On Friday the 21st of February all the Student Councillors met at the train station to go up to Perth to attend the GRIP (Generosity, Responsibility, Integrity and People) Student Leadership Conference. When we arrived, we took our seats in the auditorium and were all given a booklet with activities and lessons we would learn throughout the day.
The first thing we did was a ‘Would You Rather’ game. We were given two options and had to choose which one we would rather. At the end you ended up with a four-letter code. You then had to walk around the room and find six people who had the same code, and they could not be from your school.
We learned about the responsibility of being a student leader, which included being an example to others, being a helper to others, being a voice for others and being willing to do what the school needs (which involved me going up the front with kids from other schools and pretending to play musical instruments)! After that, we had our recess break before going back inside for more fun and games.
This session was about leadership through friendship in which we learned conversations are more effective than instructions, sharing responsibility is more important than showing off responsibility and fun is more effective than feeling forced. We also enjoyed our head boy (Josiah) going up and role playing as Buzz Lightyear.
After our second break we learned about how to make new ideas to help others. Our students came up with many ideas which included (but not limited to) a school book club, tutoring, Chess club and helping arrange free sports games in the community. We learned about how to be realistic and achieving our goals by the end of the year. We even had one of the ESC students, Tate win in a game of “Guess That Law”.
Before long, it was time to head back home on the train. After a fun, eventful and educational day we were all exhausted. We learned lots while having an amazing time and I know we are all coming back from this with new minds, new perspectives and new ideas to help make the school a better place this year.
Emma Soerensen
Student – Head Girl
