SPAN Symposium

Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN) offers their first virtual SPAN Symposium for like-minded practitioners to gathers and strengthen the network of transitions-care across international schools. Designed for attendance by all transitions-care supporters of and in international schools, this groundbreaking event is unique in that it spans across roles in the school, ranging from Admissions Directors and administrators to divisional counselors and classroom teachers.

The SPAN Symposium will equip attendees by learning from international schools researchers and practitioners about best practices for transitions-care for schools, refresh their understanding of the importance of attachment security, belonging and transitions-care in schools, by listening to students, fellow educators, and each other, and connect with other school practitioners to build strong networks of transitions-care across school networks.

Register for the event

Aim

The goal of this virtual SPAN Symposium is to gather together like-minded practitioners to strengthen the network of transitions-care across international schools. Much like our Laws of Transitions Certificate Course, this annual event is grounded in recent research and the sharing of best practices.

Why is this SPAN Symposium important?

SPAN’s founding event was in 2017, as a pre-conference workshop before the Families in Global Transitions conference in the Netherlands. There, Founder Doug Ota adopted a saying to claim that “if we build it, they will come!” SPAN’s Symposium 2022 is a direct legacy of that challenge: to gather transitions-care providers from schools around the world together, in order to strengthen the networks of transitions across our schools, for the whole community: students, parents and staff.

As we have seen over the past two years of a global pandemic, the need for human connection and healthy attachments is key to our wellbeing as a species. Doug Ota’s ongoing research sets out to prove that schools are essential in creating healthy attachments to people in their care, so that they can focus on their primary role: to learn, teach or lead.

By attending or sponsoring the SPAN Symposium, your school community is accepting Doug’s 2017 challenge. You are standing with fellow schools which believe in the importance of wellbeing. You are abiding by the transition standard in the latest Council of International Schools’ (CIS) accreditation standards (section E9). You are showing to your community that you care about each of them. You are supporting the ongoing work of SPAN’s volunteer efforts to bring transitions-care training and education to more schools.

Learning Outcomes:

Over two days, and accounting for various time zones, attendees will:

Equip themselves by learning from international schools researchers and practitioners about best practices for transitions-care for schools

Refresh their understanding of the importance of attachment security, belonging and transitions-care in schools, by listening to students, fellow educators, and each other

Connect with other school practitioners to build strong networks of transitions-care across school networks

Target Audience

All transitions-care supporters of and in international schools.
SPAN’s Symposium is unique in that it spans across roles in the school, ranging from Admissions Directors and administrators to divisional counselors and classroom teachers. We have found that if teams of educators from one school community attend together, they can strongly impact the development of transition teams and programming back on campus.

Timing

Saturday, March 5, 2022 from 2:30 pm to 7:30 pm CET
Sunday, March 6, 2022 from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm CET

All attendees will have access to all content for 6 months after the event.

Sessions

Pre-recorded and live

Keynote Speakers: Ruth Van Reken (co-author of Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds) and Douglas Ota (author of Safe Passage: How mobility affects people & what international schools should do about it)

Notes from the Lab: Students - International school alumni students provide first-hand accounts of their transitions experiences

Notes from the Lab: Research - International schools researchers share their latest findings in transitions-care programming, DEI belonging and wellbeing

Notes from the Field: Inclusion - School practitioners and supporters discuss how transitions-care must include the needs of all of our learners

Notes from the Field: Practitioners - Educators from across school roles share how they have been implementing transitions-care programming in their classrooms, counseling offices and the greater school community

Showcase Schools: The International School of London (London and Qatar campus) and the International School of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) will share stories on their journeys of building and sustaining Transition Teams at their schools