College hosted its inaugural Year 7 Leadership Day last term, with the theme of Be Inspired. More than 160 students from 16 primary schools attended the Leadership Day, which was based on the very successful College-run Emerging Leaders Day for Year 12 students.
The students first listened to a motivational presentation from Cam Calkoen, a young man who was born with cerebral palsy, but who refused to let that affect his life. He turned a “can’t do” attitude into a “can do’’ attitude and has become a motivational speaker throughout New Zealand. Next, the students attended two workshops about leadership, looking at how it is achieved and what it really means. These workshops challenged the students to discuss leadership and to find ways to help them face the challenges that being a leader brings.
Organiser Darrell Thatcher says that, while leadership happens at all ages, Year 7 students were a good group to focus on as they were moving into leadership roles in their schools and had probably not thought much about what makes a good leader. “The view of leadership we are promoting is you don’t have to have a title to be a leader,’’ he says. “Leadership is as much about taking an idea and going with it as it is about having a title.’’ After the workshops the students were buzzing, and had clearly been motivated by what they had
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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