Planning for Student Led Schools

DARCY Pittman from Scone High School said she will definitely look at people differently after spending the day at leadership summit with 110 students from 11 Upper Hunter schools.

“You can see people’s strengths and when you work together to combine those strengths more can be achieved,” said Ms Pittman.

Lilly Collins and Harrison Kennedy were two of the leaders who went to Adelaide and planned the local forum.

The summit was organised by 18 local students who went to a national student leadership summit in Adelaide in February and were inspired to put together their own leadership event.

“We identified the need for a similar summit in the Upper Hunter that would bring all of the schools together and inspire everyone to enhance their leadership skills and teams within their schools,” said Brydie Moore from Scone Grammar School.

“Leadership is for everyone, whether you are going to be the first person who leads and takes the initiative or whether you are the person that follows them everyone has a key role in making things happen especially in schools,” she said.

“Everyone has different skills and weaknesses but when we all come together we can get stuff done,” Brydie Moore said.

Blake Shackleton from Muswellbrook High School said he was glad their school could host the event.

More than 110 students participated in the forum from 11 schools in the Upper Hunter.

“It is exciting to think about the whole trip and then bring that back to this area and implement it in our schools,” said Mr Shackleton.

“We put our hand up straight away to host this, it was something we really wanted to do,” he said.

“There is a push at our school for it to be student led and students listen more when it is coming from other students trying to get messages across and we definitely get more honest feedback,” laughed Blake Shackleton.

Lindy Hunt from the Where There’s a Will Foundation supported the students to make the summit a reality.

“It takes a community to grow a child and that is what is so exciting about this form, all of these schools have come together and we are approaching leadership as a community,” said Ms Hunt.

“There were the five high schools attending, but then they decided to invite the school captains from local primary schools which was a great idea,” she said.

“The students are taking what they have learned from surviving to helping each other to thrive,” she said.

“During this the leaders who put this together also learned about the importance of flexibility, especially when technology  doesn’t work during a presentation, it takes a leader to be flexible when things change and they need to work around it,” Lindy Hunt said.

The schools which participated included Muswellbrook High School, St Joseph’s High School, Scone Grammar School, Scone High School, Merriwa Central School, St Mary’s Primary School, Scone Public School, Muswellbrook South, Muswellbrook Public School, Denman Public School and Aberdeen Public School.