Teach Middle East Podcast
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Teach Middle East Podcast
Empowering Women Leaders in Education: Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges
Are you ready to shatter the glass ceiling in education? In this powerful episode of the Teach Middle East Podcast, Leisa Grace is joined by trailblazing women leaders Hannah Wilson, Rebecca Annand, and Tracy Moxley to unpack what it really takes for women to rise to the top in educational leadership. As we gear up for the Women in Educational Leadership Conference at Heartland International School in Dubai on September 28th, this conversation dives deep into breaking barriers, building bridges, and the importance of intentional networking and mentorship for women leaders.
We explore the realities of career transitions, the challenges women face in balancing professional and personal lives, and how to overcome structural barriers like traditional recruitment practices and the "motherhood penalty." From inspiring stories to actionable advice, this episode is a must-listen for any woman aiming to lead with confidence and clarity. Tune in for insights, motivation, and a behind-the-scenes look at the event designed to empower and connect women in education.
Register Now: https://www.infinitelearning.ae/leadership-network/
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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson
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Hi everyone, welcome to the Teach Middle East podcast. My name is Lisa Grace. Today I am delighted I'm allowed to say that today people, I'm delighted to have with me Hannah Wilson, rebecca Nand and Tracy Moxley on the podcast and we're going to be talking all things women in education, leadership and women in leadership in general leading up to our big event on September 28th at Heartland International School in Dubai. If you haven't got your ticket, or if you're listening to this podcast after that event and you did not attend, I'm annoyed. Put that on record. But if you are listening before the event, please make sure you get the ticket. The link is going to be in the show notes. Welcome, ladies. Let's start with Rebecca. My name is Rebecca Elland.
Speaker 2:I am co-founder and managing partner of Infinite Learning. That's a company that was established here in 2015, focusing on professional development in education, particularly well known for running and delivering all the national professional qualifications. I am also co-founder and managing partner of the Safeguarding Alliance, which focuses pretty much, as it says on the tin, on all things safeguarding. I have been in Dubai for 28 years, woo she's beat me.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the podcast, Tracey Moxley.
Speaker 3:Hi everyone. Hi Lisa. My name is Tracey Moxley. I am the Executive Director of New Century, working through Abu Dhabi and Alain. We have eight schools there and it's my pleasure to work with teams within all of those schools. I've been an international leader in education for around about 15 years and have worked in Europe, in the UK mainly Switzerland Spain, in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi, and I've been here for this is my 12th year in the Emirates.
Speaker 1:Welcome. I have you beat though, Tracy, with my 14 years. Welcome to the podcast, Hannah Wilson. Hi, everyone great to be here.
Speaker 4:I'm the infiltrator. I live in England. I have not worked in Dubai, but I've been to Dubai a few times. I've met all these lovely ladies through different activities that I've done as a leadership development consultant and coach. I met Rebecca first when I was working at the University of Buckingham. We had quite a few Zooms, but then the pandemic wiped us out. I came over to speak at Lisa's conference last February, which is why I met Bidreti and that's where this conference idea seed was sown Brilliant.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, welcome. So, as I told you at the top of the podcast, we're going to be talking women in education leadership. We're going to be talking about the event, but we're also going to be talking about the general barriers and building bridges and how, as women, we can support and uplift each other on this journey. Now I'm going to go straight in and ask Hannah before anyone runs off because you know how they say about attention nowadays before anyone runs off the pod after the first two minutes, I want Hannah to talk about the event first of all. What is it and what are we looking forward to on the 28th of September?
Speaker 4:Sure, so it's a Saturday, then it has been co -organized, curated by nine of us. It's got quite a lot of brainpower behind it. We have got a series of different keynotes, the feedback we have had from all the delegates so far. It's really hard to choose where to go because there are so many brilliant speakers and brilliant fashion on you name it everything going. When it comes to being a woman in education, a woman leader in education or a leader in education, the two key themes are around building bridges and breaking barriers. Um, and I think that could kind of sense of the outcome we want to get from the conference brilliant tracy.
