Pictured L-R: Mathilda Bester, Samuel Brown, Charli Horchner, Riley Knowles, Naughton Lovell.
On Thursday 25 February the four QAHS student representatives for the GCCC Junior Council went to their first meeting at HOTA. It was Charli and Riley's second year of attending and the first time for Samuel and I. The day included meeting the team and other representees, the official handover from the 2020 Executive Committee to the 2021 team and the announcement of the 2021 Junior Mayor. It was inspirational to see both Riley and Charli representing QAHS on the 2021 executive committee, alongside Naughton who was part of the 2020 team. Furthermore, we met many other students from different schools, and we were able to share our motives and ideas about leadership. The mayor, His worship Tom Tate, shared his experiences on leadership. He left us with a potent phrase stating one of his father's sayings, 'the more you give in life, the more you get'. This refers to how helping the community will leave you joyous and inspired and we can't expect to receive anything if we don't give. Furthermore, we had Josh Farr, from Campus Consultancy, who spoke to us about different types of leadership and how to apply these skills in our day-to-day life.
Josh started the presentation by asking us what we personally believed leadership is. Many answered that it is the ability to take responsibility of a group and lead them with compassion and wisdom. Others said it is the capability to help people reach their full potential, whilst others said it is the skill of supporting others through the tough times. Mr Farr left us pondering on the question and introduced us to the four different types of leaders. Interestingly, he explained how we have different types of leaders for different situations and groups of people. The four types include: visionary, pace setters, coaches and relationship builder leaders. Visionary leaders are those who focus on the future and create hope through goal setting, and they go against societies' standardised views. Then the action-oriented leaders, the pace setter or commanders, are those who lead by example and focus on the present and lead with a plan. Furthermore, there are the coaches or strategize leaders, they focus on improvement and lead others to become the best of themselves they can be. Finally, the relationship builders, those who focus on the people they journey with and focus on the present and how to strengthen relationships. We then got together in small groups and discussed how we can use these different skills in our junior council positions this year, and how to support the community with the different ways of leadership. Josh Farr finished by empowering us to focus on how we can serve the community through leadership and left us with the statement, 'grow to give'.
Mathilda Bester
Year 10