Community and commitments

by Vivienne Porritt @ViviennePorritt #BirthdayCelebration

I loved our 5th #WomenEd birthday party on May 19th, 2020. Nearly 500 people booked it, over 300 joined on the evening.

I’m looking forward to reading all the comments and have appreciated going through the amazing tweets from the party. 

The video from the evening is on our YouTube channel as are videos from some of our brilliant network leaders: please subscribe. 

We all shared news with you and I’m expanding now on the launch of @WomenEdEngIand and our fully funded #WomenEd Leadership Masters in partnership with the National College of Education. (@TheNCE_).

@WomenEdEngland

Our initial aim when the 7 co-founders set up #WomenEd was to give women a voice on twitter.

Now we want to give all aspiring and existing women leaders a voice in global education. To do this we are reorganising some of our networks which are growing exponentially. Up to now the 6 strategic leaders have been supporting the nine regions in England as well as thematic and country networks. To enable the impact that we want from #WomenEd we are now handing the leadership of the English networks onto our latest network which is @WomenEdEngIand (NB. the l in land is a capital i).

It’s very hard for us to hand over our networks and I have loved working with @WomenEdNE and @WomenEdLondon. We are delighted with the team of strong women who will now support the English teams who we know are in good hands. They may be different faces but we all share the same values. We know you will all support the new team on the regional strategy going forward. They are excited to continue to embrace everyone's voices and are particularly looking for BAME women to be heard without having to shout.

The networks with which they will connect are:

• Ruth – South West and Jersey.
• Claire – West and East Midlands
• Victoria – North West and North East
• Amanda – Yorkshire and Humber and @WomenEdBookClub
• Paula – half of London
• Christalla – half of London. 

Alison Kriel is hanging onto @WomenEdSE and @WomenEdEastern for a while (lucky Alison) as they have been reforming and, once ready, these teams will be supported by Paula and Christalla.

We will support @WomenEdEngland with the handover so we can pass on our learning.  The change means that we can continue to develop our structures so that the strategic leaders support country teams and the country team supports the regional networks who are the closest to where women in education live and work

We have redrafted the expected commitments for all our teams and will share these with network leaders shortly.

Partnership with National College of Education.

We have been working on this for a while and this is definitely the year of Being 10%braver. The Masters/ Apprenticeship programme is:

•      Fior England only (apologies as I was wrong in saying the UK due to varying arrangements for Apprenticeship funds).
•      Fully funded from your LA or Trust (90% of LAs approve this programme. If the others don’t, ask them why not!)
•      For women only
•      For BAME women leaders: 20% of places reserved. 
•      For School Business Leaders (check out your situation with NCE)
•      For women paid on the Leadership scale. (talk with your HT about being paid on this scale if needed and discuss the nature of your contract). Talk with NCE in case they can help.

There has been significant interest in the programme already so do register your details at https://www.nationaleducation.college/womened and start the conversation with our colleagues at NCE.

For women leaders in England, this is part of our commitment to our four campaigns and we are delighted to have launched our campaign to increase the representation of BAME women in leadership roles.

Our aim in gaining more capacity as strategic leaders is to develop our way of working so that we can gain global partnerships and help all women leaders. Let us know if you are interested in supporting this!

The next 5 years are going to be phenomenal and we can’t wait to see what is possible when women leaders in global education use their voice and are Being10%braver.