Speaker 1:Let me go quickly to you, the people who are signing up but are a little bit hesitant. What do you think will be some of the key takeaways that we're hoping to deliver on Saturday, the 28th?
Speaker 3:So I think, from all our perspectives, we want all of the people that come to be inspired by the event, inspired by the women that they will be able to meet and network with. We hope that they'll be able to share their experiences and listen to others that have their experiences of exactly that breaking barriers and building bridges and being able to cross those bridges, with or without mentors that are there. Hopefully, on that day, they can also meet with other senior leaders, find out about different opportunities, and often in these events, networking is really key because you find out about different opportunities and you're inspired to go for it. So one of the things we want to do is ensure that everyone who comes gets something out of it, whether that's sharing best practice, whether that's gaining knowledge, whether that's meeting people, getting insights or even getting a mentor, meeting women who can support you on your journey. So I'm hoping that it's going to be all of those things, if not more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when we talk about getting mentors and you can't do that unless you go, you shake the right hands, you talk to the right people, because a lot of us, we desire that, don't we as women, but we are afraid to put ourselves forward. This is a friendly opportunity, I think, to get to know somebody who could potentially help you on your journey. But it's not been easy planning this event Like. We've had meetings and meetings, rebecca. What are some of the challenges that we've had so that people can appreciate what it takes to put on something like this, and how are we working through those?
Speaker 2:Sure, look, any event of this scale is always going to be a massive undertaking and if we think about initially just agreeing the concept and even the need for such an event, we sat around as a team and came together and said do we believe there's actually a hunger for this? And obviously the answer was a resounding yes. The title of the event, the themes securing those key keynote speakers and additional speakers and panellists Herding sheep has been an expression that's been used a few times along the way the last few months. Simple logistics like the when, the where, what's the right time of year to run this, what date should we be doing it, where can we host it? On the day logistics, f&b, breakout rooms, ict, and then, of course, events such as this, the marketing we had some colleagues on the Helen Farmer show yesterday and all the teams involved have done their part in marketing on social media and direct mailing with all our precious contacts, and the list goes on. So it's a big challenge to coordinate all of that across such a diverse group of speakers and making sure that all those speakers and the themes align with this mission to empower women leaders, but I have to say it really has been an incredibly good and enjoyable team effort Lots of meetings, obviously clear guidelines and timelines to follow.
Speaker 2:And I have to say kudos and thanks to Hannah Wilson, because she really has been the driving force behind this, bringing us together with clear agendas, setting us goals, appointing roles and responsibilities so that everybody knows what they're contributing, contributing and really leveraging the strengths of each member of the team to create this impactful event. And so, for me, when I reflected on this, I was thinking actually with the embodiment ourselves of what we want to achieve with the event, because we're there as a group of women supporting one another, learning from one another, coming together so that we've got this wonderful collaborative approach and really, for me, I think, affirming that we are as women, we're better together. So that we've got this wonderful collaborative approach and really, for me, I think, affirming that we are as women, we're better together. So, yeah, it's been hard work, but it's been a lot of fun and we're all very excited and delighted to be part of it.
Speaker 1:Superb. So all that work, guys, if you're listening to the pod or you're watching us on YouTube, you cannot allow it. If you're a woman or, let me just say this if you are a male ally, because I don't want you to walk away from this pod, all my male allies out there thinking it's not for you, it's definitely for you, 100%. So all that work, don't let it go to waste. Definitely grab your ticket. The link again will be either on the YouTube show notes or in the podcast show notes on Apple and Spotify.
Speaker 1:So we've made a case for this because I think a lot of times, women are in their little silos, in their little corners, and they have similar issues going on, especially in educational leadership in this region. So, tracy, I'm coming to you specifically because I want to talk about the biggest barriers for women in leadership. As someone who has risen and you are where you are, by the way guys, come and tap Tracy's shoulder on the day and get some knowledge from her. What do you think are some of those barriers that women are facing globally? But then also bring it specific to this region, if you can.
