On Monday the 3rd of August, Year 6 students who had signed up for the experience did a one-day leadership workshop with Ms Paula Dewar from the Waikato Institute of Leadership and Sport Studies.

At the start of the day, the students began by introducing themselves and their interests. They explored a lot of different activities that helped practice leadership and focus. Learning about the qualities of leaders and leadership was broken up by team-building games involving throwing plastic chickens, a follow the leader dance, a reaction game and a game where there were spontaneous leaders who would do an action that the group would follow. The students were told it was important for them to be leading and not just Ms Dewar.

The students said their favourite activity was at the end of the day. The day finished with whole-group team building activities using a parachute. In one game, they were given a number and had to run underneath at the right time when their number was called. They also had to work together to get a ball on top of the parachute round to a person. The games developed so they had to organise themselves to time the parachute so they could do a number of things, such as get the whole group to lie underneath before it reached the ground. 

The feedback from the group was really enthusiastic. Tianna learned it was important that leadership should include having fun. Levi learned it was important to get to know people as part of leadership. Lesley's highlight of the day was the opportunities to be a leader and build confidence. She thought communication was important in a leadership role. Rowan learned that talking in front of crowds is an important skill. 

Part of the day was used to brainstorm ideas of activities the year 6 students could lead at lunchtimes. These will be developed over the next week and we should soon see Year 6 leaders leading some activities at different times of the day and making a positive difference to the students at our school.