Happy New Year!  What a privilege it is to be able to launch into a new year with a focus on children typically left behind.  As we get into 2022, we’re not only launching a new annual strategy cycle, but our next five year strategy – watch this space!

Front of our minds as schools open is how we can best equip, support, and empower school leaders to ensure all schools are vibrant places for children to thrive a succeed.  With the ongoing pressures of the pandemic, striking new data on learning loss, and ongoing national education reform in Kenya, there is much work to be done to ensure every learner can reach their potential.

2021 ended on a high, as we reflected on numerous achievements from the year past. 2021 saw us take our learning from 2020 about remote and blended support for school leader professional development and build our full digital training and coaching toolkit, LeadNow, which was recently recognised by World Bank, GPE and HundrED as one of top ten education innovations globally leveraging technology for teacher professional development.

We collaborated with some fantastic organisations through the year to create and deepen impact.  This included the development of a learning series and toolkit, in partnership with Global Schools Forum, which focused on the Evolving Needs of Teachers as the pandemic continues to unfold.  We also partnered with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to deliver training and coaching workshops to their curriculum developers in partnership with RELI, which was a significant opportunity as we began to consider shaping education systems.  We partnered with Education Above All to pilot their Internet Free Education Resource Bank in Kenya, impacting 1,261 children in Phase 1, and Phase 2 ongoing.  Our partners BTS Spark delivered some fantastic coaching and support to our Dignitas Leadership Coaches and Alumni Peer Facilitators. Finally, we formalised a partnership with Kenya Education Management Institute which holds some exciting prospects for 2022.

Our Stawisha Instructional Leadership Institute and Ustadi School Leadership Institute (in partnership with Global School Leaders) have grown from strength to strength, and in 2022 impacted 240 partner schools.  We also worked to deepen our understanding of the impact of school leadership as a transformational lever within schools, and applied this thinking to specific impact for girls in the return to school post-covid, and to specific challenges around Early Years education.  You can read more from school leaders in our partner schools here, here and here.

Finally, we were privileged to share our work at CIES, British Council Policy Dialogue, UKFIET, through a keynote speech at ICERI, WISE, and Kenya Innovation Week amongst others!  It was a busy year of sharing and learning together, and we were privileged to be listed for the 3rd time in HundrED’s Global Collection 2022.

Join us for the impact-filled adventures ahead in 2022.  Check out these two exciting positions currently open on our team: Grants and Partnership Manager, and Digital Strategy Officer.  Get in touch to find out more, and if you think you’re a good fit, please do send in an application!  We are excited to hear from you!