school leaders will begin the programme, whilst Part 2 of the programme for this first cohort of leaders commences in January 2016.

For more information on the Ontario Principals’ Council and the International School Leadership Certificate please visit http://internationalschoolleadership.com.

Photo Caption:

Photo caption: (L-R) Mr. Delton Pedley, Ms. Elvie Clarke, Councillor to the Minister for Education Mr. Winston Connolly, Minister for Education Hon. Tara Rivers. JP, Mrs. Vickie Frederick, Mr. Chabienauth Samaroo, Mrs. Jane Kelly, Mr. Richard Wildman, Ms. Gloria Bell, Acting Chief Education Officer Ms. Lyneth Monteith, Mr. Joseph Wallace, Chief Officer Mr. Christen Suckoo. Missing: Mrs. Kimberly Litrico-Watler.

Fourth Meeting of the 2015/2016 Session of the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly

Statement Highlighting Professional Development Achievements of School Leaders

By the Honourable Tara Rivers, JP, MLA Minister of Education, Employment and Gender Affairs

Thursday 19th November, 2015

Madam Speaker,

I am happy to present this statement in recognition of the recent professional development accomplishments of some of our public school leaders in both primary and secondary schools throughout the Islands. Strong leadership and management at the school level are identified as key components of school success, and this was underscored in the recent baseline schools inspections and the education governance review which took place during the 2014-15 academic year.

Although school leaders had been and are provided with professional development opportunities, upon taking office as Minister it was identified that there was a need to provide targeted professional development specifically aimed at strengthening school leadership and management, and that no such professional development opportunities were being provided locally at that time. Hence, the International School Leadership (ISL) Certificate programme was introduced in the Cayman Islands during the 2014-2015 school year. The ISL Certificate is an internationally recognised programme offered by the Ontario Principal’s Council (OPC) that provides excellent support for current school leaders as well as preparation for future leaders. The framework used for delivery of the Programme in the Cayman Islands is based on international best practice and was contextualised locally as a member of the OPC team worked with a group of principals, Department of Education Services (DES) and Ministry staff to ensure that it addressed local needs.

The ISL Certificate programme is comprised of two parts, with the first part spanning 9 months and including 6 modules delivered in face-to-face sessions and via online seminars.

The 6 modules completed in Part 1 of the Programme are:

 Module 1: Principal Leadership for School Improvement

 Module 2: Characteristics of Effective Schools and Systems

 Module 3: Building Relationships and Developing People

 Module 4: Setting Goals and Expectations Using Data Informed Decision Making

 Module 5: Leading Improvement in Classroom Instruction: Meeting the Needs of All

Learners

 Module 6: Instructional Leadership Project Proposal Development: The Application of

Theory to Practice

During the first year in which the Programme was launched locally, 14 school leaders across the various primary and secondary schools have successfully completed Part 1 of the Programme. On November 12, I had the distinct pleasure of awarding certificates commemorating the completion of Part 1 of the ISL Certificate programme to 10 of our school leaders here in Grand Cayman. The leaders awarded were Chabienauth Samaroo of John Gray High School, Delton Pedley of Red Bay Primary, Elvie Clarke of East End Primary, Gloria Bell formerly of Prospect

Primary now Senior School Improvement Officer at DES, Jane Kelly of John Gray High School, Joseph Wallace of Sir John A. Cumber Primary, Kimberly Litrico-Watler of Bodden Town Primary, Lyneth Monteith formerly of John Gray High School now Acting Chief Education Officer, Richard Wildman of John Gray High School and Vickie Frederick of Red Bay Primary. In addition, the Ministry has just received confirmation on Tuesday of this week that Yvonne Law- Gonzales of Prospect Primary has completed her final assignment and has successfully completed Part 1 of the Programme as well.

Three additional school leaders in Cayman Brac – namely April Tibbetts of West End Primary School, Devon Brown of Layman E. Scott Snr. High School and Margaret Juman of Creek and Spott Bay Primary – have also successfully completed Part 1 of the certification.

On behalf of the Government, I congratulate each and every one of them.

I am also pleased to report that a second cohort of leaders is scheduled to begin Part 1 of the Programme in December 2015, while the leaders in cohort 1 who have successfully completed Part 1 are scheduled to begin Part 2 in January 2016.

In keeping with and pursuant to the Plan of Action developed in response to the recent schools inspections and reviews to strengthen school leadership and management, all current government school leaders are expected to have completed this ISL certification by the end of 2017. This is also in keeping with the National Priorities Plan of the Independent Members of the Government, which sets out the aspiration to “establish the Cayman Islands as a centre of educational excellence” by, among other things:

 facilitating and implementing continuing education requirements for teachers’ professional development; and

 establishing an appropriate accountability mechanism as it relates to each school’s performance.

Since taking office in May 2013, the work undertaken in the Ministry of Education has centred by in large on examining our education system with the goal of identifying areas of strengths and weaknesses, and ways to improve the system by working to address the gaps identified. One such gap identified was the absence of a formalised Professional Development Policy, which has been developed and formally adopted during the 2014-2015 Academic Year as a result. In addition, one of the recurring themes identified was the need to strengthen and improve leadership and management within the schools; and a large part of the strategy to achieve this is to offer strong, relevant professional development opportunities, and to ensure that they are completed at a high level by the relevant persons. I am happy to report that our school leaders are not only receiving the opportunities to improve their leadership and management skills, but are excelling in these professional development pursuits. I look forward to bringing continued news of their progress, and trust that the children in our system are already beginning to reap the benefits of school leaders and teachers receiving and taking advantage of strong and relevant professional development opportunities provided.