Over 300 teachers came together at OJC to share ideas, learn and network.

On June 5th, 7 Flatbush schools, Ormiston Senior College, Ormiston Junior College, Ormiston Primary, Mission Heights Junior College, Mission Heights Primary school, Baverstock Oaks and our very newest edition, opening in Flatbush in 2019, Te Uho o te Nikau Primary School, combined for their first ever teacher only day together. The local school Principals had a vision of teachers and leaders working alongside each other for professional learning and engaging in collaborative opportunities for the community benefit.

The keynote speaker on the day was Kaila Colbin, from Join Singularity University's Australian Ambassador. In 2016, she spearheaded the hugely successful SingularityU New Zealand Summit, the first in Australasia, with more than 1,400 attendees. She is also a co-founder and Chair of the non-profit Ministry of Awesome, the starting point to make things happen in Christchurch; the Curator and Licensee for TEDxChristchurch in New Zealand and TEDxScottBase in Antarctica; Chairman of the Board of the New York-based Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts; Deputy Chair of CORE Education Ltd; and a Director of Christchurch NZ, the Christchurch agency responsible for tourism, major events and economic development. Kaila is a certified ExO consultant, a Climate Project Ambassador who trained with Al Gore, and a Project Management Professional. She is a renowned national and international public speaker, sought after by corporates, government agencies, industry groups, and more. A native New Yorker, Kaila is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian, holds a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from Cornell University and has been a serial entrepreneur since the age of 22.  She says her purpose in life is to be an uplifting presence. Being able to book and hear from Kaila was an amazing opportunity.

Kaila’s talk on “Riding the exponential wave of change” focused on questions such as ‘What do nanotechnology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and robotics have in common, and, more importantly, what do they have to do with you? As well as a startling look at the dramatic implications of exponential technologies, and some insight into how we might better prepare ourselves to adapt and thrive in a dynamically changing world. This was a great way to start us thinking and was able to lead onto the next part of the day.

The rest of the day consisted of a series of workshops that followed the keynote session using the expertise amongst teachers in the different schools. There was a sharing of what is happening across the schools curriculums and an encouragement of collaborative practices and learning amongst the schools’ staff. Schools support staff also had a day of professional collaboration, listening to the keynote speaker as well as bringing in community expertise to share professional growth amongst themselves.

This was a great opportunity for connections and ongoing support between our schools with an upskilling of teachers’ knowledge and forwarding great practices for our students. It was a very worthwhile day.