The role of the executive or administrative assistant is vital to school operations. In many ways, you are the glue that holds your school together. But this job also comes with its challenges. Become a valuable leader by partnering with ISM for professional development and peer networking.

Middle School Heads and administrators must provide support for their students, as well as fair and thoughtful discipline leading to character development. Create an experiential and practical roadmap to help support these goals and more. Leave with an action plan on how to move your middle school community forward—and a group of peers to provide support and collegiality long after the workshop concludes.

This past year demanded steady and decisive vision and management, all the while challenging leaders with unrelenting uncertainty. Identify the strengths that you bring to your administrative or Leadership Team, and how to create team excellence when managing up, down, and among peers. After this course, you'll reap the results of strong leadership, healthy cultures, clear purpose, and powerful relationships.

Explore your personal leadership style while analyzing and reflecting on strategies for evaluating faculty, navigating school change, promoting a healthy school culture, and designing an up-to-date schedule. Gain the tools you need to work with colleagues, support faculty growth, and foster a healthy, dynamic culture in your upper school division.

Department Chairs must act as an essential bridge between a school's Leadership Team and the faculty. Explore strategies for exercising leadership, communicating openly, and running your department effectively. Discover how to facilitate change and support your colleagues to deliver your mission with excellence.

A successful advisory program is a difference-maker for middle and upper school students. How does yours rate? In this highly interactive workshop, educators explore core concepts for focusing, enhancing, and building (or rebuilding) the advisory program so it reflects and supports the mission of the school.

Learn strategies and tactics to excel in your new position as Development Director. Whether you’re new to the position or need to adapt your current skills to a private school context, this workshop provides training and support as you define your priorities—creating an action plan for the coming year.

Middle School Deans wear many hats: teacher, advisor, disciplinarian, coach, administrator, and more. Learn how to set goals, satisfy the needs of multiple stakeholders, communicate effectively, and find time for self-care. Participants will be asked to bring resources from their schools to help create an action plan for the first 100 days of the school year.

Discover how to improve recruitment, increase retention, surpass your fundraising goals, and elevate your messaging by attending ISM’s Virtual Advancement Summit. Benefit from 36 track sessions and three keynotes, led by ISM Consultants and current private school practitioners, on the topics you must master to meet your goals. Choose to attend sessions for your position or jump to the topics you’re most interested in—including our new track just for Trustees & School Heads!

If you’ve just hired a teacher who has never worked in independent schools before, this workshop provides tools for success. Attendees develop a foundational understanding of how independent schools work, how a school’s mission influences each teacher’s role, and how to flourish from the first day in a new school community.