The Alleynian 703 2015

‘Instead of rebuffing the past, tearing up the manual and starting afresh, leadership is more constructive – building on our past, growing our successes and reworking our failures into successes’

K eep it p ositive

academic atmosphere of the student community. With initiatives such as growing the Middle School mentoring scheme to incorporate a greater breadth of objectives, enhancing the role of Pupil Voice (an initiative carried on from the last Prefect body) and encouraging more pupil participation within younger year groups through assemblies, learning forums and Senior Prefect mentoring, we have tried to create a more cohesive student body, bringing together disparate ends of our large community to form a collective whole. It is clear that leadership within an institution like ours represents more than being intrepid, visionary and decisive. It is about establishing a deep understanding of what the school means to you and the community around you. Instead of rebuffing the past, tearing up the manual and starting afresh, leadership is more constructive – building on our past, growing our successes and reworking our failures into successes. For, true leadership comes from taking our identity – who we are and what we believe in – and enhancing it. True leadership stems from our past and builds for our future. True leadership combines respect, humility and vision.

Co. children for a day of drama, sport, art and science workshops run by the Senior Prefects. It was the first time in the charity’s history that something like this had been done in association with a school. The aim of the day was to inspire the children and expand their thought by introducing them to concepts, ideas and surroundings that were completely new to them. Certainly, a school that has been at the forefront of innovation and change for so long – with the rise of The Laboratory the latest example of this – provided the perfect backdrop for a day as experimental and mould-breaking as this. Very much in the same vein was the project run in tandem with Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, where our Senior Prefects engaged in a day of discussion and review, in a bid to exchange best practices with Prefects at the Isle of Sheppey Academy – and on which Ben Hurd reports elsewhere on this page. While both these projects describe a more outward-

Below : The Senior Prefects at Kids Company.

Ben Hurd (Year 13) reports on the Senior Prefects’ visit to the Oasis Academy of the Isle of Sheppey

S ince 2009, Dulwich College and Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey have shared a close working relationship that has sought to improve education and values within the school and local community. It has been rewarding to track the Academy’s progress over the past few years and we are always looking for ways in which the educational partnership between the two schools can be fostered further, especially through shared charitable projects, learning initiatives, sporting fixtures and cultural events. This year, pupil leadership was seen to be a particularly important area to explore for Dulwich and the Academy and therefore during February a group of Dulwich Senior Prefects visited the Academy with the goal of investigating positive character traits. On arrival, we received a warm welcome from Mr Barritt, Oasis’s Deputy Principal of KS3, and their Student Leaders, who ranged from 13 to 18 years old. It was fantastic to work with such a range of enthusiastic pupils, each of whom held positions of responsibility throughout the school. The desired outcome of the day was to create visual resources that would advise the wider student body about how positive character traits can be developed and enhanced. We particularly focused on resilience, effective communication skills and responsibility, which we consider to be three key skills that students of Dulwich College and Oasis Academy can benefit from developing. After splitting into groups, we each were given an hour to brainstorm our ideas, including how positive character traits present themselves and when they are

looking approach, the Senior Prefects have also looked inwards, in a bid to develop the social and

particularly useful both inside and outside of the school environment. During this time, we were able to get to know, share and exchange ideas with Oasis’s Student Leaders. One memorable example came from a Year 8 girl from Oasis, who suggested that uneaten food from school lunches could be delivered to homeless shelters each evening, whilst another suggested our new resources could be used most effectively as presentations in assemblies. Quickly putting this idea into practice, each group produced a presentation that could be used to promote the development of positive character traits in the future. Our visit was a useful and hugely enjoyable experience. I think Dulwich could make use of some of the great ideas and initiatives in a place there, such as having a range of school leaders representing different areas and ages within the school. It was a real pleasure to be asked to come to Sheppey and I am glad that Dulwich College will continue to run this bi-annual project in the future.

Below : The Senior Prefects 2014-15.

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