FUTURE leaders recently attended Emmanuel Catholic College last Friday to meet for the first ever Catholic Schools Leadership Networking Day on Friday, 23 April.
The Emmanuel Student Leadership Team (SLT) hosted the event which students from Christian Brothers College, Seton, Aquinas, Kolbe, Santa Maria and Chisholm Catholic Colleges attended to share ideas and experiences of being a leader in a Catholic School.
Ronan McGinniss started off the day with an interactive presentation on the importance of communication and sharing experiences.
He shared some of his own experiences of being a leader at Chisholm. Ronan, who has been a large support in the development of this day, encouraged the students to share the issues they find challenging as well as those they think they do very well.
Later, the students heard from HALO Leadership, a non-profit incorporated career and personal leadership development agency advancing Hopes, Aspirations and Leadership Opportunities (HALO), who shared their own stories of leadership in their families and communities.
“The HALO presentation was a very good insight into how, with good leadership and values, people can change for the better,” said Calum O’Neil from Aquinas College.
“They taught us that anyone can be a positive role model and leader if they have the drive to do so. They also helped us address the issue of reconciliation.”
Each school’s leaders had to give a presentation on the topic ‘What we do best – positive practices in our college’ which led to a range of shared ideas and entertaining performances. Student leaders from each school spoke about a range of topics including fundraising, school spirit and leadership structures. Emmanuel Catholic College’s Female College Captain, Madalaine Skelton said, “the day was a great opportunity for us to get to know some other leaders from different schools as well as sharing ideas for fundraising, learning about different student leader structures and developing school and house spirit.”
Miss Kylie Durrant, the Student Leadership Coordinator at Emmanuel, said that her students had worked hard to get this idea off the ground and are hoping it will become an annual event.
“We plan to host this event again next year around the same time. Our hope is that a different Catholic school will take it on board from year to year,” she said.