Leadership

Congratulations to our Grade 6 Leaders, who this week received their badges from former student, Madi Stewart (and school captain of Brighton Secondary College, 2025) - pictured below in Prep - how much they grow!

Madi talked to this in her speech, highlighting the precious time primary school provides for a child and the rich connections and opportunities BBPS brings through the Grade 5 and 6 Leadership program. Our Leadership program is unique to our school, and acknowledges the importance of supporting our students to build their voice, to foster their passions, and to make change in the world and their context. 

See Madi's speech below:

Good afternoon, staff, students, parents and community members. I would like to start off extending a massive thank you for having

 inviting me here today. 

A bit about me: My name is Madi, I am a first year nursing/paramedicine student and I was a part of the BBPS graduating class of 2019 and the Brighton Secondary College graduating class of 2025. I was honoured to hold the position of media captain in my final year at BBPS, and then to hold various leadership positions at BSC, with the most notable being Junior College Captain in 2022 and College Captain in my final year, 2025. It is my honour and privilege to address the graduating class of 2026 and speak about leadership as they are today inducted into the 2026 leadership team here at Brighton Beach Primary School.

Before I begin, I would like to extend a sincere congratulations to all the leaders receiving their badge today. It it’s a monumental achievement to be a part of such a strong and vibrant leadership team, one in which I know each and every one of you will succeed vastly in and make a difference that will last far beyond your time here at BBPS. 

Take this moment to appreciate the hard work, dedication and excellence that has got each of you to where you are today and the trust that your peers and school community have in you to pave the way to change and success as you step into these new leadership roles. 

Starting off my school journey, I remember sitting in the front row of this very gym and looking up at the year 6s in awe. Watching them navigate their final year of primary school was inspiring and I, just like I’m sure many of your fellow students are here today, was excited to finally have my turn sitting up on this very stage. I’m sure you have been told this time and time again, but the time you have at school really does fly. I can attest to this, as I concluded my 13 years of schooling and am stepping into the new and exciting prospect of university this year. 

Being media captain in 2019 at BBPS was only the beginning of my leadership journey, and the gratitude I have for that very opportunity cannot be fully expressed in words. Moving into high school and working my way up to College Captain, I learnt and am still learning many lessons about leadership.  Leadership, in a nutshell, can be defined as the ability to lead, demonstrate and embody qualities of trust, initiative and dedication into your everyday life. As I leader, I can tell you, I have fallen more times than I can count, but the real test is how well you get back up and learn from the experience. I wasn’t always the loudest voice in the room, but I quickly learnt the value of listening, working as a team and standing up in times of adversary for what you see right. 

Leadership is a journey, some days will feel easy – maybe it’s a fun project, but on other days it may feel harder – making tough decisions or bouncing back when things don’t go as planned. Most importantly, leadership isn’t just recognised by a title or a badge, but by the everyday commitment to grow, learn from you mistakes and make a difference. 

While the leaders being recognised here today are the Year 6s of 2026, I want to remind all of you of your potential to be a leader and to one day sit right where the role models of your school are sitting today.If you can take anything away from my speech today, let it be this:

 Approach challenges with a smile, grace and determination. Be brave enough to take on challenges and setbacks, believing in their role to mould you into greater leaders. Have trust in those around you to catch you when you fall but lift you up in times of success. Take on every opportunity given to you with optimism and pride. And most of all, enjoy the journey and all the hills and bends that might come your way. 

I hope that each of you can forge lifelong memories here at Brighton Beach primary, just like I have, and maybe, just maybe, you might be standing here in 7 years time, just like me, having the profound honour of passing on your wisdom and learnings to the next generation of incoming leaders.Thank you for your time and I wish each and every one of you the greatest success in everything that’s next in your journey.

Grade 6 will begin their formal leadership program with participation in the Halogen Leadership Conference next week - a fantastic introduction to what it means to be a leader. 

They will then engage in weekly sessions, facilitated by Mrs Ancrum, focussed on building personal and social capabilities to effectively lead, design action projects and work collaboratively. 

Our Grade 5 Leadership program is structured around the Upstanders Network framework - students will participate in sessions with our network schools from term 2, working towards a shared project with a common message - the aim of this project is to empower our students to teach others about concepts of bullying and bully prevention. 

Congratulations to our 2025 Upstanders (now Grade 6) - a celebration of their work, which concluded with an anthology of short stories about cyberbullying - can be viewed https://youtu.be/JmbO00PVnXQ 

https://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/services/arts-and-culture/upstanders-2025

This year's SRC will be using these rich resources to support a whole school focus on bully prevention for 2026.