On 20 January, the 2018 Leadership Team met at the Swan Valley Adventure centre with the aim to develop their goals for the year, and to bond as a team.
We kicked off the first morning with Alicia Curtis – a former Head Girl from Swan, who now facilitates leadership mentor programs – who kindly came to our retreat, helping us unleash the leadership potential within us. After giving us a short background on herself, she asked us a fundamental question of leadership: “What kind of leader are you?”
None of us really knew what to say but after Mrs Curtis went through different leadership and personality qualities, we now know that if she came back and asked us the same question, we could all give her an answer.
After developing our leadership qualities, Mrs Curtis guided us through an important discussion of what our overall goals are going to be for the year. She left us in the afternoon and after being taught by her, we believed we could come up with some solid ideas to work with.
On Sunday we continued discussing our ideas and finalising our plans and speeches for our formal dinner that night. We spent most of the day racking our brains on how we are going to fulfil our goals.
Finally, zero hour came and we headed off to go to the formal dinner. It was time for us to present our ideas to our parents and a group of teachers. Through all the nerves we managed to get through the night smoothly.
To sum up the camp, Zachary Arblaster (2018 Head Boy) said these words: “For the first meal that we shared together, our whole leadership team was spread across two tables, but as the weekend went on, we bonded as a team. So, by Saturday evening, when it became time for dinner, our leadership team came together and formed one table. It was inspiring to see us bond so well as a group.”
The overall aim of bringing a sense of College culture to our school became a strong passion of all the leaders that weekend and it will be seen taking shape throughout the school immediately.
Arno Theron
Year 12 Student