Empowering teachers to understand their strengths and the strengths of their students

The St Philip’s Christian College group of schools has teamed up with Gallup CliftonStrengths with the purpose of empowering their staff to identify and understand their strengths and the strengths of the students in their classroom. We as a College, have a commitment to positively develop others and a belief that we are all able to achieve more and strive for excellence.

At the commencement of Term 3, the College convened their 650-strong staff for a 2-day conference which focussed on working alongside each staff member to help them to recognise and understand their strengths and how they can operate from their areas of strength to provide the best learning experience for their students. The conference also concentrated on helping staff to identify the strengths of their students and looked at practical ways that we as educators can place focus and value on these strengths in our students to help them to understand their identity and to help them to thrive in their educational journey and beyond.

The conference was a culmination of a journey at St Philip’s with becoming aware of and understanding our strengths. One of our core values at St Philip’s is to Serve One Another; we want to appreciate the unique God-given potential of each person. Our aspiration with understanding strengths has been to help our staff and our students alike to understand who they are and how they can operate from a place of strength in order to live a full and satisfied life being the person that God has created them to be.

The 2019 SPCC Staff Conference welcomed International Keynote and Senior Learning and Development Consultant at Gallup, Al Winseman, who facilitated six sessions over the two days.

The conference was held at SPCC Cessnock and staff from each of our eight schools across the Hunter and Central Coast regions gathered together for what staff have said was a hugely positive and beneficial experience.

‘…listening to Al Wiseman. AMAZING! I can’t believe that I get to work for a school which cares so much about building into the staff. Incredible to get to be a part of this!’ –SPCC Staff Member

Our desire is that our staff will go into this term feeling confident and empowered to thrive in their work and to create the best possible learning environments for our students.