The Leader In Me

SARAH CAFFREY

Leadership Facilitator

Having the highest accreditation of Lighthouse Status within The Leader In Me program, requires ongoing reflection and continued determination to grow and develop our processes. This happens by holding weekly leadership meetings between myself, Ms Scott and Ms Boardman, fortnightly Leader In Me focus meetings with all Junior School staff, and most importantly, daily interactions and conversations with our students.

One of the new initiatives that Ms Scott and I carry out, is called Wednesday Weekly W.I.G Walks. This is where we explore the impact of setting and tracking goals, and talk about how each individual is a part of the classroom’s Wildly Important Goal. We are consistently impressed by how the students can articulate their goal setting, and share their motivations behind developing a personal and academic goal for themselves. 

In Years 3 to 5, students design individualised tracking systems to hold themselves accountable when working towards their goals. Some incorporate a buddy check in system to build an added level of accountability. I’m so proud of their ability to work systematically though this process, and I am delighted that each student is building a skill that will have an ongoing impact on their life in such a positive way.

I’d like to share some comments from our students, from a recent conversation about leadership character and competencies. It is an important element of The Leader In Me that our students recognise each of them has something valuable to contribute, and that these strengths come in many forms:

• “I’m a leader in being kind because I try to make others feel happy.”
• “I am a leader in ICT because I can tell you lots about my iPad, and I can show you how to use it. I like how my knowledge helps others.”
• “I’m a leader in creating things, I can draw, and dancing makes me feel happy, I show people how I feel when I dance and this helps them know there are lots of ways to be happy.”
• “I’m a numeracy leader. Maths is easy for me so I can help others be better at maths.”

Readers

This term Mrs Borneman and I carried out an extensive Junior School audit of our take home readers. We are excited about the new range of take home books, carefully selected to engage our young readers, and help make connections to the curriculum being taught. We were however, left with a large amount of books that needed re-homing.

After meeting with representatives from Year 5, we now have a plan under way where our students are using their learning of Indigenous communities, to research and make contact with a number of organisations to arrange a donation of some of our reading materials. Their level of compassion and commitment to this process is very impressive. We look forward to sharing the outcome of this with you.