Outside my comfort zone…
24th November 2019
This week was an exciting one, and one in which I felt tested, challenged, and at moments completely outside my comfort zone – something I regularly encourage our girls to do @brutonschool (easier said than done?!).
It was a privilege to present an interactive session at the Girls’ Schools Association Conference in Bristol #GSAUK2019 @GSAUK on ‘The M word – managing the menopause in our schools’ with Inspector Julie Knight of Avon and Somerset Police @ASPolice .
Julie is one of a number of menopause spocs (single points of contact) for the police and anyone who wishes to be signposted for further information can contact her. She also organises workshops and support sessions for line-managers and women experiencing menopausal symptoms. As there are 35 of them, all experienced to different degrees of severity, each woman’s experience is unique. And so, unlike making adjustments for someone with a broken leg, it can be complicated to understand and support individual needs, and requires empathy and creativity.
We had a press call with the I, the TES and Independent Education before we spoke, and I was rather nervous, having not done this before. It was really interesting to hear from Julie about how she had managed the press in the past in far more challenging situations, as you can imagine! Three great articles transpired and Twitter went mad as far as I could see. I had a lesson from the lovely Simon Noakes at Interactive schools @intschools which helped me to understand better how to get our message out to those who might like to hear it.
The other most challenging thing has been revealing some of my personal experience, which left me feeling rather vulnerable. However, I would like to thank all those who came and supported our talk, and for the positive reception we have had, both at the conference and on social media. Knowing that we have helped even one or two others has made it worthwhile. And as one of my senior staff said, in the spirit of #daretolead @brenebrown , ‘you’ll kick yourself if you don’t have the courage to do this!’