Leadership interview with James Whitehouse, Elmwood School

I get to be around young people all the time. That's why I came into teaching years ago. What I still love today is the spontaneity of young people and the joy they bring to communities. Another thing I love about the job is the community I'm in right now. The Elmwood School community is very much like a family. We treat each other that way. We're a small group, so everything we do is based on support and care for each other. I love that.

The attitude of the students every day, their love of learning, and their want to be around each other makes Elmwood School somewhere really inspiring to come to every day. To be filled with that enthusiasm and joy makes it refreshing to come to work every day, and I love being around the kids.

I came from the UK nine years ago. I was drawn to Elmwood School’s values, and by what I'd heard from people who had either attended Elmwood School, or who had been connected there professionally. The moment I walked in, there was something very special about Elmwood School. When you start interacting with people, you feel like you belong to something.

The moment I walked in on that very first day I knew Elmwood School was a place I wanted to work. Elmwood School reminded me of what I always wanted schools to be, a place where people wanted to come to learn. The students have this huge respect for people and love each other.

Elmwood School is such a special place to be. Girls are free from distractions. They're free from having to live up to anything that they don't need to. They walk into school wanting to come and learn in the classrooms. The girls take risks. They love the environment. They're not worried about having to perform for anybody else at the school, and there are no distractions. I do believe that girls mature quicker than boys. They make connections more quickly in the classroom, and academically, they make far better progress. When it's just all girls, they take greater risks. They're free from some of the worries that they have when boys are around them. I love teaching boys, too, but the benefits I see for girls in terms of confidence, risk-taking and leadership are greater in an all-girls setting.

Elmwood School girls get to lead in everything. They can be leaders in sports teams. They can be leaders in debate teams. They can be leaders in the classroom. They are the leaders in the school. Sometimes those positions are shared with boys, and sometimes girls don't get the opportunity to lead in a co-ed environment. So all of that, having a daughter myself, made me fall in love with all-girls education and the benefits it brings to these girls as they go from very young to graduating and going out into the world.

There are a lot of very smart, bright, intelligent young women who would just sit back and allow others to take that lead and take risks in co-ed learning environments. I have noticed much more risk-taking in an all-girls environment; they are enthusiastic about taking those jumps and leaps. The teachers at Elmwood School are so good at drawing it out of them, and they're experts in girls learning. They know how girls take risks and the prompts that lead them to.

Elmwood School girls want to step out of the comfort zones that the school provides, challenge themselves, and challenge society in some cases. It's great to see them blossom. You see girls coming into the school who may not have those skills, and over the years, we support the girls in taking risks and becoming real leaders, which I think the world needs. To be frank, the world does need more of these incredible young women to take the lead in global affairs, politics, and all of those things.

Female leadership is huge at Elmwood School. The things that women do in leadership are different from men. Girls bring empathy to situations, listen, collaborate, and look for complex solutions rather than simplistic solutions. Girls are wonderful at really going deep and having a complex look at problems rather than just trying to find what might be the quickest solution. As I watch the girls today, looking at the world, I hope that they're going to aspire to look at ways that they can change the world environmentally, politically, in terms of global affairs, legally, and all those things that the world needs right now. The world needs a reset, and a sense of stability. Seeing our girls every day I love listening to them debate and get a sense of balance and what should be right. I think the world needs it. I believe that the world needs more strong female leaders leading the way. You look at New Zealand’s Prime Minister, she's just fabulous as a female role model, and we need more of them.

Elmwood School being right in the capital is incredible because we have the opportunity to use all the resources local to us. The government is just one example. Many of our parents who come here are connected to government positions. Elmwood School girls get the opportunities to go and look at the Supreme Court, meet with senators and have conversations with them. Obviously, with the rebuild that's going on in the current situation, sometimes they're not available, but we still have the connections through Zoom and those opportunities. So being in the capital is just a huge advantage.

Elmwood School is located amongst the embassies, and the diversity that they bring to the school is significant. We have a lot of different perspectives and global viewpoints that come into school from our locale, which has many embassies in it.

Elmwood School girls challenge their teachers, and the girls challenge each other. I would say it's all about the respectful environment that the teacher creates, because one of our key values is respect. A respectful environment also encourages things like innovation and collaboration, which girls love to do when they're in that safe learning space. For me, a school should be doing that anyway, and I think sometimes we lose that in education or get lost somewhere along the lines where kids don't want to take these risks or don't think learning is as cool as it should be.

What I love about teachers and kids at Elmwood School is that learning is the core of everything, but it's all built around community. As a family, we don't want anyone to be uncomfortable in our environment. When the girls are comfortable, they'll take risks, their learning will take off, and they'll go to places they didn't know they could, which is wonderful to see as a teacher.

