Finding My Voice Through the FOBISIA Fellowship and Building a Culture of Supported Transitions at BSM

This year my project was selected for a FOBISIA Fellowship; a year-long professional learning experience with mentorship, writing and publication opportunities, and a three-minute talk on stage at the FOBISIA Leadership Conference. I found out about it roughly a week before the deadline, which meant I entered my favourite professional learning mode: intense productivity powered by caffeine and stress. Thankfully, my proposal was supported by our Senior Leadership Team, and my mentor through The Mentorship Hub helped me turn my ideas into something that looked like an actual plan.

Key Insights and Learning
The biggest thing the Fellowship offered me was a platform. It gave me permission (and honestly, a deadline, which motivated me) to talk about a passion project I’ve been building at BSM: How we can better support people living in a highly mobile community, especially Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and families navigating constant change. My Fellowship project focused on beginning and growing a Transitions Team at BSM, supporting students, families, and staff through the real-life challenges of working, learning, and living in a highly mobile community.

I’ll be honest, at first, I found it hard to sell the idea. I’m a Year 2 teacher. I’m not a counselor. I worried people would think I’d wandered into the wrong meeting and was stepping out of my remit. But the Fellowship helped me clarify the why. Transitions affect learning, friendships, behaviour, identity, and whether someone feels safe enough to take risks in a classroom. If someone is carrying grief, overwhelm, or anxiety because of mobility, it doesn’t stay neatly outside school hours. It shows up in classrooms. And I am in the classroom!

The second learning was personal. Confidence isn’t something you either have or don’t have. It’s something you build.Give me a microphone and I love the show but believe it or not, I can be quite anxious in unfamiliar spaces. Before attending the FOBISIA Leadership Conference, my main fear wasn’t the stage, it was the social panic of thinking, what if nobody talks to me? I had a full escape plan involving tea, hiding, and possibly a manicure.

But once I started talking to senior leaders and other conference delegates, something shifted. Heads of school are not a separate or different species! They’re just people with stories, worries, humour, and very relatable concerns, including about their own kids and transitions. The nerves disappeared because the reception was so warm. People spoke to me so openly about mobility and belonging, and I realised… this matters… and I’m allowed to be here.  I belong here!

Finally, the Fellowship reminded me that meaningful professional learning often looks like small steps in the right direction. Sometimes you’re told “no” (and sometimes that’s fair). But if you have a vision, don’t wait until you feel perfectly qualified or perfectly brave. Start building knowledge. Find the people. Keep moving. Over time, those steps turn into momentum, and suddenly you’re doing the thing you once thought you couldn’t, wearing a lanyard and pretending you’re calm.

Application to Practice
Next year, I’ll be continuing the Transitions Team, with the aim of developing it into a working party. In other words, the project isn’t a one-off talk. It’s building a sustainable way for BSM to support students, families, and staff through the emotional and practical realities of mobility.

This is personal for me. My own experiences as an international school student shaped me hugely, and I know how it feels when change is treated like an admin process rather than a human one. Transitions care is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s core work in international schools, because mobility doesn’t just move passports. It moves identities, relationships, routines, and a sense of self.

My next steps include exploring curriculum connections, delivering whole-school training on what transitions can mean for our community, emotionally and academically, and running a book study for anyone who wants to go deeper. Even when the Fellowship ends this year, I’m continuing the work. One of the biggest shifts is that it now has visibility, and that helps it grow.

So in summary… my big takeaways and advice to those of you who made it this far in reading…

• Professional learning is so much bigger than courses. It’s mentors, conferences, writing, networks, book clubs, random brave conversations.  It all counts.
• If you care about something, don’t wait until you feel “ready” (you might be waiting forever). Just do the next small step in the right direction.
• It’s ok to be uncomfortable. More than that - the best learning comes from being uncomfortable.  Confidence turns up after you’ve started, not before. It grows from practice.
• Leadership isn’t only a job title. It can be noticing what people need, building community, and putting systems in place so people don’t fall through the cracks.
• Don’t be scared of leaders. They’re just humans with worries and stories too (and once you talk to them, it gets a lot less scary).

Further Reading
A few hours after I stepped off the stage at the FOBISIA Leadership Conference, I had an email from Hannah Wilson, Founder and Director of Belonging Effect, asking if I could create a toolkit of resources to support adults working with TCKs. It was one of those moments where you realise, oh… that stage travels. It’s amazing what can happen when you share your work out loud. Here is a link to the toolkit: https://www.thebelongingeffect.co.uk/third-culture-kids-toolkit/

About the Author

When Sophie Maclang was a child, she attended seven different schools across five countries. That kind of mobility shapes you: she learned to code-switch, to understand what it means to be new, to be uncomfortable, and to keep building belonging anyway. Sophie is currently studying for a Master’s in International School Counselling at Lehigh University and completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Bath University. She has always been fascinated by people, how they think, how they come together, and how they grow through adversity.

She’s passionate about fun and spreading joy, whether she’s directing or acting in plays, singing with her rock band, or serving as the school’s unofficial (but highly committed) slip-and-slide tester. At The British School Manila, Sophie leads the Transitions Team. She also volunteers with Safe Passage Across Networks and helps to run the WISE roundtables. Sophie loves working with children and helping communities feel connected, supported, and seen.