The annual Leadership Workshop was held at Pembroke House School over the weekend of 5/6 October 2013.
The annual Leadership Workshop was held at Pembroke House School over the weekend of 5/6 October 2013.
Beacon scholars and their parents arrived promptly on Saturday morning and we, along with some invited Pembroke scholars, settled down to listen to a welcome talk by the Pembroke House Headmistress, Mrs. Deborah Boyd Moss. She used two poems to support her theme: IF by Rudyard Kipling and Desiderata by Max Erhmann. The scholars were all given a copy to take away with them.
Click here for a copy of the Headmistress’ address.
Janet Kabiru, a Beacon parent, then continued the focus on Socially Responsible Leadership with an interesting discussion about her work as a lawyer for BAT Ltd., with which parents and scholars actively engaged.
Parents all took the opportunity to explore the school before they left, and the scholars settled down to work. Anthony Stiddolph, the Beacon Mentor at Peponi Secondary, led the pre-scholars and Scilla Davey worked with the scholars to explore social responsibility further. The end result was some thoughtful responses from the scholars and a great poster and game from the pre-scholars. All the scholars then joined the Pembroke students for lunch in the dining hall and rested in dorms until we regrouped to listen to Joy Lelei and Tunde Muriuki talk about the Round Square Schools. For this we were joined by some Pembroke students who we were happy to include in our activities!
Our next focus was the art of reflecting on our learning and progress. Through a role-play activity, where the scholars had to defend a story about themselves, we explored the art of expressing one’s thinking and feelings. The story may have been one made up and untrue, or a true story. Irrespective of its origin and veracity, the task was to convince an opposing team that it was a true story! We then had an interesting discussion about the emotions around the activity; what was it like to lie, or not to be believed, and whether we express our emotions and feelings effectively.
After tea, we headed down to the playing fields for some leadership and team building activities run by Beacon scholars Joy and Tunde. The unexpected wind and organizing a larger group of students that included extra Pembroke students, was all part of the challenge. Fun was had by all, and there was plenty of opportunity to shine, share and laugh.
After showers and supper, the pre-scholars headed off with the rest of the Pembroke students to watch a film, while the scholars settled down to watch and discuss a series of TED Talks (see links below). These were inspirational talks by youngsters who had made a difference or achieved much for their age. Scholars ended their day by watching a video about Restart the street children rehabilitation programme we would be visiting the next day.
We arrived at Restart in time to join in with the end of their Sunday Service. This was followed by unstructured time and an opportunity for our scholars to engage with the children from Restart. Games were played, books were read and stories shared. The morning passed quickly and after lunch we headed back to Pembroke for a final session reviewing and discussing Beacon targets and reflecting on the weekend.
Special thanks go to Edmund Lovatt, Emma Laing and Deborah Boyd-Moss of Pembroke, Anthony Stiddolph of Peponi Secondary, Priscilla Jean Louis and Hannah Mutlow of St Andrews, Turi and Mary Coulson of Restart for their help in creating a busy weekend of learning – and of course to Scilla Davey for organising the entire workshop.
Links to TED Talks:
1) iphone Application Developer and Six Grader Thomas Suarez
2) Award-winning Teenage Science in Action
3) How Great Leaders Inspire Action – Simon Sinek
4) Defying Social Norms for Social Change – Linh Do
5) The Power of Listening – Mteto Maphoyi
