IBSC Ideas Lab
Professional Conversations About the Internal Lives of Boys
Starting May 13, 2026
IBSC Ideas Lab invites learning support leaders, school counselors, boarding and day house directors, and senior leaders with pastoral responsibility in member schools to connect virtually using the free online tool Zoom. Limited to 14 participants plus the facilitator, this IBSC Ideas Lab includes three one-hour sessions for participants to discuss relevant topics.
Designed as an interactive exchange among colleagues, IBSC Ideas Lab engages dedicated educators who learn and grow together. Before each session participants engage with relevant resources to provide a foundation for discussions. Together we surface fresh ideas and build mutual support structures and enduring professional friendships.
Available exclusively to IBSC member schools, first-time participants who can commit to joining all three sessions get preference in registration to support the success of each small group. No more than two participants from one school may register for an IBSC Ideas Lab.
In the spirit of open dialogue and collaboration, IBSC Ideas Labs are not recorded, allowing participants the freedom to express themselves openly and share their experiences candidly.
Who Should Attend?
Learning support leaders, school counselors, boarding and day house directors, and senior leaders with pastoral responsibility
Format
IBSC Ideas Lab attendees participate in three scheduled one-hour calls using Zoom. Tracy Mackenzie, head of wellness, St. Andrew’s College, Grahamstown (South Africa), facilitates each session.
Conversation Topics
Conversation 1
Boys and Mental Health
Wednesday, May 13, 8:00 AM EDT, 1:00 PM BST, 2:00 PM CAT, 8:00 PM AWST, 10:00 PM AEST
Check the event time in your time zone.
60 minutes
Anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation are rising in boys’ schools and alongside them a growing concern about boys’ capacity to navigate difficulty, setback, and uncertainty. Yet boys remain far less likely than girls to seek help or name what they are experiencing.
Explore what educators are seeing in your schools, including the complex question of how we build genuine resilience without dismissing real struggle and what pastoral and counseling responses are working. Share practical approaches, honest challenges, and the questions you haven’t yet found answers to in a school community that is uniquely placed to hold both care and high expectation together.
Conversation 2
Boys and Neurodiversity
Wednesday, May 20, 8:00 AM EDT, 1:00 PM BST, 2:00 PM CAT, 8:00 PM AWST, 10:00 PM AEST
Check the event time in your time zone.
60 minutes
Boys are disproportionately represented across ADHD, dyslexia, autism spectrum profiles, and twice-exceptional learner populations; for many of them, school is a place where difference is felt most acutely. Boys’ schools have a genuine opportunity here. Our smaller communities, our understanding of how boys learn and relate, and our cultures of direct and honest engagement mean we are often better placed than most to see neurodiverse boys clearly and respond to them well.
Join this space for educators to talk candidly about what genuine inclusion looks like in practice, how to support neurodiverse learners without reducing them to their diagnoses, and how boys’ schools can move from accommodation to genuine belonging, where every boy’s way of experiencing the world is understood as something to build on, not simply manage.
Conversation 3
Boys, Masculinity, and the Online World
Wednesday, May 27, 8:00 AM EDT, 1:00 PM BST, 2:00 PM CAT, 8:00 PM AWST, 10:00 PM AEST
Check the event time in your time zone.
60 minutes
The world beyond our school gates is sending boys powerful messages about who they should be, through social media, influencer culture, and online communities that offer belonging and identity at a significant cost. Body image, performance culture, and distorted narratives about masculinity and relationships are shaping boys’ inner lives in ways that every boys’ school is navigating right now. But boys’ schools are also uniquely positioned to respond. Our relationships with boys, our understanding of how they develop, and our commitment to knowing them as individuals give us tools that few other institutions have.
Explore what educators are seeing, what is working, and how boys’ schools can be the places where healthier, more grounded understandings of masculinity are not just taught but genuinely lived.
Registration
IBSC member rate: US $180
Refund Policy
If you are unable to attend, you must cancel your registration in writing by emailing IBSC@theibsc.org by April 29, 2026. IBSC will refund 90% of registration fees if a written request is received via email by this date. No refunds will be made for cancellations received after this date. Schools seeking to register an alternate to replace a participant unable to attend should contact IBSC@theibsc.org.
Please note: Watch your email for login information for this IBSC Ideas Lab by May 6, 2026. If you registered later than this date, watch for login information within 24 hours.
Participation certificates: Participants present for all three conversations will receive a certificate of participation within two weeks of the final session.
Facilitator
Tracy Mackenzie
Tracy Mackenzie is head of wellness at St. Andrew's College (South Africa) in Makhanda (Grahamstown). Her work sits at the intersection of pastoral care, mental health support, learning differences, and the cultural questions that shape how boys understand themselves and their place in the world.
Before moving into her current role, Mackenzie spent more than two decades as an English teacher. Her 15 years working exclusively in boys' education have shaped a practice grounded in the particular ways boys develop, struggle, and thrive.
As head of wellness, Mackenzie works with boys navigating anxiety, neurodiversity, and social pressures and supports the development of resilience at a time when young men receive profoundly mixed messages about what it means to be male. She collaborates with families, faculty, and staff and advocates for systems that recognize and respond to boys' needs without reducing them to stereotypes or diagnoses.
Mackenzie holds that boys' schools are uniquely positioned to offer boys something the wider world often cannot: environments where they can be fully known, genuinely challenged, and well supported as they become men of substance, empathy, and integrity.