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On November 29th, 60 twelve- and thirteen-year olds came to Wellington for our annual Festival of Leadership, a fantastic day of high energy activities and discussions.
The over-arching theme of the day was creating a culture where people can be their best. Iain Sutcliffe, Deputy Head, Co-Curricular, opened the day by comparing two cricket teams he had played for when he was a professional. He considered how the performance of the teams was not correlated to the number of star players, but rather to the culture that the leader created. In the winning Leicestershire team, there was a real sense of togetherness, everyone made sacrifices for the team, no individual was bigger than the team and everyone pulled in the same direction. This culture of service, humility and vision led to them winning championships whilst teams with stronger teams on paper languished behind them.
Our Welly Leaders (over 20 Lower Sixth and Fifth Form pupils) led the entire day with incredible energy and enthusiasm, ensuring the visiting pupils had a lot of fun, whilst also growing in self-awareness and practising leadership. They put the teams through their paces on the low ropes, ran discussions on the importance of values and kindness in leadership and got them working together on team games. All the visiting students were invited to join Wellington’s Global Social Leaders (GSL) competition and set up social action projects, aimed at achieving the United Nations’ Global Goals, and to join a global movement of socially conscious leaders. We look forward to seeing their projects and celebrating their impact at the GSL stream of Ed Fest in June.
Will Greenwood finished off the day with a reflection on leadership lessons from rugby and a call to focus on character and create teams which are safe and honest so people can learn from their success and mistakes and keep growing – exactly what our Welly Leaders intend to do as they move on to their next projects and events.
