How the Archbishops' Young Leaders Award Helps Young People Flourish

think it's been really important for me, especially as we come up to recruiting our next bunch of student leaders for the coming year.

I think there is that stereotype of a very confident, outgoing leader.

And actually, it's really shown me that that doesn't always need to be the case.

there are going to be lots of different people within a group that bring lots of different skills.

And like I said earlier, that quiet leadership has such power and allows those students to be role models for peers who maybe don't see themselves in the more outspoken, outgoing students.

I think at the moment, SEND students are underrepresented in our student leadership team.

And it is something that I really, really want to highlight.

focus on moving forward um i want our leadership team to be representative of our school community and actually that does mean having students with send students that are eal students that come from lots and lots of different backgrounds and this is one thing that i think i would love to be able to do better

Yeah, fantastic.

Thank you.

And to have your voice in that room, we're so, so grateful.

And I suppose you've kind of answered this question in a way, but I wondered if you could maybe just add a little bit more.

How do you think schools could get better at recognising leadership that isn't necessarily loud or visible or confident?

I think it's a bit of an understanding of other leadership skills.

So there is real power in being able to listen.

There's real power in being able to organise and to delegate and to problem solve.

And it's something that when we put out applications, I ask staff, year leaders, form tutors, if you know someone in your tutor group that you think would be fantastic, but maybe they're a little bit shy, maybe their behaviour has potentially been a bit of an issue, encourage them to apply, encourage them to start, encourage them to have a go, because you might find that they learn better.

something fantastic and they then use that later on.

I've had a year 11 student who left in the summer who in her like leaving card wrote me a message and said I applied as a joke and I thought I wouldn't get it but I've learned so much and I've grown so much and I feel like I can go to college now as a better person and that is again very very cheesy but she did, she struggled kind of with her behaviour and with kind of her response to situations and through doing the Archbishop's Award and working with lots of people, she was able to kind of rationalise what was happening how she'd interact with people and yeah, just made real progress.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's fantastic to hear.

Really.

It's just so encouraging.

And sorry, you might notice I'm just smiling as you're talking because it's so beautiful to hear.