Message from the Head of Secondary

I had the great pleasure this week to say a few words at our school’s very first Student Leadership Conference.  Our community knows very well how much we value student leadership in our school and all our students have opportunities to lead, whether they are beginning their school journey in our nursery school or are just a few months from heading to a world class university. There are a wide range of activities within school that allow our students to lead, from Peer Readers and Sports Leaders to our MUN delegates and Language Leaders, these groups of students have been leading and supporting others across the school for many years.  Our Leadership Conference was the first time these students had been brought together for a forum in which they considered the nature of leadership and took part in activities to help support their leadership skills.

Leadership is like every other skill – the more you practice the better you get at it.  No leader is the ‘finished article’ and at the Conference, students were able to discuss their strengths and weaknesses as leaders, reflect on their successes and begin to plan the ways in which they are going to make a difference in our school this term.  They listened to guest speakers and actively participated in workshops designed to improve their understanding of leading and serving others.  

The atmosphere throughout the day was one of resounding positivity and of course it would be – these students had already made a resoundingly positive choice to be there.  There are so many ways in which an individual can make a difference to the community around them but not everyone makes the choice to do so.  In my comments to the group, I borrowed from the words of the singer-songwriter Billy Bragg who wrote the line 

‘You can be active with the activists or sleeping with the sleepers….’

There are plenty of sleepers out there in the world, negatively telling us that things can’t better, and nothing will ever change.  I prefer to spend my time with the activists who are busy ignoring the sleepers, making things better and positively changing that little part of the world that they inhabit.  Fortunately, I get to spend every working day with the activists, and I cannot wait to see how each and every one of them uses their skills to make an impact in our community.

 

Chris Lowe, Head of Secondary