Waverley College Featured at International Boys’ Schools Coalition Conference

This June, the global boys’ education community converged in Boston, for the 2025 International Boys' Schools Coalition (IBSC) Annual Conference, hosted by Belmont Hill School. With the theme “Better Together,” the event celebrated the power of collaboration, innovation, and shared purpose in shaping the future of boys’ education.

Held from June 22–25, the conference welcomed hundreds of educators from around the world, offering more than 120 workshops, keynote presentations and opportunities to collaborate with other boys’ school leaders. The sessions explored everything from character development and leadership to mental health and digital learning, all aimed at enabling boys to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Belmont Hill School provided an impressive setting for the conference. Located just outside Boston, the school is renowned for its rigorous academics, strong athletic tradition, and commitment to character education.

Our Waverley College colleagues, Gabby Smith, outgoing Deputy Principal, and James Horrocks, Head of Wellbeing, shared the excellent work Waverley has undertaken around “Designing Whole-School Well-Being”.

Their session showcased the school’s innovative approach to student support, launched in 2024, which includes:

• Kanyini: A culturally grounded pastoral care and social-emotional learning program.
• CCC Time: Daily structured well-being sessions that promote a strong sense of belonging, emotional resilience and reflection.
• A Whole-School Well-Being Framework: A comprehensive, age-appropriate model tailored to meet the evolving needs of students and families.

We caught up with James for some post-conference reflections:

James, what did you find most inspiring about the conference?

Gathering so many like-minded educators from around the world to talk about how we can support and champion the education and development of the young men in our care was inspiring.  Seeing that regardless of where we come from, we all have the same goals of building resilient and open-minded young men, grounded in a healthy understanding of modern masculinity, let's us all know we aren't working alone in challenging our students to become the best versions of themselves.

What are your key takeaways?

My key takeaways from the conference were that there is a wide network of wisdom and expertise out there that we can tap into and share practice with.  We are more effective when we work together and learn from the successes and challenges faced by our colleagues.  Another key takeaway for me was that we are on the right track.  The knowledge, research and experiences shared from around the world demonstrated that the focus we are placing on holistic student development and wellbeing is setting our students up not just to enter the world immediately outside the college gates, but to enter the global community they will engage with throughout their lives.

What did you learn that you think we should implement in our EREA NSW Schools?

The work that we are doing within EREA NSW Schools is at the forefront of what is seen as best practice in schools around the world.  I think that the steps we are taking as a network to share our knowledge and expertise across our schools are incredibly positive and will help us continue to lead the way in boys' education.