Speaker 3:So look, I think when we look across the world, we know that women and girls are struggling in many parts of the world even to get a good education. It can be a real struggle, a real war, to get education for girls across the world, and we can't forget that. I think there's a lot to do still with women rising through the ranks. That said, bringing it home, I think the UAE is an amazing place for opportunities. I think there are greater opportunities here, I would say particularly in education for women, than in other areas, in other businesses. I would say From myself, I think still those stereotypical gender perceptions still exist. I think women, it's that thing of doing more. I think women still need to do more in order to be recognized and for their talents to be seen by those above them. They're often men, I have to say that, and that's fine.
Speaker 3:I've been very lucky to have mentors who have given me a seat at the table and recognized my skill set, and so I think we're overcoming, I think, those gender perceptions, things like men being seen as leaders. It's really funny. We had an email this week where we said, oh, the CEO would like to join the meeting, and immediately the person wrote back and said when does he want to join? And of course, my CEO is female, but that, so that's just a prime example of those biases still existing.
Speaker 3:Qualities like being assertive, being a risk taker, being aggressive in business all still, I think, associated with men, and those are the kind of female qualities just for exaggeration empathy, caring, eq, maybe being more communicative often viewed as a softer and therefore not what is required to be a CEO or a senior executive in many businesses. I think pay inequality is part of it. I also think that women themselves need to really step up and be more confident in their own abilities, to really step up and be more confident in their own abilities, and I say that because, if you look at some of the data, women are less likely to apply for those jobs that they're absolutely capable of doing but may not fit the complete job description, and so they don't apply. We want to tick all of those boxes, but I think we need to self-promote more. I think women are less likely to self-promote. So all of the above, really, and I think we need to put ourselves forward, put our best step forward and shine and take up the opportunities that are around us.
Speaker 1:In order to do that, yeah, I do agree with you, I think as well, when you talked about not putting ourselves forward a simple thing as going somewhere where there are other powerful women in the room. Sometimes we're even hesitant to do that, even hesitant to do that. So, again, I keep harping on about the fact that just showing up to an event like the Women in Education Leaders Summit is something that, if you do it, it's a step out of your comfort zone and, who knows, you might meet someone. But then I wanted to find out from Rebecca, the women who are struggling with that balance how do you think they can navigate the professional and the personal expectations? Because we all know women have that duality that they have to grapple with. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's such a commonly asked question, isn't it when we look at women in leadership roles, but rightly, because as women, we are well. We're women, we're friends, we're colleagues, we may be mothers or a partner, we may be a wife. In whatever role we fulfil outside of our work, we tend to set pretty high expectations for ourselves and if you combine that with a highly demanding leadership role at work, you can get these feelings of guilt. Or am I good enough? We often hear it referred to as imposter syndrome, because it's also intertwined and it's very hard to totally separate your work from your personal life. They're very involved. My example, just because I think it's pertinent to the conversation I came to Dubai as a teacher.
Speaker 2:I taught in the UK and here. I then changed careers and went into advertising and marketing and re-qualified. I came back into education, working with British Schools of the Middle East as their regional CPD coordinator, and now I'm running two companies in Dubai and there have been challenges along the way because I've had those high expectations, but then, of course, I've also had I'm actually what am I doing here? Do I really know what I'm doing? Because, changing careers, you go back to the bottom again and you're starting again and you're having to learn and take those risks and not always get it right. In my personal life I've got a husband and three children. I've got a big commitment to both music and sport. That requires a lot of my time. So I know I've set those high expectations for myself but I don't always get that balance right over that journey and you know again, can I do this? Am I good enough? But I also feel quite proud that I've challenged myself and that for my children, for example, they see that example of me working hard and struggling sometimes that life's not always an easy path and you may take a path and fall down, but you get yourself up again and go for another one. And I think that's a really important message to women not to be afraid to do that. And I'm not saying I'm perfect or I'm any hero at all, but that's just me. I've taken some of those risks.
