developing ethical leadership

ViTaL partnerships

A specimen programme for an Ammerdown weekend

This weekend has been designed to provide support and structure for personal and professional renewal: helping us to sustain the courage to be who we are, to fulfil our calling in our work and our lives.

'Space' plays a vital part in this: space between us and a busy life; space within, of the mental and emotional kind; space in the programme, to reflect and attend to ourselves and each other and the beautiful space we occupy in the tranquillity of Ammerdown. We hope that this weekend will offer you a lot, without 'cluttering' your space.

The programme therefore tries to strike a balance between structure and freedom, time together and time when you are free to be solitary if you wish. You will be able to adjust this balance as we go along, since the programme offers choice for this purpose. Responding to feedback from the first weekend in December, we have included more free time and a little less structured activity on subsequent occasions. We aim for the experience to be rich and concentrated, but unhurried.

For your part, we hope you will come prepared both to enjoy the space and make creative use of it for yourself, so that you can decide how best to employ the time and guidance available, to address your own personal and professional issues, needs and challenges.

Mannie Burn and Tim Small

Programme

Friday

• 5.30 pm  Arrive, register and book into rooms
• 6.15  Welcome and introductions (Tim)
• 6.45  Dinner
• 8.15  The Courage to Be... An introduction – the journey so far (Tim)
• 9.15  The bar will be open

Saturday

• 7.30 am  Silent meditation in the chapel for those who wish to be there
• 8.15  Breakfast
• 9.00  Why are we here?
•          Where do I speak from?
  
•          What am I speaking into?
  
•          What am I hearing?
  
•          Sharing learning stories in a circle of trust
  
• 10.30 Tea and coffee
• 11.00 Meditation: to quieten the mind:
•           Counteracting stress and increasing personal well-being
•           with John Preston
•           Reflective Practice:
•           Writing for personal and professional development
•           with Sue Ashby
• 12.30 pm  Lunch
• 1.30  Free time to spend alone or together for the afternoon
• 3.00  Tea and coffee
• 3.30  Choice of Workshops: Part 2
•          John and Sue will be presenting different workshops so that
•          you can attend both of the same or one of each, in either order
• 4.45  Back in the circle: ways of finding clearness
• 5.10  Walk and talk
• 6.10  Prepare for supper
• 6.30  Supper
• 7.45  Balance of body, mind and spirit: Music and Song with Mannie
• 8.45  Epilogue
• 9.00  The bar will be open

Sunday

• 7.30 am  Silent meditation in the chapel for those who wish to be there
• 8.15  Breakfast
• 9.00  Preparation for Clearness Committees
• 9.30 Clearness Committee and/or Parker Palmer workshop
• 11.30  Tea and coffee
• 12.00 noon Back in the circle – reflections on clearness
• 12.30 pm  Lunch
• 1.30  Where do we go from here - together and separately?
• 2.00  Presence and gifts!
• 2.30  Pledges
• 3.00  Wind up, reflect on the weekend and depart by 3.15

To book a place on the next or any weekend, or to contact the team, please email couragetobe@vitalhub.net.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:

Sue Ashby is a freelance trainer and psychotherapist. Her experience as a journalist, playwright and scriptwriter and psychotherapist underpin her recent and current work in education which focuses discretely on emotional literacy. Sue has worked as a trainer and consultant with Wiltshire Relate, delivering training to teaching staff and pupils. She pioneered Anger Management training for pupils at risk of exclusion, and a Year 6 programme to facilitate pupils moving up to secondary school. She is currently project-managing a Peer Drug Education Training programme for EARLY INTERVENTIONS and developing supervisory support through creative writing workshops for counsellors.

Mannie Burn has 20 years of experience working within the world of education, and her passion is helping people to flourish as human beings. Mannie has worked extensively in music education and over the last few years has moved into school leadership. She is currently studying part time for an MA, coaching PGCE students for Bath Spa University and is exploring systemic coaching with the Nowhere Foundation. Mannie is still passionate about music, especially singing, and enjoys leading workshops to balance mind, body and spirit.

John Preston worked for many years as a social services manager, counsellor and lecturer. In 1989 he left employment with the County Council to ordain as a monk at a Buddhist meditation monastery. Here he taught meditation to individuals on retreat. He also lectured at the monastery, to groups established in London and Oxford and also at colleges and schools in the locality. After five years as a monk John returned to lay-life and now teaches meditation as a practice promoting personal growth.

Tim Small, a former secondary Head, now works independently supporting leaders in education, offering a range of expertise in consultancy, training, management, research and authorship. His main interest is in the intra- and inter-personal aspects of leadership and learning and the connection between self-concept, relationships, well-being and achievement. He created Space for Transformation and has attended part of the Courage to Teach programme run at the Fetzer Institute in the USA under the guidance of Parker J. Palmer. Tim has worked with a team to develop the Courage to Be... programme, drawing on this experience. He helped to prepare the ELLI Learning Power project at University of Bristol for national availability and is now one of ViTaL's core team, specialising in Research and Development in a variety of contexts as far flung as Malaysia, Madrid and across the UK.