Grow great people. This is the moral imperative of our College. A simple idea, but one that is at the heart of what we do. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that after a period of reflection and review, our student leadership model, and more importantly our student leader development process, has been refined and renewed. This year we are launching the Leadership Passport model. 

To fully understanding why a shift in student leadership was necessary, we first must agree that like any other skill in life, leadership can be learned and strengthened through coaching, practice, and by receiving feedback along the way. Leaders are made, not born.

Being a good leader takes time and we know that students learn best from a lived experience. Schools run the risk of losing leadership potential among students when cohorts start to believe that only a small group of their peers can be leaders. Realistically, every student can grow into leadership, but they may simply do it in different ways to their peers and at different rates. A quick review of personality types, such as the categories used in a Myers-Briggs style analysis, would indicate that in every company, organisation, school, and even family group, there are different styles of leadership. Some leaders are extremely detail-orientated, others more decisive, and some styles involve more thoughtful deliberation prior to any decision making occurring. Each style has their strength, and all have areas of improvement. This makes the development of specific leadership skills here at the College an integral part of student growth.

Much research has been conducted on exemplary leadership and the traits that all quality leaders possess. The consensus rests that five practices, identified initially by researchers James Kouzes and Barry Posner, greatly improve a person’s leadership skills, and have the potential to transform their leadership into one that can engage others and lead to extraordinary results.

These practices include:

Model the way.

Words and actions must be consistent. Leaders set the example by aligning their actions with shared values.

Inspire a shared vision.

Students need to feel that they are part of something that matters, something that will make a difference, and something that is important.

Challenge the process.

Challenge is the crucible of greatness. Students must overcome minor adversity and embrace opportunity to grow, innovate, and improve.

Enable others to act.

When you strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence, they are more likely to give their all and exceed expectations.

Encourage the heart.

Appreciating the contribution of others allows individuals to connect their actions with their personal values and the values of others.

The Leadership Passport model aims to encourage and foster these practices throughout each level of student development.

So how does it achieve this?
Well, being a good leader takes time, effort, and lots of practice. This model provides students, across a much wider age bracket, a clearly defined structure that promotes more frequent leadership skill development through action and feedback. It also encourages the use of initiative to seek out further opportunities for personal leadership growth.  

How is it different from the previous model?
In short, the Leadership Passport model will provide more students with more opportunities to develop their leadership skills across more year levels so that by the time they reach their Senior year, they will be better-developed and well-refined leaders who are great role models for all other students and the wider community.

The table below highlights some of the similarities and differences between both models of student leadership:   

How does the model work?
To effectively develop the leadership skills among our students, we need to ensure that:

1. The skills needed have been clearly identified,
2. We offer students opportunities to refine these skills through experiences,
3. We provide quality feedback to students on their practice to aid in their progress, and
4. We acknowledge and recognise growth to maintain momentum.

This model utilises six guiding principles to ensure that the students we develop through this model are well-rounded leaders who turn vision and goals into action and that we do not discriminate against students based on their age. The six principles, along with an explanation of each are depicted in the graphic below:

What is the model similar to?
In society, there are other successful models that operate in a similar way to the Leadership Passport. For instance, the Duke of Edinburgh Award has multiple levels - Bronze, Silver, and Gold - and it encourages students to demonstrate competence in physical recreation, specific skills, and volunteer service. Similarly, Surf Life Saving clubs offer a progress recognition system that requires clearly defined challenges to be accomplished so participants can be recognised and praised for progress through the Bronze, Silver, and Gold medallion courses. The coloured belt system in a Karate dojo is another example of a tiered development program that sets specific challenges that participants must demonstrate competence in before they can progress to high levels of achievement.    

What does it look like?
Our model contains seven leadership levels. Students who volunteer to enter their leadership journey will be issued a Level 1 passport that clearly identifies what must be accomplished to progress to the next level. The challenges begin small and each challenges provides an opportunity for feedback so that students can easily identify areas of strength and areas that need some focus to further develop. Participation in this process is completely voluntary and students can opt out at any time. There are also no time limits set for completing any level of the model.

Over time, through the feedback and their lived experience, the students will enhance their skills becoming more competent and confident leaders. At the end of their journey, they truly will have grown into a great person.  

Below are some images of the Level 1 Leadership Passport:

What do you mean by leadership challenges?
Each leadership level has a different number of challenges. They can be broken into the following categories:

How does my child get involved?
We are still in the communication phase. Members of the College’s Senior Leadership Team have been visiting cohorts of students and discussing this model and providing opportunities for students to ask questions. Some cohorts still need to participate in these sessions and the whole College will be addressed at Assembly in Week 5. After the communication phase has been completed, students will have further opportunities to discuss the model with their Assistant Principal prior to the Leadership Passport model going live in Term 2. 

A parent engagement session will be hosted at the College on Tuesday 21 February at 5pm in the PAC. All parents/carers are welcome to join us for more information on the Leadership Passport. More information regarding this event will be distributed to parents via email and our social media platforms.