Speaker 2:I guess if there was any advice, if I could go back and speak to myself, my younger self, I probably would say don't think you have to do it all on your own. I wish someone had said to me ask for help. It's fine to say I don't actually know, actually this little bit. In fact, I'll give you a really good example. Recently I reached out to Hannah because we were doing this event and I'm moderating a panel and I've been involved in similar things but I haven't actually had that role in full. So I reached out to Hannah, who I know is very experienced in that role, and said a couple of questions Could you give me any top tips? Quick email back. It was super helpful. It's really helped guide my thinking around how I'm now going to form that session.
Speaker 2:It's okay to say I don't know and to look for that. I know we talked about it before that kind of mentor role, having someone who's a role model and support, and I think it's fine to have the high expectations. It's also fine to not always meet them and to ask for help when you don't. I think for me it to not always meet them and to ask for help when you don't. I think for me it's just it's about making sure that women feel they're working hard in their personal life, but most women will also work very hard on their careers and they want to achieve and have every right to so not to be afraid to take risks and to ask for help when you need it. I guess would be my advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant, I like that, that, and I want to keep it personal and move straight over to Hannah and just ask her think back on your journey. Can you remember, like an example of a barrier that you've personally had to face? How did you overcome that, hannah?
Speaker 4:Oh gosh, a barrier.
Speaker 2:Choose your favourite.
Speaker 3:Choose your best barrier First one.
Speaker 4:Come on, I'll tell you how I got involved in women leadership work because that was a barrier. Okay, I was. I got promoted quite quickly as a middle leader and I found myself on SLTS the only female on SLT and that happened to me twice and I can hold my own with strong men. I'm a strong woman'm tall, I'm confident. But I wanted to have a slightly different conversation about my leadership trajectory. I wanted to talk to women about their path and at that point I was working in South London and I went to what we call the local authority any female heads with children at that point in secondary schools. So I joined Twitter and we're talking like 13 years ago. 15 years ago, I joined Twitter. So, joining Twitter, I grew a network of an amazing woman leaders who were a few years ahead of me. In my network I've got friends and mentors from that barrier.
Speaker 4:The barrier was there but I found a way to circumnavigate it and, as a result of that, I was one of the seven people who started Women Ed 10 years ago because we were looking for a space that was a woman leadership conversation and 10 years old if I think about the opportunity for actually just by recognizing I need a different network. I need to actively get out there and network. I need to find people, as Rebecca said, after what I needed, my my career, my life was completely different as a result of that decision. And when I turned to you of Ebenezer Beck in February and we had the same conversation with 10 women within 10 minutes of doing my talk, and Tracy was one of the ones who came to call me and said we need you, we need to do a meeting with them, and I had the same conversation with so many different people that I put there's a real appetite here and when we first got together online as a group, we thought about who's here and who do we need, and that's when we reached out to me for Rebecca. We're like we need people who are in this space, who are networks. We know how to organize an event.
Speaker 4:So, going back to Rebecca's point about knowing what you don't know, but knowing who to go to, who does know what you know, intentionally building our network is really important and I want to just emphasize that that we launched this event on LinkedIn. Linkedin is the place to be for professional networking and educators aren't always there and thinking about how visible you are and how you show up in that space is really key, and my challenge to everyone coming is go and connect with everyone who's coming to the event in advance. Go and find your speakers, go and do the groundwork before you get to the event, so when you then come to Tracy's exception, you're already connected. You can sit around and say that was bad, can I buy you a coffee? Or have you got any jobs at your school? We need to remove the barriers and be proactive and flip it, rather than thinking a week later well, who was that person who ran that great workshop before I remember what her name is? So I want us to really think about that intentional networking to really think about that.
