The power of backing yourself in teaching
As she looks towards a huge 2026 in her own career, Ms Mikaela Janes is reflecting on what it is that she loves about working in boys’ education, and at Trinity specifically.
When she first arrived at Trinity, she’d come from a smaller, co-educational independent school and was seeking the professional growth that came from a larger school environment. Having always wanted to work in a boys’ school, she jumped at the chance to join the staff team at Trinity’s Preparatory School.
She says that throughout each challenge and celebration, the strong leadership at Trinity has made a difference to how she moves forward.
“They have seen my potential,” she says, recalling termly meetings with Head of the Preparatory School. “It made me think bigger picture, beyond what I might have initially planned for myself.”
“I feel empowered to make decisions. Not only this but also being able to back myself. Earlier in my career I knew how to teach, but I definitely had imposter syndrome. The trust from leadership here at Trinity has allowed me to back myself, and trust my own judgement and abilities.”
It was this trust and backing that led her to take up an opportunity last year to step into the Acting Head of Academic Care at the Preparatory School, when a Maternity Cover position was on offer. In 2026, she will be taking on that same role permanently.
“Academic Care is really that bridge between pastoral care and the curriculum. I have strengths in both; I know the pastoral needs of a lot of our boys and I know the curriculum demands.”
As if that wasn’t enough of a big step to keep her busy, Ms Janes is also in the 2025-2026 cohort for the International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC) Action Research Program. The program requires selected educators to design, implement, evaluate, and report on action research projects they have undertaken to improve their effectiveness in the classroom and beyond.
Having started her project at the 2025 conference, Ms Janes will present her findings at the 2026 conference in Johannesburg.
The theme for the 2025-2026 cohort is: ‘Foundations for Learning: Facilitating Boys’ Executive Function and Self-Regulation in the Classroom’.
To fit in with this theme, Ms Janes’ research question is ‘How do play-based scenarios develop emotion regulation in 7-year-old boys?’, chosen after observing boys in her own classrooms over the years struggling to manage their emotions effectively.
About halfway through the Action Research Project now, she says that it has been a challenge, but has also affirmed own teaching approach and, indeed, the teaching across Trinity’s Preparatory School.
“The ‘action’ implementation itself has not been hard,” she says of her play-based wellbeing program that uses play scenarios to teach emotion regulation. “Of course, designing it was really challenging and really stretched me, but the outworking was easy, because it’s naturally what I’m doing in my classroom.
“It’s really exciting because it feels accessible. Hopefully educators – no matter where they are in the world – can pick up my program and run with it, adapting to their own context.”
Throughout the process, Ms Janes gets support from Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn (Director of Research and Professional Growth at Trinity) as well as an IBSC-assigned supervisor, Luke. Additionally, the entire cohort has group chats and regular contact to stay in touch and share their wins, challenges, and learnings.
“It’s really nice to be in a group of people who love what they do, love teaching boys, understand boys, and want to challenge themselves to improve something in their practice so that boys are bettered.”
While Ms Janes’ calendar looks nice and full for the next year, she says she wouldn’t have it any other way, with each opportunity providing its own joys.
“I’m really looking forward to working with our staff and boys through my role as Head of Academic Care; seeing that big picture view of where the boys start and where they get to, and how we as teachers can support them along the way.”
