This week sees the start of a series of blogs and podcasts entitled ‘Voices from the ICP Network’.

One of the things that struck me (Dr Peter Kent, Incoming President) when I first became involved in the organisation was what a wonderful opportunity it offered to get to know and work alongside school leaders from across the world. Within an hour of attending my first Council I had met school leaders from Australian cities, rural China, a range of African countries and several different locations in Europe. Each one had a fascinating set of experiences to share and practical and relevant advice that I can still remember to this day. I can confidently say that there is no other forum in world education that offers such a wonderful opportunity to meet and learn from fellow leaders in a range of different contexts and situations.

Over recent months we have been discussing how we can more widely share the richness of experiences within our ICP network. In conversation with our good friend Professor Steve Munby, he suggested that we use blogs and podcasts to share our stories more widely and so provide a forum for the different voices within ICP to be heard. Some of these voices might be people actively involved in the life of ICP. Others might be drawn from our wide range of members and friends with an interesting viewpoint or a powerful story to tell.

I have just finished recording our first podcast and it provides a perfect illustration of what we plan to do over the coming months. It features Simon Lau, a former student at my own school who I recently became acquainted with both as a parent and a governor. The podcast tells the compelling story of how his career offering leadership advice to organisations across the world was made possible by the intervention of a teacher at a crucial stage in his life. I deliberately won’t say any more at this stage, since I want to tell a little of Simon’s story in my next blog.

As well as being on the ICP website our podcasts can be listened to at https://icpvoices.podbean.com  or by downloading the Podbeans app, which can be found in the apple and google app stores. Our first podcast will be released next Monday. Our aim is to release a podcast or blog each week, so that there is a regular opportunity to listen to these voices from the ICP network.

Dr Peter Kent