When the uninitiated think of international school teaching, they might still imagine sun-soaked lives in luxurious compounds, teaching the children of oil workers.
But for , a career in international schools has not been one of ceiling fans and colonial complacency.
Indeed, during a career that has spanned the globe, he has 鈥渟urvived a few revolutions鈥, experienced shooting on campus in Rio de Janeiro, survived being on a Muslim fundamentalist “death list” in Sudan, and narrowly escaped a suicide bombing.
鈥淲orking through that鈥etting through the trauma was very formative for me,鈥 he says. 鈥淚鈥檝e been through a lot of situations and somehow developed a skillset by managing quite extreme situations.鈥
He was more prepared than most for the Covid pandemic, he says, with his experiences 鈥渧ery useful to draw upon鈥.
But how did this state-educated boy from Bolton end up leading schools in the Philippines, Sudan and Brazil? As a young teacher teaching English literature at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School Blackburn, UK, he was inspired to put his foot into the sector by his cousin who was a teacher in Kuwait.
鈥淪he got caught up in the first Gulf War and was stuck in Kuwait and had to escape over the desert. She was terribly exotic and when she arrived back she kind of transferred the baton to me.鈥
Teaching overseas definitely felt like a bit of a deviant decision.
So, after five years’ UK teaching he headed off to . In the 1990s, Dubai was on the verge of exploding economically, but the famous F1 racetrack in Bahrain was still a camel farm. The atmosphere in the kingdom was 鈥渟leepy鈥, he says.
He says: 鈥淚t felt definitely a bit of a deviant decision, everyone said you would go out for a couple of years then come back, it wasn鈥檛 a valid career track.鈥
But everything has changed since then, he says. 鈥淣ow you can go overseas and develop and grow into leadership if that鈥檚 what you want, all of that is available to you now.鈥
When he was starting out, he says, the international schools world was far more fragmented than it is now. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 much more connected there are a lot more deep networks,鈥 he says.
Since Bahrain, his career has taken him to , , and until June this year, he was . He is currently supporting ACS Doha International School as its interim head.
So apart from how to manage a school in a crisis, what else has Winnard learnt during his unique career? The importance of longevity as a head is a key lesson, he says. Having spent seven years in his last post in Rio and 12 years as the founding head in Khartoum he practices what he preaches. But circumstances often conspire against heads staying and seeing through their vision, he says.
鈥淭he most important thing for me is showing up and sticking around as a school leader鈥he longevity of school heads is we know a massively powerful driver of school sustainability. In international schools the churn can be a real meat grinder.
The most important thing for me is showing up and sticking around as a school leader.
鈥淭he ability to stay in post really inspires so many things that are just not possible with revolving door headships. This is something that needs to be valued a lot more.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 not unusual for the tenure to be three to four years, which is low, to see through the consequences of your decision-making as a school leader, you鈥檝e got to stick around a little longer than that.鈥
Winnard says research indicates one factor is the churn on elected school boards which can mean the board that welcomes the head is not the same as the one that appointed them.
鈥淲hen you have elected boards then the lack of stability can lead to quite large swings in priorities and therefore the required skillset of the CEO may have changed. It鈥檚 not because the board is bad or the head is bad it鈥檚 that they want different things.鈥
Those kind of things force people to get through the speed bumps and stick at it.
He talks about how financial tools such as golden handcuffs and golden parachutes 鈥 where both heads and boards can be penalised if they 鈥済ive up鈥 too soon, can help.
鈥淭hose kind of things kind of force people to get through the speed bumps and stick at it,鈥 he says, adding that 12 years working Khartoum 鈥渨as not always plain sailing鈥.
Other big lessons from Winnard鈥檚 career include an appreciation of the importance of local hire colleagues. 鈥淭hey show up, turn up and stay,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 invest a lot of time in that area, supporting and developing local hires鈥
Connected to this, he says, is the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and the importance of white men in particular educating themselves on their own privilege and biases.
Over the past five years, Winnard has been heavily involved in DEI, working with the 鈥淚t鈥檚 been very informative for me, made me look at myself differently,鈥 he says.
He adds: 鈥淸I’ve been] learning that how I see the world has centuries of implicit bias within it. How I look at the world as a consequence has to be tinkered with and dismantled a little and reassembled in a way which is much more inclusive – which is a serious work in progress still. It鈥檚 work I hope a lot of leaders and educators who happen to look like me are also doing.鈥
But he feels he might be in a minority himself in taking this seriously.
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure that there鈥檚 a strong enough imperative yet amongst leaders who look like me to do that work openly and visibly and courageously. I鈥檓 hoping that I鈥檓 wrong鈥 would love to see that groundswell more visibly.鈥
DEI work has been very informative for me, made me look at myself differently.
He also warns that it is wrong to assume that somehow international schools have less racism and discrimination than other schools.
鈥淏y their very nature, international schools tend to be high socio-economic base so the people that access them tend to be folks who have benefited from privilege. They are often quite conservative institutions, often heavily dominated by white, middle to upper middle class representatives of whatever the dominant hegemony might be within that culture.鈥
Another key theme of Winnard鈥檚 career has been the International Baccalaureate, the principles of which he embraces.
Most recently in Rio, he supported the school to become a three programme IB school across two campuses, and he introduced it in Khartoum as well.
鈥淚鈥檝e become quite an advocate for the principles of the IB, I have a lot of questions still, about the practices and about all sorts of things to do with the implementation but it鈥檚 fundamental premises I still have a lot of time for.鈥
He adds that he is 鈥渋ncreasingly uncomfortable鈥 with the IB鈥檚 鈥渨estern European positionality鈥. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 work to be done there in internationalising itself in terms of its world view,鈥 he says.
And what about the future of international education in general? What are Winnard鈥檚 concerns and hopes for the sector?
Big for-profits move in…and suddenly you鈥檙e strip mining local talent.
The potential impact of for-profit chains weighs heavily on his mind.
鈥淚鈥檓 curious to see what the evolving role of the for-profits is going to do to the whole eco-system, because they鈥檙e very disruptive, when they move into a landscape where there were no for-profits before, what will that look like?
鈥淚鈥檓 curious to see, the large groups, they can bring in a heck of a lot of capital and they can hit hard and fast, what is the impact on the local private education scene and how is that disruption managed?鈥
He also has concerns about recruitment when there are increasing numbers of schools competing for sparse numbers of suitably-qualified teachers.
鈥淪uddenly big for-profits move in with the ability to pay higher salaries and suddenly you鈥檙e strip mining local talent鈥, he says.
Alongside this, these new for-profits might not feel the same obligation to be part of their communities as more-established non-profit international schools, he says.
It is an obligation that Winnard himself clearly takes very seriously.
