Professional biography

Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN) offers a home to anyone committed to healthy transitions and attachment security. We connect, equip and refresh transitions-care providers. John Hattie’s definitive research captured in Visible Learning shows that transitioning between schools negatively impacts learning more than any other factor. Well-managed transitions, however, add significant value to a life and to a learning journey. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.

At any school, including those with a high degree of turnover, and with multiple cultures represented among their stakeholders, transitions affect everyone. Regardless of a person’s role – student, parent, or staff, and regardless of whether a person is moving or being moved away from, they will be impacted by transition. People move between schools, so the emotional challenges of any one individual transcend the walls of any one institution, making it impossible for any one school to fully address these issues alone. Success requires collaboration.

Only a handful of international schools have well developed transitions-care programs. Even when these programs exist, they tend to operate in isolation. Part of the reason is because no forum for supporting positive transitions-care and collaboration previously existed. Seeking to address this gap, Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN) was founded in 2016 by Drs. Douglas Ota (author of Safe Passage: How mobility affects people & what international schools should do about it) and the SPAN Steering Committee. SPAN sought to create a home for collaboration, such that good practices could be identified, supported, and connected within and between schools.

Throughout the past seven years, SPAN has become known as the leader in positive transitions-care, equipping and refreshing those on the front lines of transitions-care to effectively support healthy experiences for students, families and staff on the move. The goal of SPAN is to help all transitions-care professionals and their supporters manage the stress, distress and chaos of transition, so what prevails is learning, loving, growing, stretching, cross-cultural competence and joy.

Learning Supported by Safe Passage Across Networks

SPAN meets you where you are. Connect with us through:

• The SPAN website, for engagement with other transition-care providers, curated resources and pathways for an enhanced positive transitions-care program in your schools and between schools.
•  ‘The Nest’, to join SPAN’s free monthly award-winning online gathering for positive transitions-care practitioners and advocates, first Thursday of every month @12 UTC.
• The Annual Virtual SPAN Symposium, to gather together like-minded practitioners and supporters to strengthen the network of positive transitions-care across international schools
• The SPAN Training & Consulting team to strengthen your positive transitions-care team, policies, programs and practices. SPAN’s courses, workshops and consultancy services empower individuals, schools and school networks to transform transitions-care for their community members.
• SPAN Membership, to join a network of people on the frontline of transitions-care in schools, small businesses and organizations. As part of this network, an individual, small business school or organization SPAN member finds a home where like-minded people connect, support and encourage one another. With discounted access to expert training and resources, they also feel equipped and refreshed to continue their important work.