Essential Learning Question: In the face of the mobility and turnover that typify many international school communities, how can we build and maintain the kinds of schools that support optimal learning and attachment security?

Goal: Research clearly demonstrates that people learn better when they feel safe. Research also clearly connects attachment security to better outcomes across the lifespan, in relationships, work, and physical health. This "SPAN Primer" workshop provides a comprehensive understanding of the issues at stake when people move or are moved away from. The workshop starts at the micro level, reviewing the psychological, neurological, and biological issues at stake when the stress of moving strikes. The workshop then "pans out," linking these issues in increasingly broader fashion to the realities of how schools work. Participants examine i) how mobility has affected them personally and why they are invested in building effective transitions programs; ii) how to build and actually maintain such programs for the long term; iii) how networks of schools can and must collaborate in order for any school to be optimally effective; iv) the challenges that exist before schools can collaborate; and v) how SPAN strives to resolve these challenges by developing effective global best practices and policies.

Target Audience: This workshop is intended for those who develop, implement, or support transitions activities or programs at schools or networks of schools: school leadership, counselors and pastoral care specialists, admissions directors, teachers, empowered parents.

Overview:

1. Participants will gain a visceral grasp on why they care about, and are invested in, addressing mobility.
2. Participants will understand what happens inside the brain and physiology of somebody stressed by moving or being moved away from - regardless of appearances on the outside.
3. Participants will grasp the empirical connections between this stress and learning outcomes.
4. Participants will understand what is meant by attachment security, and the importance of attachment security for long-term human health and well-being.
5. Participants will understand why it is likely that many school practices in the domain of mobility may be inadvertently contributing to attachment insecurity in their students.
6. Participants will grasp key parameters for building effective transitions programs at their schools.
7. Participants will craft strategic plans and visions for develop or improving such programs.
8. Participants will understand why single schools cannot build truly effective programs in isolation.

Valérie Besanceney (BA, MA, M.Ed.) is well versed in international education and cross cultural awareness. As an independent international education and transition consultant, she strives to support children and their families through their personal cross cultural journeys, as well as provide teachers with practical tools to address the needs of Cross Cultural Kids (CCKs) in the classroom. Valérie is Dutch by birth, Swiss by nationality, and grew up as a quintessential Third Culture Kid (TCK) within Europe. After having attended mostly international schools, she graduated with a BA in German and English literature from the University of Vermont, followed by a MA in European Tourism Management at the Université de Savoie in Chambéry, France. She then met her American husband in the Swiss Alps, and they enjoyed ski-instructing for a few seasons while backpacking around the world during the summers. Their travels and her love for teaching encouraged Valérie to complete a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from George Mason University. During the last fifteen years, she has taught in international schools in Egypt, Burma, Bolivia, Aruba, and Switzerland, and became passionate about helping her students as they moved, recognizing the challenges that come with transition but also appreciating all the advantages of a globally mobile life. Valérie is the author of two children’s books, B at Home: Emma Moves Again and My Moving Booklet (available in English and French), and her writing has been featured online and in other publications. She serves on the Board of Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN) as the Chief Operating Officer, as well as on the Board of Families in Global Transition (FIGT) as the Program Director. Currently, she and her family live in a little town in the Swiss Alps, the one ‘home’ that she has always been lucky enough to return to her whole life. To learn more about Valérie and her work, please visit her website: www.valeriebesanceney.com.

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Jane.wang@hilton.com
shenzhenshekounanhai.hilton.com

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Notes with hotel reservation:

• You need to make your own hotel reservation (or for your colleagues who are going to attend the workshop).

• Transportation will not be provided during the workshop days. You and/or your colleague who registered the workshop will receive a notification email approximately a week before the conference with workshop information and direction to the host school.

No refund, partial or full, will be granted to registrants that do not complete the full course or withdraw in the middle of the course. 
No refund will be given for the DiSC assessment and .epub book once the registrants have gained access to these resources.