There’s a culture at Elmwood School where students can expand their mind and their thinking. It's not just about taking information and repeating it. It's about stepping out, thinking for yourself, and coming up with new ideas.

What Elmwood School does best is it creates a culture of learning about critical thinking, risk-taking, innovation, responsibility, and integrity. All of those things are so important in the classroom. You can't just say and hope it will happen; you have to live it every day, so it becomes part of the culture.

Strategically, as a school, Elmwood School has clear scope and sequences of developing leadership, confidence, and risk-taking. What we believe in is developing the whole girl. That's our vision, ‘whole girl, whole world.’ My daughter is in Grade 2 at Elmwood School, and I've already seen in the years she's been here how she's developing her leadership and confidence and challenging her older brother in respectful ways.

As you watch girls move throughout Elmwood School, you see them each year standing a little bit taller, becoming a little bit more confident, talking a little bit more in public spaces, developing more deliberate, respectful actions, being good in any scenario or situation you put them into, and becoming leaders.

The big thing for me is that our girls develop strong leadership skills. When they enter the world beyond high school, they have all those skills to thrive and take off at University, which we see happen. 50% of Elmwood School girls go into STEM university programs and they thrive there because they're used to taking the lead, challenging perceptions, and taking on anybody in the classroom.

Academics are really important to Elmwood School. It's a key component of what we do. My belief is anybody, any student, can achieve academically. They can reach their full potential, providing they have the right support in school. The girls at Elmwood School are very competitive, and they want to go to the best schools. They want to achieve and do well in the classrooms, which is cultural. We have girls whose averages range all across the map, and we love that. We love that difference in abilities. In the end, what matters to me most is that each girl reaches, fulfills, and goes above her potential.

What's key to me is that Elmwood School is not exclusive in terms of academics. Elmwood School takes students’ goals when they arrive, and we push, support, and care for them to be academically excellent. I'm very proud of our academic achievements. On top of that, we really believe in the whole girl.

Elmwood School has a very strong sports program and athletic program. Our theatre program is certainly well known, not only in Ottawa, but in Ontario, as is our music program.

Elmwood School’s day-to-day values are about more than just academics. It's respect, and it’s making sure that family culture is alive and well, and that the culture of supporting each other is there. Schools are about developing the whole person, and Elmwood School is excellent at developing the whole girl. Some of our girls recently went into some amazing rowing programs in the States, which has been new in the past few years. We're getting full rides into some universities in America, and we have a girl in New York studying theatre right now, and we have 50% of our girls in engineering and 30% in the arts. So we have a really strong, balanced approach to curriculum and support. Our leadership program throughout Elmwood School is very deliberate and strong. When our girls come through onwards, we want them to be well-rounded in all areas because they're all important to their development.

The girls that will do well at Elmwood School are the girls that buy into our values. Respectful girls, girls who believe in innovation, girls who like to collaborate, girls who take their responsibility as a learner seriously, and girls who take their responsibility as a citizen of the world seriously. Integrity is something that we know that it's not easily acquired straight away in life. It's something you learn and develops as you go through, but something we hold important is the idea of having integrity, being honest, and telling the truth as a mainstay of how you conduct yourself. Elmwood School is so special as a school because of those values, and it's something that we insist on.

Families that come to Elmwood School are people who want to belong to a community. They are people who want to be in this culture, a caring environment that will push their daughter to be academically excellent, that's going to develop their skills, not just an academic, but the whole girl. Families at Elmwood School are people who respect things like family values. We're a small school, so you can see that parents want their daughters to be in that intimate environment where everyone knows everybody, and everyone supports everybody. Sometimes that's tough when you're in a small school, where everyone knows what's going on in your world.

A common thread for all Elmwood School parents is that they love the all-girls education, what it brings to their daughter, and the advantages that it gives, but also the feeling of family we have, and that community aspect. I know all independent schools have that, but having been to and seen a lot of independent schools, Elmwood School is something very unique to anything I've seen in the world.

The way Elmwood School deals with conflicts is through our conflict resolution process, and we believe in forgiveness. We're going to make mistakes, and ultimately we have to forgive people in our lives and move on. If there is conflict, we very much want the girls to resolve that conflict either through mediation, so support from a teacher or a professional, or through their own tools. Elmwood School has a leadership and learning course in the school where the girls learn about conflict and how to try and resolve it themselves. Sometimes the conflict is too big for them to deal with, so we then go through a clear process with professionals and teachers in the school to help them get through that conflict.