Speaker 1:Intentional networking. Yeah, I actually think that is key. I switched roles, so I was not always in journalism. I shudder to call myself a journalist. I am a teacher, former principal, shout out to Al-Shaheen School and I, just after having had my time in school leadership, just thought I'd do something different. But I didn't want to leave education and sometimes when you don't see a physical mentor in front of you, you think you can't do it. So what I did? I just turned online and started to find virtual mentors and I'm grateful because I've managed to meet quite a few of them in person over the years. But these are people I met on LinkedIn. These are people I met on Twitter with, well before they Twitter died.
Speaker 1:And I actually think starting, like Hannah said, online and formulating those networks and then bringing that into maybe going to an event like the one on the 28th and just tapping that person saying I follow your work, it would be good to talk about X or Y, you'd be surprised at how kind the people are. I think we are afraid within ourselves until we put ourselves out there and realize that people are pretty, pretty kind, tracy future leaders, because there are going to be ladies who are going to be looking at you, looking at Rebecca, definitely, looking at Hannah. They're looking at you, ladies, and thinking I can't be you, they can't be you, but they could definitely aspire. What advice do you have for the next generation of women leaders that are looking to break into those positions that you guys have attained?
Speaker 3:I think, going back to what Hannah and Rebecca have said, rebecca's just done something that inspires her. She's found that thing that's inspired her and driven her forward to change the career. That's difficult. Hannah has done the same. She's found something. She's found ways to get to it.
Speaker 3:So my initial advice is follow your dreams, not someone else's. Follow what you want to do, and I really believe that you can achieve anything if you have a singularity of mind. I would advise people to look for opportunities to showcase themselves. Look for ways that you can really show your leadership talent, or your talent for organizations, or your talent for networking, interaction with others, whatever it may be. Creative industries, whatever. Take advantage of professional development. Go and see your line manager. Go and say I'm really interested in developing my skills here, or I'm really interested in doing this particular course, and you know what if that doesn't work? Invest in yourself.
Speaker 3:So I remember just being in a position where I thought I really want to do that and I need to do that. No one's going to pay for me. Out came the credit card and I paid for myself, so I think that's a way forward. Pay for yourself. So I think that's a way forward. Pay for yourself, pay in installments, but get what you need to drive yourself forward.
Speaker 3:The other thing I would say is get a mentor who will give you a seat at the table. I made it, and I still make it, a real focus of mine to seek out that talent and push my colleagues, my female colleagues and my male colleagues, forward and give them a seat at the table, show them that they can do that, show them that they are able. And it's that confidence again, it's going back to that confidence in yourself, knowing that you're able to do that. Look, women run homes, they have demanding jobs, they bring up children, they pay their bills, they organize and actually are very skilled and multi-talented. So never, ever, think that what you're doing is not fabulous. You only need to look at the women beside me here to know that's the case.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant. Thank you, Rebecca if they're looking for opportunities, because where you work in your companies, you see a lot of ways that women can get trained, get advanced in their careers. What are some of those opportunities that you've come across that people might not even be aware of?
Speaker 2:In terms of training and professional development. Exactly, development, exactly, yeah, it's. It's an interesting question actually because obviously at both infinite learning and the safeguarding alliance, we run a lot of professional development courses. But, as I mentioned earlier, infinite learning is perhaps best known for the npqs that we offer, so we run those in partnership. So that's sorry for those of you not familiar you probably are because we're in an education style forum, but education and acronyms we're renowned for them out and we say the department for education in the uk offer the national professional qualifications and infinite learning runs those in partnership with the university of college of london. We offer a face-to-face model, which is vitally important actually, and we are their biggest international delivery partner and we're very proud of that fact.
