Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 18/Jan 02:35

Isabel Dennis on crusade to create safe learning places

ISABEL DENNIS has dedicated her life to ensuring that children feel safe and secure in the nation’s schools. Her mission has taken her to various countries, where she worked with young people in different educational settings, exploring alternative approaches and searching for methods which are culturally relevant to Caribbean students. Dennis, founder of the Learning To Live Knowledge Hub, said her crusade has been in pursuit of one goal: to create schools where every child feels safe, seen and capable. Her latest initiative, the Village System, was piloted at St Anthony’s College, Diego Martin, in September 2025 with 35 form one students. “I’ve been working with young people in various learning spaces since 2007, testing different learning approaches to holistic education and restorative practices. But the Village System combines everything I have learned over 20 years,” she told Newsday on January 13. Dennis, who describes herself as a learning consultant, said the Village System is built on an “indigenous Caribbean wisdom which was gifted to us through kalinda (stickfighting) from the Bois Academy of TT.” “For generations, kalinda kings and queens preserved a framework for developing strong, grounded, confident people who moved through the world with power and grace. We’ve adapted this wisdom into four pillars for schools: culture, leadership, identity and values.” Dennis said these pillars amount to what she called restorative discipline. “When conflicts arise, we ask, ‘What happened?’ ‘Who was affected?’ ‘How can we make it right?’ Students learn accountability without shame.” The initiative, she added, includes activities such as taekwondo, permaculture (the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient) and leadership sessions that are built into the curriculum. Dennis said parents and teachers are also an integral part of the process. “We’ve run workshops on topics like ‘What to do when licks stop working,’ so that parents become allies and learn how to support their children even better.” Teachers, she said, are given restorative tools to make classroom management easier and offer feedback to help them improve their delivery. Dennis, who holds a bachelor of business administration in business marketing, claimed most education reform imports solutions from abroad or are created by technocrats who don’t understand classroom dynamics. [caption id="attachment_1203038" align="alignnone" width="819"] Learning consultant Isabel Dennis' use of the Village System is built on an indigenous Caribbean wisdom. -[/caption] But she said the Village System seeks to cultivate Caribbean leaders who know who they are and are brave enough to step boldly into the world to shape their future on their own terms. Dennis said the programme is different from any other initiative she’s done in the past. “It’s the first time all of the pieces came together into a complete, replicable system. We’re now in term two and about to scale parts of it to 102 students across three form one classes.” Dennis’s interest in creating a nurturing environment for children was triggered by her own traumatic experiences as a young girl at school. She declined to give details but said, “The first school, I remember, wasn't emotionally safe for me. That experience, of feeling constantly attacked in a place that was meant to help me grow, shaped everything that came after.” Dennis said she resolved, even at that young age, to dedicate her life to devising initiatives to ensure that all children feel safe in school. “Very early on, I decided that I never wanted another child to feel what I felt, and I wanted to make sure that no child felt unsafe in schools.” That decision, Dennis said, has guided everything she’s done professionally. She’s presented at conferences in Mexico, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Jamaica, Nepal, England, and Belgium. Dennis said she’s also connected to two alternative schools in the Caribbean, pioneering similar approaches: Holon Learning Centre (Bahamas) and Nuestra Escuela (Puerto Rico). “Through this work, I've built a global village of supporters from Singapore to Brazil, Canada to the US – people who believe indigenous wisdom can transform education.” She claimed the feedback to the Village System has generally been positive. “The most telling feedback from students came unsolicited. Students from other form one classes started begging me to transfer them into the pilot class. “One student told me: ‘I know this will work because I am not usually quiet in class and I'm not good at Social Studies.’ He earned full marks in the exercise and has been engaged ever since.” Dennis said at the school’s mid-term parent meeting, “attendance was strong and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, as parents reported seeing real changes in their children's confidence, communication, and attitude toward school.” One parent, she recalled, said her son was so excited to go to school, he woke up long before she did, to get ready. Dennis said although the formal survey response rate to the initiative was lower than we'd like, the parents who engage directly with us, through meetings, WhatsApp messages and school events, consistently report transformation.” She said, too, that the response from teachers was mixed. “Some teachers immediately embraced the approach and asked to be supported so they could use the methods in their other classes. Others are watching and waiting to see sustained results before fully committing.” “What's encouraging is that the dean of form one (with the principal's endorsement) has championed the expansion of the pilot and is working to set up systems and activities across all form one classes.” She said the Catholic School Board also had approved the pilot to run for one year in a single class at St Anthony's College. “But after seeing the impact in term one, the principal approved expansion to three classes – from 35 students to 102 students for term two.” Looking ahead, Dennis believes the programme can impact various cross-sections of society. “We're preventing dropout and crime by raising the Caribbean leaders we need for the future. We’re also giving parents the tools to raise strong, grounded young people. “When a mother learns restorative communication instead of punishment, it changes her relationship with her teenager, how the family handles stress and conflict, and how everyone shows up for each other.” For teachers, she said, it offers an alternative to burnout, allowing teachers who feel powerless to reach struggling students. Dennis said schools, generally, also would benefit. “We're proving transformation doesn't require massive budgets or new buildings. St Anthony's is using existing infrastructure and staff. We're just reorganising how we use them based on indigenous wisdom instead of colonial models.” Her ultimate goal, she said, is to have a scalable system that can easily be implemented in any school. “It is about changing the education system from what it is to what we need it to be for our future generations. “We are proving that we have the resources right now to transform outcomes with the support of principals, teachers and communities.” Dennis is hoping that within five years, 50 schools across the Caribbean can implement principles relating to the Village System. “Within ten years, I want the default conversation in Caribbean education to be: 'How do we raise leaders who know who they are, own their story, and shape their future boldly?' Not 'How do we get students to pass exams?'" Dennis feels the government also can play a role in the initiative by extending the Adopt-a-School programme and implementing cultural transformation policies to make it easier for organisations and individuals to support schools. “But we’re not waiting. Caribbean people have a long history of solving our own problems and taking care of our own. The Village System is intentionally community-led and community-funded because that's the Caribbean way, spearheading transformation from the ground up. “Our cultural practitioners, the Kalinda Kings & Queens, the pan men, the moko jumbies, and the masmen, didn't wait for permission to preserve their wisdom through centuries of oppression. They lived, led and liberated themselves as they needed to, and the Village System carries that same spirit.” Dennis said the education system is being transformed at St Anthony’s College by form one boys, who are proving that schools can be transformed with local support, wisdom and commitment. “If people believe their children deserve an education system built on our own wisdom, individuals, communities and organisations can get involved while the Government can help remove barriers.”   The post Isabel Dennis on crusade to create safe learning places appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.