Online Leadership Conference

Just before the end of the first half-term, Stonar was delighted to host the annual Globeducate Head Pupil Event.

After a brief hiatus last year, the event returned in a new format. In previous years head pupils and student leaders from the Globeducate family had travelled to Stonar to participate in a three day leadership symposium where they had the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, both in theory and in practice. This year saw the event return in a different format; online. Although this presented some challenges, the advantages of being able to host schools from India and Canada, who hadn’t previously been able to join us, more than compensated for this.

As well as staff from Stonar, we were also joined at the event by Dr Lucy Walker, from Britten Pears Arts. As well as giving talks, curating exhibitions, and writing articles about the life and works of musicians Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, she has also presented many short films and hosts the From The Red House podcast. She has given talks and presented study days at numerous concert venues and opera houses in the UK and internationally, and has edited two books on Britten for The Boydell Press.

The event began with a session on leadership theory, led by our headmaster, Mr Matthew Way. Drawing on his own military career experiences and leaders as diverse as Tito and Shackleton, Mr Way challenged the students to think about what characteristics made a good leader. This session was followed by an analysis of Belbin’s leadership styles. The students had all previously completed a questionnaire which was then used to see where their dominant leadership styles lay. Zoom break-out rooms allowed smaller groups of students to discuss what they had learnt about themselves, and each other, and how to build an effective leadership team. Moving swiftly on, we were joined by Mr David Wicks (ex colonel in the British Army and Head of Science at Stonar), who spoke about leadership in action and importantly defined the difference between leadership and management. David also stressed the importance of honesty and integrity as the basis for any successful leader. The group then once again divided into their sub-groups to plan their presentations on an inspirational leader of their choice – the students did not disappoint in their choice of leaders with a wide range being chosen, from Michelle Obama and Jesus to Stalin and Colonel Gaddafi!

The second day began with a workshop on public speaking led by Mr Jamie Dyde, Head of English; many of the students having already noted that communication was a key skill for any potential leader. Following more group work we were joined by our speaker Dr Lucy Walker, who listened to the fantastic presentations. All of the students participated in the presentation and the confidence with which they spoke, the engagement they had for the subject matter, informing their research with the leadership theory they had learnt the previous day, ensured that the presentations were lively, informative and delivered with style. As well as providing constructive feedback, Dr Walker was highly complimentary about the students and left the event questioning what her own leadership style may be. Prior to Dr Walker’s keynote speech, students participated in a fun scenario planning event, where they had to use their leadership skills to plan for survival, or escape, on a deserted island. 

The event concluded with a talk from Dr Walker, about her work with Britten Pears Arts and explaining how leadership comes in many forms and styles.

It was a pleasure to host an event for such a talented and personable group of young people. They were, without doubt, leaders of the future.