Dream & Lead Student Leadership Conference

On Wednesday, our Year 6 student leaders, and other year 6 students who had actively sought leadership positions, joined about 2,000 other primary school students at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for a conference organised and run by the Youth Leadership Academy of Australia. It was a massive (and very loud) day!

In amongst all of the networking, we heard from inspirational young leaders including:

Nick Pearce, the founder of HoMie - https://homie.com.au/pages/about-homie
Wil Massara, founder of YLAA - https://www.ylaaus.com/speakers/wil-massara
Lucy Thomas, co-founder of Project Rockit https://www.projectrockit.com.au/

We also learned some strategies including:

The G.O.T. strategy to build empathetic leadership
- G = growing, pausing to consider others.
- O = opening up, listening to others and supporting them.
- T = trust. Be consistent and reliable so people can trust you.
The AAA strategy for building resilience
- Accept (This is challenging! The Game is on!)
- Acknowledge (I have faced challenges before. Think about three challenging times that you've gotten through).
- Ask (seek support).
"Moving the Needle" to go from anger or frustration about a situation to passion, and from "complain" to "create change".

On the jam-packed and busy tram ride back to school, I asked students what their key take-away was. Here are some responses:

Abbie and Charlie D - "You don't need to be perfect - you just need to be brave"
Eva - "Real leadership is in the choices we make, often when no-one is watching" (that was one of my favourite quotes from the day, too!)
Clancy - "There's no 'one size fits all' for leadership"
Darcy - "A real leader cares and is responsible, and cares for other people"
Charlie G - "Be confident no matter what"
Nadia - "I want to be a fun, responsible, and creative leader"
Charlie F - I want to be a leader that takes action and doesn't give up on what I've started"
Felix and Paxton "The G.O.T. strategy"
Mia - "It doesn't matter how young you are or how imperfect you are, you can do anything"
Nelly - "You don't need to be perfect to make change"
Reuben - "I want to do more engaging activities"
Millie - "I liked that different people spoke and shared different opinions and topics. I found the last one (Lucy Thomas) the most inspiring.
Florence - "I found the one from HoMie really inspiring, and the quote that you don't need to be perfect - you just need to be brave".

I look forward to continuing to support our leaders - not just those with badges, and not just those in year 6, but all students who care enough to create change.

In the coming weeks, I'll meet up with the students to reflect further and plan for their leadership strategies and styles for the year ahead.

Thank you Clara for sharing the day with me and the students, and I'd also like to thank Sra. Karren for organising this conference last year!

Nerida

Specialist Inquiry & Student Empowerment

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