A highlight of our primary leadership team this term has been attending the GRIP Leadership Conference in Dubbo, accompanied by Mr Westcott and Mrs Harding.
The GRIP conference is well known for equipping students with practical leadership skills, encouraging them to lead with confidence, integrity, and a strong sense of responsibility, underpinned with humility. The day was topped off with a friendly team building game of ten pin bowling, where Miss Evangeline Brown showed incredible growth from her first bowl through to her last. However, none of us were a match for Miss April Unger, who was our overall winner!
My favourite part of the day though? Sitting in Dubbo’s Botanical Gardens, debriefing from our leadership day and hearing our leadership team’s hopes for the year ahead. Hopes of wanting to genuinely listen more to what people are saying. Hopes of ensuring that they have ‘made someone’s day a bit better than the day before’ through the power of simple connections like a smile or a wave. What a blessing to hear our leadership team endeavour to serve their school with such humility.
On another level, it has been encouraging to witness leadership in action through our Student Representative Council (SRC). Our students have taken initiative in running a canteen during the house challenge week, demonstrating teamwork, organisation, and service to others. Their efforts, and those of the SRC before them have also contributed to the successful fundraising campaign for new soccer nets—an achievement that reflects both commitment and community spirit. These are powerful examples of leadership not just as a title, but as action.
Then, beyond our formalised leadership teams, we are taking time this year to acknowledge those students who serve without a badge. The SRC have decided to nominate students who may have gone unseen by their teachers, when they perform acts of service to those around them. Our first few recipients? Playing with students from all year groups, picking up rubbish without being asked and choosing to spend their time helping others with their assigned jobs around the school during their lunch break. These examples show humility at the centre of leadership to others.
Hopefully, from all of the above, a pattern has begun to form. At the heart of our approach to leadership is a deeper vision, one that we hope to see woven through every aspect of school life; leadership grounded in humility, in service to others. As teachers in the school, we constantly look to and share the powerful example of Jesus, who led not through status or power, but through service, compassion, and selflessness. Jesus, who lowered himself from the throne of heaven, to seek and save the lost. This perspective challenges our students to think differently about what it means to lead: to lift others up, to act with kindness, and to put the needs of others before their own.
This leads us to an important question: why do we place such emphasis on raising young leaders centred around humility and service? The answer is found in the kind of future we hope to shape, not only within our school but across our Parkes community and beyond. By fostering students’ aspirations and equipping them with practical ways to live these out, we hope to see a generation who actively seek to make a difference. Whether it is through supporting initiatives such as Henry’s Pantry, serving within their local community, or simply showing consistent kindness in everyday moments, these small acts can grow into something far greater. It is our hope that, in years to come, our students will contribute to communities marked by compassion, generosity and a genuine care for others.
Kate Harding – Primary Coordinator