Transcript

Reabetswe: Hi, Lori. Thank you so much for having me.

Lori Boll: So nice to see you, and I’m glad to have you here talking about Hangzhou International School. So first, let’s just get a snapshot of Hangzhou International School. How many students do you have, teachers, and members of your student support team?

Reabetswe: Our school population is growing quite a bit. We are currently sitting at 1,019 students. So we are growing every year, which is quite exciting. And our student support team is also growing. Actually, this year is the largest number of faculty members that we’ve had on our student support team. So we have about 21 people. And that’s a combination of the lower school and upper school SST.

And that is made up of a schoolwide psychologist. We’ve got two speech and language therapists. We’ve got an OT therapist, yay, finally. And then we’ve got college counselors, and then EAL specialists and learning support specialists.

So our department, the way we structure it is that our learning support team members are both EAL specialists and learning support specialists in one. So we have somebody who’s dedicated to each grade. So in the ECE we have two members. And then for grades one to five, we have somebody allocated to each grade. And then in upper school, we have three learning support specialists.

Lori Boll: So interesting. Is it difficult to find specialists who are trained in both EAL and learning support?

Reabetswe: It can be challenging where we maybe find somebody is more specialized in learning support or vice versa. But the good thing is that everybody who has joined our team, or who is on our team, is very open to learning. And everyone on our team is very open to either helping each other out or mentoring each other or taking PDs to learn more in the areas that they might not be as confident in, which is quite good.

Lori Boll: Yeah, it’s fantastic. Well, when your head of school applied for SENIA membership, the quote was, “We don’t ask if a student is good enough for HIS, we ask if HIS is good enough for the student.” So that really spoke to me and I’m wondering how that belief shapes decisions around your student support program.

Reabetswe: Well, everything is student-centered, right? Regardless of the fact that we are an IB school. But everything that we do is for the purpose of trying to serve our community and our students. And our teachers and our student support teachers are always trying to advocate for students.

So whether that is in terms of the systems that we have in place, or advocating for more resources, or just the way in which we’re doing things, it’s all about: is this the best thing for our students and is this what our students actually need?

So a lot of times, having to take the egos out in terms of, you know, we have our own ideas as adults or as educators and thinking about: is this something that’s going to be for the betterment of my students, and not just the one student but all students?

So yeah, so a lot of discussions happen. And we’re quite lucky in that our boss, both the head of our school as well as the head of student support, so the Director of Student Support Services, Dr. Ayers, is very open to hearing ideas and trusts us as professionals to be able to advocate for our kids based off of what we see and being able to say, no, actually we need to change this and this because this is what our kids need.

Lori Boll: That’s fantastic. I’m curious, does that also play a part in your admissions process, that quote?

Reabetswe: It does. So we are, as you know, an inclusive school. So we accept students of all needs, whether it’s language needs or any other needs. We do also need to make sure that we are well equipped to serve the students, right?

So again, we’re quite fortunate at HIS because we’re one of the very few schools in Hangzhou, possibly even China, that has such a broad range of specialists. We’ve got a school psychologist, we’ve got an OT, we’ve got speech and language therapists, and so we can cater to a lot of students’ needs.

But it is also important that we check to see, you know, as students are coming in, what are their needs and can we fully serve them with fidelity, right?

We don’t want to just take kids in for the sake of taking them in, but then not being able to say, actually we can’t fully provide the services that are needed for your child.

So yes, that definitely goes into it. So we look at how many kids are we bringing in when it comes to language needs, for example, or learning needs. There are of course other times where we only realize as we get to know the students that some students have learning needs, and then we’re able to put interventions in place for that. But a lot of those conversations do happen during the admissions stage.

Lori Boll: Thanks. So how are the student support and EAL teams structured at HIS, which we kind of spoke about earlier, and how do they work alongside classroom teachers?

Reabetswe: Okay, so like I mentioned, we’ve split up in lower school and upper school. So in the lower school, ECE does more developmental support because the kids are so young. And then in kindergarten, that’s where they’ll do a little bit more language or literacy support. So our specialists will then help with literacy groups and helping kids in terms of learning how to read.