Speaker 2:We've taken thousands of delegates over the years through these programs and it was interesting because we were just looking at some numbers the other day and this is a really I find this a really interesting trend. So this is just we go cohorts back to number one and we're recruiting for seven and eight now. But just a couple of cohort statistics is that for the senior leadership on cohort five we had 54 women versus 25 men and in the MPQH we had 40 women versus 18 men In cohort six. The senior leadership had 36 women versus 14 men and the national professional qualification for headteachers had 24 versus 12. So I think almost double the numbers of men to women. The significance of that, clearly what we're seeing is we could debate the significance of that probably for some length of time. But I did find it really interesting when I looked at that. We've run one executive leadership programme thus far face-to-face here, and the difference there was the opposite way, so nine men and three women at that high level. So I think again we could debate and analyse those statistics. But you're getting a picture there.
Speaker 2:I think on the one hand we're seeing a lot more women taking up, looking, are hungry for those professional development opportunities that lead directly to a senior leadership position in schools, which is fantastic, and perhaps we're also not still we're not seeing yet perhaps, although in Tracey's example we do have a female CEO and that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:But perhaps across the board we see more male people in the CEO kind of role, that executive leadership across a group of schools, and again we can question why that is.
Speaker 2:But in counterbalance that one or the other, and it is directly related to professional development and training opportunities, because we've seen those numbers and then we see the, the fruits of their professional development, labor, if you like, because I have, obviously I'm very lucky across both companies to work with loads and loads of different schools across the region, not just in Dubai, not just in the UAE, but across the region, and I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with so many incredible, strong, inspirational, dynamic driven women in leadership roles, and they are just everywhere you look and it's just phenomenal and it I often wonder, had I stayed in education as in working in a school, where I would be right now and I'd like to think I would be senior leadership or maybe even ahead, who knows.
Speaker 2:But I often think to myself I wonder if I'd ever would ever have been as good as these women are, because they are so strong and it in a school is hard and at leadership level it's hard. You may be up against working with a board of governors or a trust that may be male-dominated and you've really got to have that strength and resilience around you. I don't know if that's answered the question around training, but I think those stats are quite interesting and we are seeing more women go up that ladder and I think it's important that women support other women as they go up that leadership ladder.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very much. I think also, apart from women supporting women. I want to talk to Hannah, because you run Diverse Ed and so you understand that it's not just about women but it's about diversity in the women moving towards headship, towards leadership. What can be done, do you think, systemically to help a diverse group of women aspire to leadership?
Speaker 4:That's the big question, isn't it? So, thinking about representation, white matters for women in the system, but the girls looking at the women in the system as well, like we've got to think about the double kind of like loop here. The representation piece is a map of conversation over here in the uk. Like going back to the data rebecca shared. It's similar in the uk two-thirds of the workforce are female, but only a third of the heads are female. But they're mainly white female. And if we think about the range of diversity that human beings can have, we're not always looking at the data through an intersectional lens and thinking about the other identities as well. And the biggest demographic who leave teaching in the UK are women who are in their 30s with children. So thinking about the motherhood penalty as a diversity trait as well. We've got the new flexible working bill over here because one of the big structural systemic barriers is how we do our contracts. So there is a bigger, wider conversation there to have and I think the data in the uk is almost a little bit misrepresentative. We've had an increase in women getting to headship, but they're often becoming heads of school under a male principal and a male ceo. So although the one over ten exception principle to schools. All my friends and family are like yeah, hannah's made it. I had four men above me and they were all lovely men. I still had four tiers above me. But I think there's something there about the data we collect and how we interpret the data. But we're talking earlier on about women not applying for jobs.
Speaker 4:We really need to do more in-depth analysis of our recruitment data, not just who we appoint, but who. Who applied, who got long-listed, who got shortlisted, who's who's deselecting and not even coming to interview. I get lots of calls from chairs of governors and ceos saying, oh, hannah, we tried really hard to get more women to apply for this headship role. Only men applied. How hard did you try? You did the same advert on the same paper with the same interview questions. Are you doing things differently? I think actually this comes down to a HRP, a people development fee.
