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GC  MONTHLY
- Edition 9.0 -
 
One of the things that has dominated the headlines since the turn of the year has been education. Children around the world have seen almost 12 months of their education interrupted by the pandemic, with countless millions learning and developing from home with only their parents for company. 
 
This is a concern for all of us, not just for parents, after all these children will be joining the workforce in the future. We all need to do our best to make sure that this future talent isn’t held back, that these children develop in terms of their learning and their personal growth no matter what the pandemic throws at them.
 
Of course it is parents who are bearing the brunt of this responsibility, but even for those of you who don’t have children, the knock-on effect is huge. Your colleagues, clients and customers might have spent months scrambling to do their job whilst also moonlighting as a teacher. They aren’t just working from home, fitting in zoom calls and converting kitchens into home offices, they’re also trying to master curriculums, check homework and answering questions about every subject under the sun.
 
As you all know, our belief at The GC Index is that everyone can make a positive impact in their environment, and that includes people teaching from home. That’s why this newsletter shares some of the education related highlights of work happening across our global community. 

 
Together, let's make our world a better place.
Empowering learning & teaching

The Young People Index focuses on preparing young people for success. It's proving particularly popular at the moment and is often used alongside The GC Index.

Developed using The GC Index® framework, it is designed to help young people discover their impact. It is also used to support education professionals and youth organisations by helping them understand what motivates young people. The framework also helps identify:

•    Common teaching styles
•    Common learning styles


The results from the unique online assessment empower young people by highlighting their natural preferences and inclinations in terms of how they contribute to a team, organisation, project or role and thus boost confidence and self-awareness.

Dr John Mervyn-Smith, Chief Psychologist at The GC Index says, "Self esteem, confidence and belonging come from doing not being. We are at our best when we can make an impact and play to our strengths, we can feel potent in how we contribute to a team”

Natalee Holmes, from GC Partner Conscious Connections, adds: “When teachers have insights into themselves, and their students, they can considerably improve the performance of young people by understanding the contributions each young person makes, and has the potential to make."

The Young People Index in practice...
The Young People Index is being used alongside The GC Index in lots of different ways, from one to one coaching and mentoring with young people, in youth sports teams and in schools.

We have also been working with The Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS). 
 
The IAPS is a school association with over 670 of the world's leading prep schools in membership, delivering excellent standards of education and care.

 
The Game-Changing Leadership and Teams Programme powered by The GC Index®, developed by GCologists Andrew Roberts-Wray and Helen Rivero, is being delivered across the IAPS to headteachers. The programme helps headteachers understand their impact and contribution to their school team. It shows strengths across five different inclinations that we all have when working in teams. The online programme coaches Headteachers to use this tool to get the best out of themselves and their team.
 
Our rapidly changing world requires new approaches to leadership. Headteachers embody and live the values and vision of their school. The leadership team must deliver those values and vision, day to day in all that they do. This programme has been designed with this in mind.


Mark Hartley, Head of Greensteads International School and Ex Vice-Chair IAPS, said, "I was impressed with how it effectively identified and enabled me to understand my personal team profile and the dynamics with my senior leadership team. It certainly helped to see the way ahead using a more multi-dimensional leadership approach."

 
The Game-Changing Leadership and Teams in Education Programme addresses the issues of leadership in schools and provides solutions to the challenges.  
The BRIT School uses The GC Index to boost teaching & learning
Towards the end of 2020 we embarked on a journey with The BRIT School here in the UK to boost impact.
 
The BRIT School is the Leading Performing and Creative Arts School in the UK provides a unique education for over 1,400 pupils aged between 14 and 19 in the fields of music, film, digital design, community arts, visual arts and design, production and performing arts as well as a full academic programme. 
 
Tom Wates, GCologist and Head of Mathematics at The Brit School has been using The GC Index® with his team. Tom himself is the Founder of the revolutionary school chair company Don’t Lean Back, which was voted by Bloomberg Business Week as one of the ’25 Products that May Just Change the World’.
 
Tom believes The GC Index® and The Young People Index® have a very important role to play in the future of education by creating bespoke learning curricula that have both teachers and pupils fully synched in the process of learning. 
 
As a pilot to get his journey started Tom and his team completed The GC Index® and provided individual and team reviews along with a workshop. They discussed how they can work together better as a team but more importantly how the language and framework can empower their curricula through the year to support learning.  

In terms of next steps, we will now be working to embed the pilot across the department and extend through to other departments and pupils alike. We will be sharing more about this over the coming months...
Equipping students for the world of work

EIT InnoEnergy, a European innovation engine for sustainable energy offering products and services for innovators, start-ups and scale-ups, joined forces with The GC Index and Enterprise Lab in 2017, to create The Career Impact Programme.

The goal was to build a programme that would create a pipeline of talented people to work in and around sustainable energy.

The Programme, which is now in its fourth year, runs alongside student’s more traditional academic studies. It uses The GC Index framework and language to help bridge the gap between education and enterprise.


 

The results
So far more than 600 Masters students have completed the programme and InnoEnergy has helped push more than 480 products to market and supported more than 380 start-ups.

In terms of how it has been received, a 2020 student satisfaction survey rated the programme as ‘excellent’.

  • 86% have a better understanding of the contribution that they can make
  • 85% feel more confident in communicating how they can contribute
  • 82% believe they improved their skills to ‘make an impact’
  • 83% are more adept at ‘playing to their strengths’ as a leader.
Download our InnoEnergy EIT case study
GC People Leader Series - head teacher Andy Baker
Continuing the education theme we wanted to highlight our GC Index People Leader Series interview with Andy Baker, Former Head Teacher at Poole Grammar School, about his career, what it means being a Polisher Implementer and how that has underpinned his success to date.
 
As an Implementer Polisher Andy has a reputation for getting things done to a high standard. He is very driven and task-focused. He recognises the need to take time to make sure that people around him are ‘on board’ with his plans.


Andy says “As Head Teacher, the ability to move from one task to another, often with quite different requirements, is an essential skill.  I have found that my memory really helps here, along with a calmness under pressure, so that I do not reduce people’s confidence in me by showing panic!
 
“I feel it is important not to get drawn into giving people a quick and easy solution just to buy some time or make them happy – and that can take some nerve at times.  By building in thinking time you can come back with a more durable solution.”
 
You can read the full Interview here:
 https://www.thegcindex.com/andy-baker/


If you or indeed someone you work with would like to feature in our GC People Leader Series please do email us. 
Read GC People Leader Series with Andy Baker






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