Breakout Session B — ICGS Conference

Breakout Session B
June 23, 2025
3:40-4:30 p.m.

Rewriting the Playbook: Bold Strategies for Women’s Million-Dollar Giving
special Advancement session presented by Graham-Pelton

As women’s wealth and philanthropic influence reach unprecedented levels, girls’ schools are uniquely positioned to inspire transformational giving. This session explores recent trends in women’s major giving, including their preference for deep engagement, impact measurement, and multi-generational involvement. Drawing from recent studies and real-world examples, we’ll examine practical strategies for cultivating women donors, building meaningful relationships, and creating giving opportunities that resonate with women’s philanthropic values. Participants will leave with actionable insights to enhance your major gift program and position your school to secure million dollar giving from women.

Presenters: Meredith Schneider, Vice President; Jamie Pugh, Principal Consultant | Graham-Pelton

Developing Teaching and Learning Through Professional Learning Cycles
This session is designed for pedagogy leaders to develop teaching and learning practices through structured Professional Learning Cycles (PLC). Participants will explore the theory and practical application of PLCs to support continuous improvement in classroom practices. Participants will learn to implement data-driven strategies, foster collaborative learning cultures, and develop action plans tailored to their school’s unique needs. Ideal for leaders seeking to cultivate reflective, high-impact teaching, this workshop provides tools to guide their teams in setting achievable goals, assessing progress, and refining practices, all aimed at elevating student outcomes.

Presenter: John Gardner, Senior Deputy Head, Teaching and Learning | Bedford Girls’ School (United Kingdom)

Seeing Themselves as Leaders: Developing Leadership in Every Girl
A key mission of ICGS is to cultivate leadership in girls, yet a common challenge is ensuring that every girl sees herself as a leader. How can schools authentically inspire each student to embrace her unique leadership potential? This session will explore Havergal College’s journey to redefine leadership from Grades 4 through 12. The presenter will share how students were guided to identify and understand true leadership attributes and how a framework was developed to foster leadership identity at each stage of growth. Participants will gain insights into creating an inclusive approach that empowers every girl to recognize herself as a leader.

Presenter: Fiona Marshall, Director, Student Leadership | Havergal College (Canada)

CS, AI, and Student Leadership: A Hands-On Session & Lessons
Discover how technology education can empower girls through leadership, creativity, and confidence-building. This session highlights the inclusive research behind imagi, a computer science and AI platform designed to engage girls through creative coding. Chiara Shah, a teacher at Emma Willard School, shares how she uses imagi to teach, organize peer mentoring, and build tech confidence. Dora Palfi, imagi’s co-founder, presents the research driving the tool’s impact. Participants will explore hands-on activities using the imagiEdu platform and imagiCharm, experiencing the joy of learning coding and AI fundamentals in a playful, student-centered environment.

Presenters: Chiara Shah, Math Department Chair | Emma Willard School; Dora Palfi, Co-Founder & CEO | IMAGI (United States)

Motivating High School Students in the World Language Classroom
Explore innovative strategies for motivating high school students in the World Language classroom. In an era of diverse learning preferences, this session will share dynamic teaching approaches, technology integration, and culturally relevant content to inspire student engagement. Attendees will participate in interactive workshops, gain insights from successful case studies, and collaborate on fostering an inclusive language-learning environment. Together, we can redefine language education by unlocking students’ potential and instilling a lifelong love for global communication.

Presenter: María Roel, IB Spanish Teacher | Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy (United States)

Intentional Feminism: The Hidden Potential of Girls’ Schools
This workshop asks: is being a girls’ school inherently feminist? By surveying definitions of feminism and practices that guide our girls’ schools, we hope to explore how girls’ schools can go deeper to promote gender equality through a feminist lens. Participants will explore how feminist principles can inform decisions in classrooms, student life, and school policies, and engage with thought-provoking questions to bring back to their own schools. The goal is to inspire a deeper understanding of how aligning intentionally with feminist values can foster meaningful change within educational communities.

