Bulletin from Anne-Marie Kee
Executive Director, CESI
Virtual CESI – Serving Members’ Needs
One of the key pillars of CESI’s recently approved Strategic Plan is to significantly expand our capacity to serve members’ needs by bringing together top talent in a variety of areas, to provide services and guidance for CESI’s growing roster of activities. To do this in a streamlined and cost effective way means developing what I’m calling, ‘Virtual CESI’, a team of experts that expands and contracts depending on our priorities. These highly skilled professionals will work with CESI as needed, to enhance our offerings and help us build a critical mass of expertise to benefit all of our schools. I am pleased to let you know that we have already made significant inroads in achieving this goal.
Academic Program – Effective Practices Report
For example, an important research project is underway to investigate the latest intelligence on Academic Program Effective Practices. The research and report are being compiled by Barb Smith, former Vice Principal Academics at The Sterling Hall School, now an Education Consultant with Innovations in Education and a PhD from OISE/University of Toronto; and Jackie Copp, former teacher, principal and curriculum designer from Balmoral Hall who is now a consultant working with The Critical Thinking Consortium and other educational organizations.
Governance Guidelines 2009
We all know that outstanding leadership is a cornerstone of outstanding schools, and that’s why governance is a major focus of CESI’s research and development. Our member schools will soon receive top-level guidance, insights and practical skills to help enhance their own governance practices in the new Governance Guidelines 2009. With dedicated research and analysis by Jean Brugniau, Former Head of the Toronto French School, this promises to be the most comprehensive and insightful to date. The Guidelines will be ready for distribution in French and English this fall.
Risk Management – Best Practices
Risk management is another ongoing priority for our schools, and to help achieve the highest standards in this critical area, the CESI Standards Council includes an annual update of best practices. When we learned that the Bishop Strachan School had initiated a review of student ratios for field trips, we approached them to form a partnership to broaden the scope of the study to include all CESI schools. This research will establish a best practice guideline for all member schools as we deal with this extremely important aspect of student safety and school operations.
Don Webster is conducting this research in conjunction with Ross Cloutier of Bhudak Consultants, who worked with Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School after children were killed in an avalanche while on a school trip.
Don is currently a graduate student in Environmental Management at Royal Roads University and holds an undergraduate degree in Adventure Tourism. He is a sessional faculty member for the Tourism and Recreation Department at Capilano University, specializing in Risk Management and Outdoor Leadership. Don also has extensive experience working in the outdoor education field in both the public and private sectors.
The deadline for submission of a brief questionnaire about your school’s practices is mid-April and the results should be available for distribution by early summer. The questionnaire is available at www.cesi.edu.ca.
Sharing Knowledge
Martha Perry and Peter Sturrup, Assistant Head and Head at Pickering College, will join us to teach the ‘Accreditation and School Improvement’ module at the CAIS Leadership Institute in October 2009.
I wanted to let you know about these exciting initiatives and I will continue to keep you posted as these resources become finalized and ready for distribution. The updated Accreditation Guidelines 2009, which were approved by the CESI Board in March, will be first in line and you can expect to receive it in early May.
I hope everyone can enjoy some temperate weather as spring settles in and look forward to being in touch soon.
Sincerely,
Anne-Marie Kee, Executive Director
CESI