By E.Roberts
A couple of weeks ago the ECS student leaders had the opportunity to attend the GRIP leadership conference, chaperoned by the amazing Mrs Berry. Mr Smith was the other responsible adult who drove us all there, which we’re grateful for.
GRIP is run all over Australia for student leaders from hundreds of different schools. The event was held in a function room at the DEC, and it was a pretty full room, there were about five or more student leaders from every school. At the start, there were a few ice-breaking games and fun introductions. The first statement made was, “It’s natural for people to look to others to lead the way.”
There were a few electives to choose from, so we made sure a few of our student leaders were going to each so that we could learn the most. In between socialising Tait even managed to listen into one that was running during our break time!? (Which the teachers spent inside eating good food…).
The electives were entitled:
Making Meetings Effective
Leading Exciting Events (my favourite)
Leading a Team of My Peers
Leading with Engaging Speeches
& Leading in Positive Partnership with Teachers
Some main points that made me think were the points about priorities and setting them. The speakers got us to think about where the priorities were in our own schools. This was to get the ball rolling so that we would begin to think about areas we may need to put more emphasis on, and also areas where or priorities may not quite be in the right place. For example, people before projects.
In the end, we were encouraged to walk around the room and ask other student leaders their main tips for leadership. The best one I heard was actually from someone I already knew….
“Don’t abandon ideas just make them better” ~ Lindy
Overall the day went extremely well, and I think everyone took something away from it. We all learnt some valuable skills for leadership and were inspired by what we’d heard. Next student leader meeting we were all bustling to organise events and get peoples opinions on our new ideas. In my opinion, Mrs Berry just learnt how to not give in to the copious amounts of requests to go to McDonald’s on the way home.
Be sure to look out for what the student leaders are doing around the school, and what changes they may be making behind the scenes, there is plenty in store!