Coaching World Issue 8: November 2013 | Page 20

... coaching skills can even be applied to Isikkent’s youngest citizens, the three- and four-year-old students ... and they also developed an initiative to market coaching to Isikkent students, teachers and parents, ensuring that it would be perceived as a positive—not remedial—intervention from the outset. As a result, when Isikkent’s corps of coach-teachers began providing services, they did so with the full buy-in of the school community. Unlocking New Approaches Coaching is available to anyone in the Isikkent community who wants it. The program is closely 20 Coaching World aligned with Isikkent’s guidance services, and with a parent’s permission, students may schedule sessions with coachteachers. Topics covered during coaching engagements have included goal-setting, planning for the future, interpersonal communication and conflict resolution. The coach-teachers also coach Isikkent teachers and parents on a voluntary basis, and parents have the opportunity to learn coaching skills through school-provided Parent Effectiveness Training courses. Isikkent’s coaching culture has brought the school closer to its goal of achieving International Baccalaureate accreditation by fostering traits aligned with the IB Learner Profile, such as curiosity, open-mindedness and compassion. A video released by Isikkent Schools shows these traits at work, as a group of young students work together— with coach-like support from their teacher—to find out why a conch shell makes a sound when held up to the ear. (Watch the video here.)