Presenters: Rachael Flores, Head of Upper School; Georgina Emerson, Teacher | The Spence School (United States)

Unplug to Plug In: Go Tech Free for a Week
What role does technology play in and out of the classroom? Is technology used as a tool for creation or is it driving consumption? While much of the conversation has focused on banning cell phones in school, let’s take a closer look at lesson design, students’ and teachers’ relationship with technology, and well-being by going Tech Free for a week! Join to learn more about this two-year initiative at Castilleja School, which incorporated student surveys and reflections, parent perspectives, and professional development to evaluate this complex topic.

Presenters: Laura Zappas, Head of Middle School; Dr. Jamie Sullivan, Director of Technology | Castilleja School (United States)

Co-Teaching and Collaboration to Scaffold Students’ Written Responses
When experienced faculty members innovate instruction to support students in the history classroom, students’ engagement and achievement increases. This presentation will share the experience of how to meet students where they are by collaborating and co-teaching to develop writing scaffolds for the history classroom and beyond. History content teacher and Learning Specialist will share their evolving collaboration to teach, scaffold, and improve students’ written responses in an 8th grade history classroom. Takeaways include a writing scaffold that can be adjusted to support students’ written responses across multiple content areas and ability levels.

Presenters: Sarah Clardy, Learning Specialist and Instructional Coach; Jordan McCarter, History and Social Sciences Teacher, 8th Grade Dean | Girls Preparatory School (United States)

Fostering Connection and Belonging in Secondary Math
Math class can and should be a place where students make content connections. In an inquiry-based math class, groups of students work together to construct their learning through exploration of challenges and codification of their learning. We can also utilize these group work structures to foster a sense of belonging in students, as well as a sense of identity as a mathematician and a person. By establishing norms collaboratively, giving asset-based feedback on group work, and valuing the development of math identity for each student, teachers can weave socio-emotional learning into a rigorous math program, and make math class a place where students form academic and social connections.

Presenter: Leila Chakravarty, Upper School Math Teacher | The Archer School for Girls (United States)

Promoting Student Wellness Through Community Partnerships: Planning a Wellness Summit for Upper School Students
This session will explore how Stuart Country Day School developed a wellness-based summit for upper school students, leveraging the health and wellness experts and practitioners in the local community. Learn how introducing young women to local experiences that support their mind, body, and spirit encourage continued wellness practices outside of the school setting. Presenters will share their process for initiating outreach, mission-aligned design lens, and the secondary benefits of increased institutional exposure and partnerships with the surrounding community.

Presenters: Kristen Zosche, Dean of Student Life; Melissa Brescia, Cor Cordis Coordinator | Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart (United States)

Fostering Ownership in Learning: Exploring Creative Pedagogy and Motivation in Girls’ Education—Global Action Research Collaborative on Girls’ Education Research Presentation
As Visual Arts teachers, we consider agency an essential element to fostering students’ confidence in creative thinking and artistic mastery. This session presents two action research projects exploring how to cultivate student agency in the Art & Design classroom through creative pedagogical practices and motivational strategies that enhance autonomy, competency, and confidence. By embedding structured activities that promote self-directed learning, creative risk-taking, and problem-solving, students developed the skills and mindset necessary to take ownership of their artistic processes, leading to deeper engagement, greater independence, and more innovative creative ideas.

Presenters: Elyse Heslop, Head of Visual Art | Westlake Girls’ High School (New Zealand); Young Kim, Art and Design Teacher | The Hewitt School (United States)

Out of the Shadows: Developing Agency, Leadership and Inclusion in Young Girls—Global Action Research Collaborative on Girls’ Education Research Presentation
Developing agency in girls is critical in overcoming the traditional gender roles that society often imposes. This session follows the journey of two action research projects where theory meets personal experience, enabling primary girls to become comfortable in the uncomfortable. Discover how one researcher empowered her students to lead philosophical discussions entirely free of teacher guidance, while the second opened hearts and minds, proving the power of inclusion lies in seeing the person, not the disability. Sharing a realisation of the innate readiness of children to engage with challenge, both projects built greater awareness of self and others, as well as increasing empathy and motivation.

Presenters: Teifi Gale, Head of Philosophy | Kensington Preparatory School GDST (United Kingdom); Shelley Salzke, Year 3 Teacher | Canberra Girls’ Grammar (Australia)