Whereas then in grades one to five, we actually have finally gotten common collaborative time in the morning, which allows for both the learning support specialists and EAL specialists to work together with homeroom teachers.

So all the students across the grades are all receiving literacy during the first block in the morning, and kids are separated according to their reading levels or their literacy levels so that everyone can get what they actually need.

And then from there onwards, our learning support and EAL specialists then have their own groups. So we look at how many EAL kids do we have and we obviously create our schedules from there where we might have smaller EAL groups. And depending on the needs, there might be some sessions where we’ll do a one-to-one session with some kids or maybe one-and-two kind of sessions.

In addition to that, we also do push-in support where we go into the classroom and are helping the teachers and the students in terms of being able to access the units of inquiry content or just helping them with whatever’s being taught in the classroom and understanding.

Lori Boll: Yeah, yeah. So how many human resources, how many teachers or specialists might be in a classroom at one time?

Reabetswe: On average it would be two to three. So like I mentioned, because we have one person per grade, you would have—there would be times where maybe you would have the learning support person in the classroom as well as the TLA for that grade. Or other times you might have the homeroom teacher and the TLA, sorry, and then the TLA might be in another classroom.

So across the grades, we’ve got four classrooms. Each grade has four classes. So we try to distribute it as much as we can. We try not to have all of the supports in one classroom any given time.

There are also other times where we might double up classes where we would have class A and B and class C and D together for our wellness program, for example.

But most cases it would be either two adults, at max three adults, depending on what is happening.

Lori Boll: Thanks. HIS is deeply committed to inclusive education, as you mentioned. So what does inclusion look like in practice for students in the lower school?

Reabetswe: Well, we’ve got different things. We obviously are strong believers in terms of UDL and a lot of our teachers, not only the learning support teachers, but a lot of the teachers, have taken the UDL PD in terms of trying to learn more about that and not just focusing on outdated practices. So our faculty is quite good in terms of trying to stay updated with new strategies.

It also looks like students, like I mentioned, we have small groups for EAL where each kid can get what they need in terms of learning. We have students who of course have individual learning plans and SSPs as well. And we would then put those interventions in place for them and help teachers with understanding how can they better support those students in the classroom, not only homeroom teachers, but also specialists.

This also means that we get homeroom teachers and specialists involved when we are needing to get a student assessed, for example, that we’re getting a holistic picture and not just what we observe as student support, right? Because we do understand that students might, you know, students who might be struggling in the homeroom classroom, for example, might be thriving in an art class or a music class or a PE class, right? So it’s very important that we get that input.

So there’s a lot of collaboration and sharing of ideas in that sense. We also have our differentiation across the school.

And again, when teachers might not necessarily be sure as to how do I differentiate for this child, or I’m not sure how to go about it, they are very good at asking us for help or saying, look, I’m at a crossroads here. I’ve tried this strategy. I’ve tried this strategy. Can you give me more ideas?

So again, we’re always trying to do what’s best for our kids. And at the end of the day, there’s no single person who has all of the answers. And so we’re always trying to share that.

Another way in which we are trying to be inclusive is also talking about educating students about neurodiversity and understanding that we all learn very differently and our brains work very differently and trying to understand the reason why we do the things that we do, right?

So we also try to focus more on students’ strengths as opposed to their deficits.

For example, we’ve got the wellness program, which is probably one of the best things that we have. Our counselors actually created this program, which is our social and emotional learning program, and that is taught across the school.

It basically teaches students different skills. It helps in terms of them being able to identify their strengths. It helps in terms of them being able to identify their emotions and talk about the emotions and label them, right? So it helps with building self-esteem.

And the way it’s been structured is that we try to link it with the units of inquiry. So it’s not just a standalone thing, that we can tie and connect it in with our everyday teaching.

But the really good thing about that is that it’s also a preventative tool. Our counselors have exit tickets where they ask students to write down what they’ve learned, but also asking, is there anything that you would like us as counselors to know?

