Back in July 2016 Future Foundations launched the pilot programme of the Global Social Leaders Catalyst programme in partnership with the Wellington Leadership Institute and United Learning. This exciting programme is a condensed version of the World Summit, with attendees developing self-awareness, leadership skills and launching their own GSL Society to work on social action projects throughout the year within their school. Having celebrated a variety of societies at the Future Foundations Annual Awards, it was fantastic to work with United Learning again for a second year.
Thirty students from six nationwide United Learning academies arrived at Wellington college on July 10th 2017 ready for the intensive three-day leadership programme. These young people are from the leadership teams within their schools and in addition to empowering them to launch impactful projects in the new academic year, this project also acts as a celebration for all of their hard work so far. This programme was led by coach Alex , with Owen also coaching and operations led by Amy . We were also delighted to welcome two student ambassadors from Wellington College, Will and Finn , who assisted in the delivery of the project.
The objectives of the programme were to develop:
- Leadership skills, to nurture confidence, and empower the participants to go on to lead successful projects at their own school.
- Each participant’s personal understanding of different leadership styles, and how to show leadership for oneself, in school, and in the community.
- Understanding of the global challenges we face and how, through partnership and innovation, we can solve them. They will be taken through real life cases to demonstrate good project management and how to create their own impactful projects to take on after the programme ends.
- Skills for life after school including team work, reflection, presenting, goal-setting and self-leadership.
Each morning, students were invited to ‘kickstart’ sessions to start the day positively. An inspiring plenary would then be held to set the theme for the day before students commenced work in their coaching groups, allowing them to mix with other academies from across the UK and develop their own understanding of self-leadership. Whilst students attended these sessions, accompanying teachers attended their own leadership training held by the Wellington Leadership Institute, in order to continue to support their students beyond the programme.
The young people and teachers would re-convene throughout the programmes with particular highlights being the Future Foundations classic experiential leadership game ‘Toxic Dump,’ ‘The Big Debate’ evening and the ‘Microloan Pitches’ in which students select an entrepreneur in a developing country to represent before a judging panel, with the winning team awarded a contribution to financially back this entrepreneur. The three days culminated in returning to the school teams to work on their next social action project.
We are delighted that the attending students will be continuing their learning and this is what they had to say about their time with us.
If you are interested in hosting a Global Social Leaders Catalyst programme at your school please contact us at social.leaders@future-foundations.co.uk