Written by Dr Paul Walton, Principal, Nadeen School, Bahrain, a COBIS Accredited Member (BSO) school.

We are delighted to have started our series of TeachMeet events and look forward to the positive impact of these collaborations moving forward!

Many schools and groups have opted to create a TeachMeet event, and we believed that bringing educators together in an environment that can provide the opportunity to share pedagogical ideas was needed in Bahrain. I have organised various TeachMeet events in previous schools in South-East Asia and wanted our team to plan something even bigger here in Bahrain to bring more schools and associations together. 

On Tuesday 13th February, we proudly hosted the first ever TeachMeet Bahrain at Nadeen School and in our new state-of-the-art campus in Dilmunia. We opened our doors to participants representing other COBIS schools, universities, public/private schools, and Early Years settings from across Bahrain.

This event was designed to positively impact the professional development, student learning and education across the entire country under the vision: To bring passionate Educators together for the benefit of all students.

This was the ‘Why’ of the event and then I shared the ‘How’ and ‘What’ to give the attendees a sense of our purpose together for the evening and also moving forward. The TeachMeet included five promises for the processes that would be followed in the future which included:

1. Supportive educators in one room.
2. A platform for sharing ideas to help all students.
3. Bringing all staff together and crossing traditional boundaries.
4. Networking opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals.
5. A commitment to action during and after the event.

All guest speaker presentations were shared, all workshop resources and materials were made accessible to everyone. The intention was to make this a ‘free’ event and available to anyone and everyone. All participants received certificates, all workshop leaders were presented with beautiful trophies and awards, then finally the evening had a selection of gifts provided by local businesses.

For the start of the event, all gifts were placed on the seats of the attendees.  To launch this ongoing series of events, the Nadeen School Performance Theatre, welcomed speakers to the stage for the first time to an external audience. Following speakers on the stage, participants had the opportunity to choose from 12 workshops from school leaders and teachers from Bahrain’s outstanding International Schools, including teachers and leaders from Nadeen School. The sessions were facilitated to ensure we could open a dialogue between educators across Bahrain to talk about important topics such as early brain development, sustainability in education, teaching and learning strategies, coaching for leadership, and much more!

This event would not have been possible without the commitment, desire and energy from the speakers, workshop leaders and participants that created such a warm and productive evening. It has been wonderful to see educators bringing the best out of one another for the shared purpose of improving education for all.  This was a change for the school and wider community, a change that was needed to bring all educators together for the students.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

-          Barack Obama

We have been inspired by other TeachMeet’s and can wholeheartedly recommend that any community should set up and support this amazing initiative to change the way in which nearby schools work together.

Our next event is in May to ensure our vision lives on, and we go from strength to strength to support the incredible students from around the Kingdom of Bahrain!