And it’s been a really good way for our counselors to actually pick up on either child protection cases or kids who might need a small group session or might need extensive counseling sessions that we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to detect, right? Because some kids maybe don’t present with big behaviors and might go under the radar.

But because of this program, it’s actually been able to help identify certain cases and we’re then able to put those supports in place for those kids.

Lori Boll: Wow. Yeah, it really does sound like a robust program.

Reabetswe: It really is. Yeah. It’s very effective. And it’s not to say that it’s not without its challenges. Of course there are still things that need to be improved on it. But for what it is right now, it’s really good and it’s been very successful.

Lori Boll: That’s great. And you said the counselors developed the whole thing. Are they using any sort of resources that I might be able to share with the audience?

Reabetswe: A lot of different resources, how they developed it. So actually our previous school psychologist and our current counselor, they were the ones who put it together. But we will also be talking about it at SENIA, so we’ll be able to share some more.

Lori Boll: Yes, yes. So that leads me right into your co-presenting at SENIA Dubai on implementing that schoolwide IB SEL program. So what prompted that work and what impact have you seen so far?

Reabetswe: Well, I think, you know, when our counselors decided to bring it together, there was that need of how can we—because our school is growing, like I said, we’ve grown quite rapidly, which is great—there was that need of how can we reach all our students and how can we teach social skills and life skills all at once while also trying to target behaviors as well.

And we know that every school struggles with behavior management and addressing those things. And so they created it with that purpose of being a preventative measure and also being able to equip students, but also equipping teachers with skills and strategies.

And so it has also been very empowering for our teachers because a lot of teachers, you know, prior to us having the wellness program, might have been at a loss of not necessarily knowing how do I navigate this kind of conversation with a student.

When a student comes to me and they are dealing with low self-esteem, for example, or they have negative thoughts or whatever it is.

And it has been a very empowering tool that teachers now know, okay, these are some of the words that I can use when addressing students with this, or these are some of the strategies that I can have my students trying to help themselves.

Or we all have students who maybe struggle with getting on task, for example, and these are some of the strategies, task initiation strategies, that I can have them trying out so that they can be more independent and more successful in their learning, right?

So it’s been very empowering both for teachers and for students.

Lori Boll: And I think when we hear about SEL wellbeing and things like that, a lot of teachers may think, wow, I don’t have the time for that. So what do you think the reaction is now that they’ve been doing it for a few years?

Reabetswe: I think there definitely was a bit of exactly like you saying at the beginning of I don’t have time for that.

Our counselors have worked very hard in terms of trying to collaborate with all of the homeroom teachers as well as the PYP coordinator to try and have teachers connect it to the units of inquiry so that it doesn’t seem like it’s something that’s completely different.

But also trying to get teachers to see the value in it and that it actually helps with reducing other potential problems. So now that teachers are able to see those connections, they are a lot more receptive to aligning it.

So if I speak about grades one to four, for example, we’ve been quite good in terms of aligning it with the units of inquiry.

Right now, for example, we are going into character strengths. And we’re just about to come out of a unit where children have learned about their cultures, understanding who they are and why they make the decisions that they make because of their cultures, and understanding the three different levels of culture.

And so it’s been a very nice segue to then introducing their strengths to be like, okay, so this is who you are because of your deep-rooted beliefs and these are the things that you’re really good at.

How can you use those things that you’re really good at to work on building a growth mindset or working on the things that you might find difficult, right?

And our counselors have also then moved things around, so the initial ordering of the units has changed so that we can actually align it better with the units that we’re currently in.

Lori Boll: Yeah, yeah, it’s really exciting. So now’s the fun part. Can you share an example of a student support intervention that was successful because multiple departments collaborated?

Reabetswe: So we have quite a few success stories, but there’s one that jumps out at me that I really want to talk about.

Two years ago we had a student who had been at our school for a few years and had been struggling a lot in terms of regulating, behavior management, and trying to connect with peers, but struggling to connect with peers in appropriate ways.

