Wellbeing

SPC Young Leaders’ Afternoon

Last Wednesday 9 June, the Student Leadership Team hosted our annual Young Leaders’ Afternoon. The purpose of the event is to bring together young minds to discuss issues that are common throughout Sydney high schools. 

In my small group, our discussions surrounded different leadership structures in schools, some with a similar system to ours (specialised portfolio prefects), other schools have general prefects, and some schools only have captains. This then led us into our discussion of different initiatives that we have been putting forward in our schools, for example, recycling bins to improve sustainability, student led forums on different topics and vertical homerooms to improve relationships between year groups.

Ms Natalie Baini, an SPC parent, was our guest speaker for the afternoon. She is well accustomed to positions of leadership and is currently working in a national role with the AFL as the Cultural Diversity Manager and International Programs Manager. Ms Baini spoke about the nature of leadership and how it is a service, not a privilege. She also discussed how difficult being a leader can be and how our morals and ethics will be tested in certain situations. 

The latter part of the afternoon was centred around the topic of consent, a topical issue in schools. With leaders from different schools, we were able to gain different perspectives of the issue. Discussions ranged from learning about different schooling systems (same-sex and co-educational) and how some schools are reviewing their structures; the importance of having conversations about respectful relationships in the context of consent; and how the student body can play a role in enforcing change. 

On behalf of the Student Leadership Team, we would like to thank the College Executive, Ms Santiago, Mr Simpson, and guest speaker, Ms Natalie Baini for the opportunity to collaborate with other young leaders across Sydney.

Michael Sebastian

Student Wellbeing Prefect