What Elmwood School does when conflicts arise with parents, and they arise in every school We talk to parents face to face. We make sure we have respectful conversations, follow our values, and make sure that the parents are heard. I can't remember many cases when the parents' interpretation of an event has been wrong. They've often got a reason to be unhappy or be upset about something. It's about finding out what that is, fixing it, and then rebuilding the relationship. It’s the same with kids; I believe that their perspective is key, and if they feel that they're upset by something, there's a reason for that, and it's important to understand that so we can tackle it and move forward. Suppose you just feel that you're right all the time as a school. In that case, that's problematic, particularly when we're surrounded by very bright people, who are very interested in their daughter’s learning, and they have a valid perspective.

Elmwood School communicates weekly with our families for general communication through newsletters, weekly updates. We have a remote learning system that the students use for all of their classes, and the parents have access to that, too. So a lot of communication goes to parents that way. Teachers communicate with the parents about their daughter's progress and how they're doing. We have monthly reach outs as well, and we also have surveys that parents can fill in to let us know how we're doing.

Elmwood School’s expectation of parents is that they belong to our community. Sometimes in a family's life, they're just really busy, so they can't get to events, they can't contribute, they can't volunteer, or they can't go on that field trip or whatever it is, and we respect that entirely. Elmwood School’s expectation of parents is that they belong to our community, which means that they treat people with respect, communicate well with us, and are interested in their daughter's education. The main thing for us is that they completely buy into their daughter's learning and life at the school. Beyond that, we have a very healthy parents association who volunteer and work at the school—anyone's welcome to come and join in on that. We have events that our parents lead. We have a gala and stuff like that, which is all parent-led, but there's no expectation that you must do that. As a parent myself, I don't have the time to do some of those things, but some parents do, and some parents are very giving. There is no one expectation; besides, they must be involved in their daughter's life and learning.

Elmwood School has a significant financial aid budget. We review applications, and we give financial aid that way. Sometimes students will apply who need a full-ride scholarship to the school, and we do that occasionally, but typically we would give up to half of a student's fee in terms of a scholarship or support. We have two things; bursaries and scholarships. Scholarships are awarded to academically excellent students on entrance and internal applications, and then we have bursaries for those families who need some financial support to access the school. The figure changes annually depending on the needs, and this year, it's been more than it has in previous years. We've had a higher application pull from families who may need more support, but it's something that we value. It's part of our annual campaign that we fundraise for to ensure that the girls who live up to our values can access our education.

Elmwood School’s founder, Theodora Philpot, said that she wanted girls to be ‘strong, companionable, joyous, and free.’ For me, that sums Elmwood School up perfectly. It is so important that our students love where they are because if they don't, they won't learn. It's so important that they spend most of their lives somewhere that they're joyous and companionable. I love the sense of community, togetherness, and family. They are starting their journey to becoming adults in this world that will make a real impact. I love what our founder said, and I love his vision and ambition for the school.

Innovation is huge for Elmwood School. We've done a lot of work at the school in the past five years on innovation. I can't tell you what's going to happen in five years, but what I can tell you is our girls will be prepared for it. They will have the skills that have the attitudes, and the approaches to tackle any changes that come their way. I don't believe we will lose some of the school's values, like coming together as a community to learn in person. Being away from each other for some time due to covid just reinforced how important social connections are. I think that technology will play an increasing role in the delivery of education and support and the tools we use. Something that we've done is pushed technology right down lower in school. Now we're pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12, so even our pre-K students are being introduced to technology. I don't want it to be pervasive. I don't want it to occupy everything, but I do want Elmwood School students to have the skills to use technology effectively.

I think technology will have a huge part in the future, as it already does. Elmwood School is  an Apple distinguished school, so we already buy into that. As long as Elmwood School’s pedagogy keeps innovating, keeps changing, keeps the needs of the girls at its heart, keeps developing, produces a system where girls can be confident leaders and be academically excellent; we'll have done our job. I don't buy into this idea that what schools are here for is going to change massively. I think schools are here to help young people grow and be ready for the next step in their journey. What that looks like in the school will change, so timetables might change. That will probably be thrown up in the air and change completely over the next few years, but as long as we stick to teaching girls skills, attitudes, and values, and we keep developing the whole girl and those things, then they'll be ready for the next step in their journey. Elmwood School is here to make sure that they're ready and prepared to tackle their next steps.

Elmwood School is an academic school; we have great sports teams, amazing co-curriculars, and a great leadership program. All of that won't mean anything unless your daughter is happy. So for me, it's making sure that you pick a place that aligns with your values, that as you walk around and look at the girls, you can see your daughter at the place, and see them smiling because if they're not smiling, then everything else we have won't work.