We then got together to discuss how can we support this child. We also sensed that there was a lot of masking of other things. And so we said the main thing right now is for us to work on social skills because that is where a lot of the challenges are coming from.

And so we, together with the speech and language therapist, the school counselor, learning support, and working with the family, the homeroom teacher, and also the students in the class, were able to put an intervention in place, which is called Circle of Friends.

The idea of Circle of Friends is having—our counselors basically had a lesson with the whole class in terms of teaching about friendship. What does it feel like to be included? What does it feel like to be excluded? And what are some things we can do to make sure we are including other people?

And then we had another session where that particular student was not in the classroom and was having a session with the counselor.

And then we spoke with the class to say, this particular student is struggling and you’ve noticed it. And all of the kids were like, yeah, you know, and sometimes we find it very annoying.

And when we explained to them why the student was struggling, a lot of the kids were like, oh yeah, that makes sense. That’s probably not so great.

And we ended up having so many kids volunteer to be part of Circle of Friends.

Basically, the idea was we couldn’t have all the kids doing it, but we had a handful of kids who would then have sessions with this student and the counselor.

It was a biweekly session where they would be learning about friendships or learning about how to connect. And they were basically going to help in terms of redirecting when the student was struggling.

We also had a code in the classroom that if the student was struggling or about to get into a conflict with peers, the kids knew they could go to the homeroom teacher or come to me or go to the counselor, whoever the teacher was, to say, Ms. Rabs, we think the student needs help.

And we would be able to go there and have a conversation and redirect.

It ended up working so well. The skills the student was learning with the counselor, the social skills with the speech and language therapist, and peer support, the student ended up making more friends.

To the point where the student ended up using those strategies to help other students in the classroom who ended up struggling a few months later.

Of course it’s not a one-time thing. It took months for us to work on and for that to be successful.

But it involved so many people. And it also involved the students. It wasn’t just teachers pushing for it. Students were involved and willing to help once they understood. Nobody wants to be excluded either.

Lori Boll: Yeah, yeah. And so much of that is fear-based when students don’t understand what’s happening. That’s when they tend to exclude. So that’s a great story. Thanks for sharing.

So what have been some of the biggest challenges in building or sustaining inclusive systems at HIS?

Reabetswe: Like I mentioned, our student population has grown quite quickly. And because we are an inclusive school, we do have quite a large number of EAL students as well as a large number of students who have needs. So there is the challenge of having enough human resources.

But our team is very open to finding strategies in terms of how do we manage that. And we’re actually in the process of thinking about potentially restructuring the way our department works with the resources that we do have, to see if that would be better for our students.

Even though we have learning support teachers allocated to specific grades, it doesn’t always end up being like that. If we have a student who needs more support, we’ll have an all-hands-on-deck approach and everyone who can help will jump in.

There might be some people who are more experienced in autism, for example, or more experienced in ADHD. And maybe there’s a specific student who’s struggling, and then whoever is more experienced will jump into that support.

I think another challenge has been the dual roles that we are both EAL specialists and learning support specialists. There’s a huge benefit because the two can be intertwined, and certain things from being an EAL specialist can benefit you as a learning support specialist, but it can be challenging to balance.

And I think the biggest thing right now is trying to get more people to understand dyslexia. We don’t have that many people on our team who understand it, and there’s definitely a need to learn that.

We do have people who are open to researching and taking courses on it. But like I said, there’s no one person who has the answers for everything.

So I think just making sure that we are on top of the most recent research, and then trying to find technology programs to support our students. Technology is moving so quickly and making sure we have the right programs.

Lori Boll: Yeah. I really appreciate what you said about coming together as a team and focusing on individual strengths. I don’t see many schools doing that, and it’s thoughtful, because how can you be a specialist in everything?

Reabetswe: And the reality is that even if you are a specialist in something, there might be that one case where you don’t know. And having a fresh perspective might help you think about things differently.

So we do also, in our SST meetings, often have what we call an MTSS case study session. So if anyone has a case where they are struggling or they just need a second opinion, they can present it to the team to say, hey, I’ve got this student. We’ve tried this. These are the challenges. These are some of the strengths. Does anyone have other ideas?

