Foundations for School Leadership Program: Designing a Practice

Starting the Journey - Knowing Oneself in Order to Lead

Independent Schools leaders begin their leadership journey in a variety of different portfolios. The CAIS Foundations for School Leadership Program invites emerging leaders to explore leadership from multiple levels- conceptual and personal. Participants will explore leadership across the three CAIS pillars including Strategic Direction, Education Program and School Operation.

This five-day program is for people who are at the beginning of an exploration of their aspirations for leadership or who have been recognized as potential school leaders.

Completion of the Foundations for School Leadership Program is required to pursue the CAIS Diploma in Independent School Leadership.

Information on Summer Leadership 2024 will be available in January 2024

For further information see CAIS Leadership Institute FAQ’s or contact Catherine McCauley, Director of Professional Learning, at cmccauley@cais.ca.

Program Overview

Supporting the learning and development of independent school leaders is a strategic priority for CAIS. Recent CAIS research indicates a growing need for motivated, diverse, and expert leadership that supports school improvement and innovation.

This program provides you with a knowledge of leadership competencies and actions. As an aspiring leader, it meets you where they are in your career. With support from expert facilitators and the cohort experience, you will gain a deeper sense of your strengths and areas for growth as you build both confidence and understanding of independent school leadership.

This five (5) day course is offered each summer, and is a prerequisite for participants who wish to pursue the CAIS Diploma in Independent School Leadership.

Program Goals & Components

The overarching goals are to:

Build understanding of CAIS Indicators of Effective Leadership Practice, including the competencies, knowledge and actions associated with school leadership.
Develop a deep understanding of the dispositions of effective leaders.
Identify and design an intentional leadership practice that builds upon a participant’s personal and professional experience.
Cultivate and integrate a pluralistic mindset within the educational setting and beyond.
Develop a network of professional colleagues.

Program components include:

Pre-course Lumina Spark Profile Assessment.
Pre-course work.
Engage in individual, small group, and large group activities.

Program Information

This course is open to faculty and staff from CAIS schools and non-CAIS schools who are new to the CAIS Leadership Institute or who have begun the LI program since 2021.
This course will be offered annually during the summer.
For further information see CAIS Leadership Institute FAQ’s or contact Catherine McCauley, Director of Professional Learning, at cmccauley@cais.ca.

Facilitators

Anna Lisa Bond

We begin with who we are as people.

Anna Lisa Bond, LEAP Professional Coaching and Wellness, is originally from Alberta. Anna Lisa's background in high-performance athletics, the classroom and administration has offered her the opportunity to discern the specific learning needs of individuals and teams. This has positioned her to lead entire school communities through reorganization and restructuring projects, and to co-create new cultures and environments for teams, staff, students, and parents. Her personal passion for physical learning, understanding, function and form enables Anna Lisa to work with coaching clients in a manner that allows for deep behavioural transformation.

While working at the district level, Anna Lisa created and built partnerships between secondary and post-secondary institutions with community and industry partners, designing and promoting pathways and opportunities for more personalized learning for students. Anna Lisa specialized in working with First Nation communities and youth at risk. She has travelled extensively, applying her passion, energy, and skills to projects that focused on improving resources and access to education for young children in Third World countries.

Anna Lisa is based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Keith Driscoll

Keith has been an educator for over 25 years, since completing his education degree at McGill University. Over these years, Keith has held roles as a teacher, athletic coach, department head, academic counselor and Vice Principal. In his 14 years at St. Michaels University School (SMUS) he has served as an Assistant Director of the Middle School, as a Boys Boarding House Director and for the last 10 years has been the Director of Boarding and Student Life.

Keith is passionate about developing leadership capacity in students and staff through coaching and facilitation, both as individuals and within high functioning teams. His work in this area was recognized by The ROY group, as the recipient of the MacGregor Cup, as a leader in this field. Keith has contributed his expertise at CAIS Conferences, the CAIS Summer Leadership Institute and the Centre for Spiritual and Ethical Education. He has also led sessions for organizations and individuals across Canada and the United States. Along with his responsibilities as Director of Boarding and Student Life, Keith is co-chairing a SMUS working group collaborating with the School’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is the Senior Leadership Team lead on the Board of Governors Sustainability Committee. In both cases these committees have been tasked with developing and implementing a 10 year strategic vision for SMUS.

Leanne Foster

Dr. Leanne Foster is Head of School at Trafalgar Castle School, an all-girls’ day and boarding school in Whitby, Ontario. A dedicated and experienced educator, Leanne’s career in teaching and consulting has taken her from kindergarten classrooms to university lecture halls to government ministries, working in both public and independent schools, as well as the private sector.

Leanne earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto, as well as a B.Ed. and M.Ed. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT). She completed her Ph.D. in Educational Administration at the University of Toronto where her doctoral research focused on school improvement and educational change management.

Dedicated to supporting her community, Leanne serves on the Boards of Hearth Place Cancer Support Centre in Oshawa and Station Gallery in Whitby. She is a member of the Family Council at Isabelle and Arthur Meighen Manor, a long-term care facility in Toronto.

Paris McLean

Paris is an alumnus of Princeton Day School (PDS) and LaSalle University in Philadelphia. Paris began his professional career in 2004 at Princeton Day School (PreK-12), where served as a 2nd Grade Lead Teacher, Lower School Curriculum Coordinator, Chairperson of the Community and Multicultural Diversity Team, and Head Varsity Basketball Coach.

In 2015, Paris was appointed as the Head of Lower School (K-4) at Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart (K-8), located in Princeton, NJ. He received a master's degree in Education Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University where he was a Klingenstein Fellow for Private School Leadership.

In 2020, Paris was appointed as Princeton Academy's first Assistant Head of School, serving as Head of the Lower and Middle Schools. Paris recently completed the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Fellowship for Aspiring School Heads and has represented Princeton Academy on the national and international level by presenting at the NAIS Annual Conference, the NAIS People of Color Conference, the Online Education Strategies for Independent Schools Conference, the International Boys School Coalition Conference and through various published works.

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