SCONE High School students are ready to put their best foot forward this week on the journey to becoming leaders.
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Four students will jet off to Adelaide on Thursday to attend a National Student Leadership Summit aimed at educating, inspiring and empowering the next generation of Australian leaders to make the greatest impact within their communities.
The trip comes after the Where there’s A Will foundation successfully sent a group of Upper Hunter students to the summit in 2017, which saw them return and host their own summit at Muswellbrook High School.
Lindy Hunt, who coordinates the student leadership program, said the day was so successful that Muswellbrook High School will again be the venue in 2018.
“One of the aims of Where there’s A Will is developing student’s confidence, their ability to make wise decisions, help each other and support each other both in good and bad times and to be able to be resilient and bounce back after adversity rather than it being the absolute end of the world,” she said.
“And, so they have researched best practice in how to develop those skills and student leadership comes up as number one across the world.
“My job is to coordinate leadership programs for young people across the Upper Hunter and this week is the first for this year and it’s to the National Student Leadership Summit in Adelaide.”
The four students - Indyana Taylor, Clayton Edmonds, Max Thackeray and Kayley Kennedy – will leave on Thursday, attend a leadership workshop on Friday and explore the city on Saturday before they travel back on Sunday.
“It’s great because some kids haven’t flown before, some kids haven’t been away from their parents before, some people have never been interstate - so it’s a really big learning experience,” Mrs Hunt said.
“When the students get back, they meet all together as a team and are expected to conduct a similar workshop for students in the Upper Hunter.
“They adapt what they experience to the Upper Hunter context.
“There will be probably around 120 students they will present to and next year we will look at hosting a NSW summit.”
Scone High School student Max Thackeray said he was excited as it will be his first time attending a Student Leadership Summit and also his first trip to Adelaide.
“I’ve been to a few leadership days in the past and attended Burn Bright last year in the Upper Hunter so it’s a good opportunity to go somewhere new and meet some new people and find out what other schools do across Australia,” he said.
The students will host a Student Leadership Summit at Muswellbrook High School on May 29 from 9.30am for students from Years 10 to 11 from the five schools in the Upper Hunter.