Sometimes the answer might be very clear, but just being able to talk it out helps you think it through. It can become overwhelming sometimes when you’re juggling many cases.

Being able to talk your thoughts out with one other person or a team definitely helps.

Lori Boll: Yeah, for sure.

Reabetswe: Teachers as well. And one thing I really do appreciate about our homeroom teachers is that they do respect us as learning support, that we are knowledgeable in this field. But also they’re not afraid to say, I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now.

There’s no ego. If there is, it gets pushed away.

Like, I’ve got this kid. We got them through the assessment. I don’t know what this means. Now we’ve got these results. What does it mean now? What am I supposed to do to help this kid? Can you help me understand it?

And just having that mentality of, I’m going to ask somebody who is in the know, has such a huge difference.

Lori Boll: Yeah, yeah, it’s fantastic. Well, you recently joined SENIA as a member school, and I know that it aligns closely with HIS’s mission. What role has the SENIA community played so far in strengthening your work or your systems?

Reabetswe: Myself and a few other people on our learning support team were fortunate enough to go to SENIA last year and the year before. So we were in Vietnam and Cambodia and were able to use a divide-and-conquer approach of trying to go to as many sessions as we could.

We were able to come back and share what we learned with the wider community, whether it’s been workshops on Wednesdays or at the beginning of the school year with the whole faculty.

Now we’ve also had more teachers inquiring about SENIA Academy. I had one of the teachers on my team ask me about that just two weeks ago.

So we have teachers who are starting to sign up for some of the courses SENIA offers. A lot of them are wanting to focus more on behavioral courses to see, I’ve got all these different types of behaviors in my classroom, how do I navigate this?

And for us to be like, you know what, SENIA has really great courses. Go check out SENIA Academy.

So it has been a good resource. And being able to listen to some of the podcasts as well, or other interviews. It’s been a really good resource.

And again, because the amount of information that you get at the workshops when you go to the conferences is so much, and it’s so much to unpack, you come back with all these resources that it takes time to unpack them.

Even if it’s like, okay, I went a year ago, I’m still working through some of the things I got two years ago.

And it’s like, let’s now unpack this. Let’s share this resource. Or Greg Kamna shared this about technology, and my goal for this year is to learn more about technology. Let’s go and look at those slides again and refresh our memory and see who else knows what.

So it’s been a huge benefit and a huge resource in that regard, that you can keep going back to things that you maybe forgot about or maybe you weren’t in the right mental space to sit with it at the time.

Now you have a need to target a specific area and know more about it, you can go back.

Lori Boll: Yeah, well, thanks. We ask that question for all our Inclusion Spotlight schools and it’s interesting to hear how different schools benefit.

So looking ahead, what is one area of student support or inclusion you’re most excited to continue developing at your school?

Reabetswe: Working towards having more vertical alignment schoolwide, not just within student support, but as a school in general. How are we assessing our students or what are we doing with the assessments? Are we making sure we are still pushing all of those UDL strategies for the betterment of our kids?

Definitely still growing the wellness program so that we can reach more students and for students to feel comfortable approaching the counselors or approaching their teachers when they do have a problem and need a sounding board or a safe space.

And something that we are working on at the moment is, we’re a WIDA school and we are currently trying to unpack the WIDA standards and try to have those in alignment with UDL so that we can also make sure that we are trying to reach all of our EAL learners and that we’re teaching them in a way that they can all access the curriculum.

So that’s something that we’re unpacking. From next year, all of those standards will be in alignment with the units of inquiry.

And yeah, looking forward to seeing what that’s going to look like. It’s a big undertaking and a big challenge, but I think it’s definitely the direction that we need to be moving in.

Lori Boll: Well, that’s great. Well, thank you so much for coming and sharing about HIS. It’s encouraging to hear about such an inclusive school in China. And keep up the good work.

Reabetswe: Thank you. And thank you so much for having me and offering us this opportunity to share the work that we’re doing.