Learning to Lead…
It has been astounding to see the number of ways that our students have been leading around our School this term.
Yesterday alone we had students leading a Year 10 fundraiser for Jireh House and Year 6 students creating and promoting micro-businesses. Last week, it was the turn of Senior students leading through a chilly night raising money as part of the Salvo’s sleep out, Year 7 leaders making milos for their peers, and students leading through Bible study and prayer groups. Not to mention the many quiet ways that our students lead through example, encouragement and effort.
I am not sure what your picture of student leadership was at school. Perhaps it was similar to mine, revolving around badges, blazers, socks pulled up and neatly worn ties. Too often, our picture of leadership revolves around a clearly defined image and a role on stage.
When I look around our School, I see a picture of leadership that is much more diverse, reflecting breadth of opportunity and support for student ideas and action. Leadership does not have to mean wearing a badge or carrying a title, it is a student body prompted to consider what they are passionate about and how they can make a difference to the lives of their peers and broader community.
“When I look around our School, I see a picture of leadership that is much more diverse, reflecting breadth of opportunity and support for student ideas and action.”
The student who holds open a door for others, who warmly greets visitors to our campuses, who makes time to care for a distressed peer, these are all excellent examples of leadership in action. So often I have had prospective parents sit in my office and tell me that they were drawn to our School after seeing our students in action, the way they held themselves, wore their uniforms, interacted with one another and members of the public. These observed choices and actions spoke to these parents, it gave them an aspirational picture that they could see for their own child.
This picture of leadership, driven by an ability to perceive a need and to respond, is ‘other-centred’, meaning it has an element of service to others. Paradoxically, this other-centred leadership has the effect of transforming the individual themselves, a phenomenon noted by our Service-Learning Team that travelled to Indonesia earlier this year.
As a school with a focus on learning about and following Jesus, it is the ability to place our focus squarely on God and His plans that prompts action rather than ourselves and our own desires. I was encouraged by the story of a student new to our School with a passion for action and serving others who was asked by her mother how this was working out in her new school. Her paraphrased reply was “Mum, they are doing it already at Calvin”.
Scott Ambrose - Principal
