NIS Voices

Join Kalei, G10 and co-founder of the Non-Straight/Straight Alliance, and Ken Brady, Tech Coach and Design Teacher, as we take a look at allyship from another perspective: how to be a male ally at school and support inclusion.

“This is my privilege. And I think as men we need to recognise this and use the privilege that you have in a positive way to help stand up for women. And that's really important to become an ally.”

-Kalei

“For me, allyship has involved rekindling particular programmes where I can encourage girls particularly to participate. So, the rekindling of the robotics programme and the coding classes have been two areas where I can help girls who are generally underrepresented in those areas.”

-Ken Brady

As a school with a holistic, student-centred approach to learning and life, we strive to promote wellness and help our learners and community find balance. Join Ruben Joyner, Secondary Counsellor, as we discuss mental wellness for students and how to manage stress.

“That continual process – talking with them, showing them that you care, showing that you see them, is huge for the student.”

This International Women’s Day, join Kelly Holmes and Trina Ryan, NIS Secondary Teachers and members of our JEDI Taskforce to learn how we celebrate women today and every day in our inclusive learning community.

“International Women's Day is about inclusion, and that includes our boys and our men and our girls and our women and everybody in between and outside and around and that it's for everybody.”

-Trina Ryan

“We shine a light on women's empowerment and achievements, both in our school and in our community and beyond. But we also need to do this for our boys to show them the ways of being that also empower women and themselves at the same time.”

-Kelly Holmes

NIS worked with NoTosh years ago to create our transformative and innovative school strategy of “Student Voice and Student Choice and Burst the Bubble.” Today, it’s the award-winning approach to everything that we do.

Join us as we discuss school strategy with very special guest Ewan McIntosh, founder and CEO of global consultancy NoTosh. Ewan is a highly regarded keynote speaker at events around the world, as well as an author with extensive experience in education. Joining us as well is our school director, Laurie McLellan.

"At its heart, it's a promise that the school is going to keep for learners. That's all you want is, "what's the promise?" The wording of it might change, the methodology for achieving it might change – it will – as new staff come in. But that promise is what we're going to try and realise for people."

-Ewan McIntosh

"The outcome is it's had such a profound impact on our culture. That it is our culture. If it's done properly, it's everything. It's absolutely everything that happens here."

-Laurie McLellan

No conversation about artificial intelligence in education would be complete without discussing AI-generated art through platforms like Midjourney. Join Dr. Shannon Doak, NIS IT Director as we look into the implications and opportunities of these tools in and beyond the classroom.

Join us with Ms. Ginna Daza, Learning Support Teacher in our NIS Primary School. In this episode, we discuss our unique and collaborative approach to supporting each individual learner, why learning support is a pillar of inclusion at NIS, and how our community is involved.

“We're here to be that bridge between the barrier and the learning. We're here to make that connection happen. We're here to understand better. We're here to see through everything that's sometimes really hard to see.”

Join us as we get to know Nanjing International School's new PYP Coordinator, Ms. Debs Tellis. Ms. Tellis has an expansive career which includes working at Shanghai American School, Dulwich Shanghai, Utahloy International School Guangzhou, and SSIS Suzhou, as well as Stonehill School in India. Ms. Tellis comes to NIS after teaching in her native Australia. She has extensive experience in PYP and MYP.

“I actually now have an opportunity to share this with students, and to help build their courage, and help them be risk-takers, and help them to be more open-minded, and see perspectives and be that IB Learner."

Join us with Ms. Jacqui Patrick, NIS Primary Principal, for the final part of our miniseries “Inside NIS”. This episode is all about the magic and importance of learning in Early Years, and what makes our Reggio-inspired approach so special.

“Our Job is to provide a context that maximizes their learning in ways that are engaging and developmentally appropriate – and in ways that are respectful of the amazing thinkers that they are.”

Join us with Kelly Holmes, Secondary ELL Teacher and member of our JEDI taskforce as we discuss fostering allyship at school and in our community on our journey of inclusion.

“What we are seeking to do when we are cultivating allyship is that we’re looking to disrupt that marginalisation. We’re looking to seeing it, owning it, changing that, and then also living it so that everyone can be their best selves.

Join Mr. Kasson Bratton, Director of Learning, and Dr. Shannon Doak, IT Director, for a very special discussion on the impact of artificial intelligence in education – specifically ChatGPT. Learn why we’re embracing disruption and looking forward to harnessing the power of AI as a learning tool at NIS.

“For us it’s exciting,” Mr. Bratton said. “It’s something we want to bring to light, it’s what we want to educate our parents about, educate our students about, you know, work with our staff to really figure out creative ways to harness AI.”

“We need to go higher,” explained Dr. Doak. “We need to change the way we’re using technology. And this is going to force that. That’s, I think, how it could be the future of education.”