Speaker 4:We need to be much more strategically intentional about who we are as a school, how we're advertising ourselves as a school, what measures we're putting out there about who we're trying to attract, and then think about the actual processes by which we're bringing people in. And I didn't start woman ed to start the school, but when I was then a head teacher of a brand new school I don't have to pay for any adverts. I started my whole school through my network because I spent the time doing the networking. So who do you meet at our conference in a few weeks' time? You might not need that connection right now, but in plenty of time you might think well, that's brilliant, they're now working here. But I think we have to have more longevity in our kind of thought about what we're thinking about in our relationships as well.
Speaker 4:My final point is I think Craig has mentioned it a few times but around mentoring I think Craig mentioned a few times about around mentoring. I think thinking about who gets to mentor, coach and sponsor and who gets to be mentored, coached and sponsored is also something to really think about. But there's a lot of the data around men network more than women and men sponsor men more than women sponsor women, and I think we need to be a bit more intentional about who's getting that door opened and that door wedged and that chair being pulled up for them, because I think sometimes the quieter people, the people that put themselves forward, get overlooked, and actually this is about us making sure we're looking around the whole room and thinking who might need a little bit of help on the shoulder to provide that job, or a little bit more help or a little bit of a boost.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. So this is a teaser, guys, and so we will be talking about this and so much more at the leadership event on the 28th Women in Education Leadership Network Conference on the 28th of September at Heartland International School. So, to wrap up the podcast, I'm going to go one by one. I want you to look at camera. So where's camera? Okay, there's camera, and I would like you to invite, in your own words, everyone to come. So you're going to say why they should come from your own unique perspective, and I'm going to start with Tracy.
Speaker 3:I think you should come and meet us there and meet other women there and share your experiences. We can share ours, we can network, we can inspire one another and we can learn.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Rebecca.
Speaker 2:Obviously, everything Tracey has just said, but come and have fun, come and enjoy. This is going to be a really exciting event. We've got some fantastic speakers, but it's really a chance for you to meet other people, to network. Make the most of this. Anyone who's been on any of my trainings will know I call these events educational spas, so keep that in mind and think about it being a day not at the beach or at the spa, but it is a Saturday. But it's your educational spa, so come along and make the most of it. And while I still got the mic, if you would like to book your place, please try and do so in advance.
Speaker 4:The website is wwwinfinite learningae and you can book online on that web page there brilliant hannah straight at camera try to think of the quote, and I can't remember the quote, but the summary of the quote is be in the room. If you're not in the room, you're going to miss out on the conversations. Don't be a voyeur. Don't be watching it pan out on your social media. Don't find out on Monday morning at school that everyone else went there and you weren't there. You never know who you're going to meet. You never know who you're going to meet. You never know who you're going to know in the room already. Don't let this be a regret, personally or professionally. I promise you won't regret it. You're going to absolutely love it and we will look after you. If you do want to come by yourself, you don't know anyone else coming. We are smiley, friendly people. We will look after you. So take that risk and pick it brilliant.
Speaker 1:so you heard it from the ladies. Guys, Do book your ticket in advance and make sure that you are there in the room and make sure you speak to people when you come. We host a lot of events at Teach Middle East and I'm always up there going talk to somebody, go and meet somebody, say hello, because it is hard to break the ice sometimes, but, believe me, everybody is in the same boat. Everybody has a little bit of nervousness around them. So if you say hi, they'll say hi back, and if they don't say hi to the next person, I guarantee somebody will say hello back to you. We are so excited about this event. If you are listening to this podcast after the event, shame no. But if you are listening after, hopefully there'll be others, and you would have been so much better for having made the effort to join us. Thank you so much for being on the podcast, Tracy, Rebecca Hannah.
Speaker 2:Thank you, lisa, it's a pleasure.
