Charter Student Leadership Conference

In 2021 Wimbledon High School and King’s College School, Wimbledon, set out to establish a strategic partnership, our Charter, in part as an answer to the questions asked by Everyone’s Invited, but primarily to further meaningful collaboration between our two communities.

Making lasting change, however, involves recognising that it is not just individual schools, staff, or students, that make a difference. That is why on 5 October 2022 we welcomed students and teacher from 22 schools to an inaugural Charter Student Leadership Conference, recognising our shared contexts, connections, and desire for change. We focused on two key themes Building an Inclusive Community and Civil Discourse.

Flickr album: The Charter Student Leadership Conference | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin

Our keynote speaker, Claire Harvey MBE, talked about the leadership journey: ‘you’re the one you’ve been waiting for’, encouraging students to see leadership as a set of behaviours, where humility, connection and collaboration are as important as curiosity, creativity and energy: ‘Listen more than you talk, work in partnership and surround yourself with people better and different to you.’

This was the most apposite of beginnings for a day of forging new relationships – each table of students (a mix of schools on each) is to go on to pursue a project as a result of the day’s collaboration, and as Eddie and Sofia from KCS had reminded us at the beginning: 'The most important aspect of the charter is that it is a student led collaboration, putting our voices first in seeking and enacting change.' And: 'Every point on the Charter starts with 'we', to reflect the role we all play.' 

There followed a workshop on each of the two themes, with Dr Shola Apena Rogers, David Powell and Ms Cunningham joining Claire Harvey on Building inclusive communities - fittingly, as Black History Month got underway and we were reminded that 'every day has the potential to be a culture day'... and our own pastoral leaders, Ms Beckwith and Mr Courtney Clack, joined fellow teacher Dr Matthew Lakin and Harry Rippon of Ofcom to kick off discussions about Civil Discourse. How you can go about bringing change to your schools? When it comes to accepting others’ opinions, where are your red lines?

As Emily and Rosa, Deputy Head Girls, said:

“The conference demonstrated the value in expanding the reach of the charter. It was inspiring to engage with such insightful speakers, discussing topics that are pertinent within our generation. Not only this, but meeting student leaders from across London broadened our ideas of what civil discourse and inclusive communities really means. All in all, the day proved to be a huge success and we feel extremely lucky to have attended the first of what we are sure will be a seminal event in the calendar.” 

Tas, of Merchant Taylors’ School, wrote: On behalf of all the delegates from Merchant Taylors' School, I just wanted to thank you for inviting us to such a wonderful conference yesterday. The keynote speakers were all fantastic and provided us all with lots of food for thought. We were all incredibly impressed by how well organised the conference was and how stimulating the topics we discussed were. All in all, it was a brilliant day, and we look forward to implementing the values outlined in The Charter at Merchant Taylors'. 

Thanking Mr Turner, Deputy Head Pastoral, for so brilliantly masterminding the day, Wimbledon Head Girl Elsa summed it all up: 'It was really encouraging to see that every student involved in the charter student leadership day was so willing to discuss and engage in all the expertly lead activities available. It was a privilege to be a part of such a wonderful and important steppingstone in branching new connections between communities. Let our collaboration long outlive our time at school.’