An Interview with Colette Davis

Colette Davis – Leadership of Inclusive Practice

Colette Davis is the Leader of Inclusion for Beacon Hill School in Hong Kong. Her school have 540 students on roll with 21 spaces for students with more moderate needs. Leading a team of three teachers and seven assistants, Colette and her team aim to help support children and teachers to remove barriers to learning.

She is working toward gaining her Masters with Real Training. Having completed the Leading Inclusive Practice 60 credit module, she has gone on to begin the Gender and Sexuality and Social, Emotional and Mental Health modules.

Colette’s specialist interest areas of SEND are: Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Autism. Having recently completed a mental health first aid course and previous training in social thinking as a way to support. We caught up with Colette to see how her studies with Real Training have been going.
 

What made you choose the Real Training course over other options?

The tutor support was excellent. I enjoyed the variety of coursework, including readings, videos, and practical work. It was great to be studying again and having more rigour and ownership of my professional development. I enjoyed the interactions with some of the other students and was particularly interested in those who were also in international settings.
 

How has the course helped make an impact at school? 

The course has had a direct impact on the work we have been doing at school in terms of inclusion. In the last two years, we have redefined what inclusion means to us as a school and changed our model moving forward. This has involved whole-school reflection, professional learning, and intense professional development days.

The course has meant that our approach towards the leadership of this change project and the measurement of its impact has been much more intentional. The timing was perfect. The change project that I shared and unpacked for this module was just a small part of the larger change project that we were already leading.

The impact has extended beyond the school as we have also had an opportunity to share within our wider foundation and at two international conferences.

How has the course helped develop you as an educational professional and what do you hope to achieve with the new knowledge/skills in the future?

I am looking forward to continuing my studies and deepening my understanding of a broad range of topics linked to inclusion. There is a big move in my organisation towards recognising and respecting Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, and I look forward to Real Training helping me to dig deeper into this.

I have also been reflecting on my personal qualities as a leader and how I might become more intentional and inclusive in my approach.