Stepping up to lead: The UK’s First GLS Next Gen Student Leadership Conference
As a secondary school teacher, the Year 11 prom was the most rewarding night of the year. Having finished their time at secondary school, the students would arrive dressed in their tuxedos and ball gowns ready to celebrate with their friends. Without their school uniform they would look suddenly more grown up; it was a clear reminder to us as their teachers that these weren’t boys or girls any longer but young men and young women. They had arrived at secondary school aged 11 as children and were leaving it aged 16 on the verge of adulthood, ready to leave the safe and contained environment of school behind and go out and make their own mark on the world.
When working in a school, leadership becomes synonymous with adults. There are the middle leaders in charge of departments, the senior leaders who lead on certain aspects of school life and finally the headteacher with responsibility for the overall vision and direction of the school. However, that is to entirely neglect the biggest group of people in the school: the students themselves, some of whom will have already performed leadership roles within the student body, like captaining a sports team or serving on the school council.
This is the very age group that GLS Next Gen was established to inspire. Launched in 2015, GLS Next Gen was established with the aim of inspiring, equipping and raising up young people as leaders. As Sarah McCutcheon, GLS Next Gen Relationship Manager for Australia and New Zealand, says: “Leadership is influence… Leadership is not limited to a title, a role or a position, it can be expressed through noticing a need or a problem, and doing something about it. …There is a unique influence you have as a teenager that you won’t get again. Every day you are influencing people. You’re not deciding to do that, but it is happening.” This quote from her talk ‘What does teenage leadership look like?’ highlights the unique position young people are in, surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of their peers to influence others and achieve positive change. Now working in 37 countries, GLS Next Gen provides leadership resources and training for schools, universities and youth groups designed to awaken students’ leadership, faith, and life journey, activate young leaders to be a force for good in their communities and connect them to a community of growth.
Here at the Global Leadership Network in the UK, we have worked with Steph Neill, headteacher of Philip Morant School & College, Colchester, to deliver the UK’s first GLS Next Gen student leadership conference. At the heart of this conference were the 10 Year 11 students who make up the school’s student management team. Steph Neill wants these student leaders to do far more than simply share their opinions and concerns about school life; she has helped them articulate their own vision for the school by concentrating on three focus areas (mental health & wellbeing, student participation, and charity & community) and is now working alongside them to help them achieve the change they want to see. However, the first challenge for the student management team was to organise and run a student leadership conference for 90 of their Year 11 peers on 11th September 2024.
Based on GLS Next Gen resources, the conference featured two talks on leadership by Tim Johnston and Krish Kandiah, alongside discussion time and team-building activities to help launch the school’s discussion on what student leadership means. This was followed by time in focus groups to gather ideas on how the school could improve in the three focus areas chosen by the student leadership team. Significantly it wasn’t the teachers involved in hosting and running the conference, but the student management team themselves. Before the day itself, they used example running orders and scripts from a GLS Next Gen conference to plan the running order for the 3-hour conference and write a script which included all they would need to say to host the conference and tie each part of it together. On the day, on top of hosting the conference, the Year 11 students also ran the team-building activities for their peers and facilitated discussion around their chosen focus areas. To see 10 Year 11 students step up to lead their peers in this way was nothing short of inspiring.
Fast-forward to October and they ran another conference for all the school council representatives in Years 7-10. The conference followed a similar format, with GLS Next Gen talks on leadership, team-building activities, and discussion on the chosen focus areas. It was clear to see what they had already learnt in such a short period of time. Each member of the student leadership team spoke clearly and confidently from the stage, even managing to silence the room, and hosted team-building activities in an amiable and natural way with the younger students. They also led such a positive discussion around their three focus areas, that almost every student at the conference wanted to share an idea at the end. It was a clear reminder of what young people can achieve if they are just given the chance to step up and lead for themselves.
It is only fitting to end with words from the student management team themselves, reflecting on what they learnt about leadership from hosting the GLS Next Gen student conference. Many cited growing “confidence in public speaking”, “teamwork”, “organisation skills” and learning that “everyone is a leader”. More than that though, “to organise this GLS conference helped us as a team to unite together”, “br[ing] mental health to the forefront” and “make … a change around the school.”
Corinne Goullée
GLS Next Gen Lead
Former secondary school teacher
