From the Leadership Team

Leadership as a form of service 

Lucas Collins, Head of Junior School

I’d firstly like to thank and recognise the amazingly supportive, caring and inclusive community here at Kilvington. My first few months as the Head of our Junior School have been immensely enjoyable and rewarding and I’ve felt thoroughly welcomed and embraced by our students, staff and families.  

At the start of this month, we proudly inducted our Year 6 students into their roles as leaders within our Junior School community. As they accepted their badges, at a special assembly in the presence of their peers and a number of family members, they also made a leadership promise to the gathering. 

As they made their commitments through this pledge, I was drawn to their focus on leadership as a form of service, and was impressed by their desire to seek opportunities to grow and develop as individuals and as a group. 

Their approach to leadership reminded me of one of my favourite quotes from the book Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. In it Sinek asserts that, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” I was particularly impressed that our Year 6 students had already recognised that the greatest impact they would have as leaders would be through their positive influence on others. 

One of the key beliefs that links to our broader wellbeing approach at Kilvington is that each of our students is a leader – and that leadership comes in many forms and during many different times. It is critically important to us that students recognise that they do not require a badge or a title to lead – nor do they need to have the strongest voice or be the most outstanding in any particular field to have a positive impact on others.

In fact, some of the best examples of leadership I’ve noticed from our students have taken place when they weren’t aware anyone else was watching and were completed without an expectation of recognition or reward. 

These small acts, which were as simple as holding a door for another, sharing a smile in passing, or returning a resource that someone else had forgotten, all show initiative, care and a recognition of putting others before self – key attributes of quality leadership. 

It is already evident to me that there is a depth in the quality of our character here at Kilvington, and while this is influenced by School, it is also driven by the values and behaviours modelled at home. 

So, this piece ends with a message of gratitude to our students, families and staff for supporting each other to live our School motto 'non nobis sed omnibus', which directly translates to ‘not for our own, but other’s good’. 

If we can learn, live and be with this motto in mind, there is no question that we will continue to positively shape and nurture each of our students to be leaders in our community.