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Appointed at the start of the 2022 academic year, Naima is already making a big impression at Wellington as she focuses on building on our strong sense of community to create a lasting ethos of belonging, representation and inclusivity.
Naima has spent the last eight years at Nord Anglia school in Hong Kong where she was Director of Teaching and Learning and worked on a global EDI taskforce creating strategies to address inclusion.
Prior to that, her international career saw her working for 10 years at the British School of Bucharest. She started her position when the school was newly opened with less than 100 pupils, and left as Deputy Principal of a large, thriving school which today has 650 students from 60 nations. She has also held positions in the state sector in London and in Atlanta USA where she worked in a school with a predominantly black student and staff body.
Why Wellington?
Naima was drawn to the role at Wellington as it incorporates so many areas that she is passionate about – working with students and staff members, taking a deep dive into the curriculum and analysing what we are teaching young people and why it matters so much.
She says: “It’s so important to teach deep empathy so that all pupils feel able to go out in to the world and do positive things. You can’t flourish if you don’t feel valued and understood for you and everything that makes you unique.”
Wellington’s focus on EDI is vital when many pupils will go on to have influence in their adult lives, giving them the chance to positively impact others when it comes to inclusion, equality and diversity. As a society we share a collective responsibility to lift other people up, particularly if our voices have power.
Naima adds: “I’m incredibly excited to be working somewhere as exciting and innovative as Wellington. Diverse collections of people create richer groups. We develop and deepen our understanding of the world around us and of ourselves, when we interact and collaborate with people who are different to us. With students coming from a range of global cultures, Wellington has a great starting point.”
Embedding EDI in all aspects of school life
Naima admits that there is no blueprint for a role like this which gives it so much potential. Her first priority is to understand the context of Wellington, from its rich history to the current school system today. She’s already begun doing this through classroom observations, data gathering and lots of conversations with everyone in the school community from teachers, pupils, parents, prefects, curriculum heads and the leadership team through to HR, the admissions department, pastoral staff, grounds people and catering.
Naima wanted to set up a structured student programme from the outset and has established 2 inclusion ambassadors for each of the 17 school houses. The ambassadors have received 2 days of training with external speakers that included an LGQBT spokesperson, an anti-racism campaigner and a former Wellington Prince Albert Scholarship student. The ambassadors also attended sessions on leadership and finding your voice and motivation. Naima will be working alongside the house masters/mistresses to support the implementation of the new inclusion plans created by the student ambassadors.
As EDI transcends all aspects of school life, Naima has attended conferences on diversity in recruitment, is assessing current EDI policies and is looking at how to build belonging and inclusion into every area of the curriculum and wider college.
Naima says: “Representation matters. I’m looking at who and what we are studying and why. Are all pupils seeing themselves represented in the curriculum? How global is it and to what extent are we seeing stories that push against stereotypes and preconceived notions of how the world is?”
She is most excited about the scope and scale of the role and the impact she could have.
She says: “The young people at Wellington are phenomenal. They are hugely capable, passionate and driven. They will go into the world and do amazing things. If I can be the voice of inclusion and belonging and help to instil that deep understanding into these future change-makers, they will help to create a world where difference and diversity are valued.”
Naima acknowledges that EDI can also be challenging because naturally it’s hard to tackle things that make people uncomfortable but she reiterates that it’s OK to make mistakes as long as we do so from a place of empathy and kindness. She wants to normalise the fact that these conversations often feel difficult but that having the conversation in the first place is what matters.
First year goals
Naima’s goals for her first year in post are to build on the sense of belonging and community at Wellington by raising awareness of the enormous value of diversity. She will promote the benefits of having people around you who are different to you and how this helps people grow and develop personally.
As well as developing a detailed EDI strategy, by the end of the 2022/23 academic year, Naima hopes to achieve a strong, shared understanding of how we measure inclusivity at Wellington through data, and to what extent students and staff feel valued and included. She will extend her vision beyond campus by partnering with global organisations within the diversity arena and aligning with the UN sustainable development goals.
On a personal level, she is busy settling her family, cat and dog into a new life in Berkshire after so many years of living overseas and is relishing the time of year. She says “I love the smell, freshness and beauty of an English autumn, it’s my favourite season. I also love to cook so I can’t wait for the shipment with my kitchen equipment to finally arrive from Hong Kong. In HK, I loved hiking and paddle boarding so I’m looking forward to discovering the outdoor pursuits that the local area has to offer”
