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HEATHFIELD STUDENTS TEST THEIR LEADERSHIP SKILLS In March 2007, Year 12 students at Heathfield School attended the GDST’s very first Leadership Conference. We were placed in mixed groups of about five or six people, each with a digital camcorder, and a personal memory book for each member of the team, to be able to include the events of the two days and what we learnt.
In addition to several presentations of the various aspects of leadership, each member of the group was given the opportunity to lead the group in one of a variety of innovative and enjoyable tasks over the two days, from creating a team image and banner, to the more daunting challenge of pitching the group’s newly designed product to the ‘Dragon’s Den’ of the conference leaders and teachers!
Following each activity, the group also had to analyse their success and any issues which had arisen in terms of the teamwork and leadership within the groups, and discuss how to overcome such issues in the following tasks. We also had the opportunity to listen to the leadership experiences of various women in the community, with a range of experiences ranging from advertising, to the local council, which helped to reinforce all that we had learnt through the various presentations, and in particular from our own leadership experiences and challenges within our own groups.
Throughout the two days, we not only learnt a lot about the challenges of leadership, but also about ourselves and our own role in such teamwork and leadership, setting personal leadership aims for the future, before going away feeling equipped with the knowledge and skills to face the challenge of achieving such aims. |
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