Pupil Leadership Conference 2017

Forest School’s annual Pupil Leadership Conference took place on Tuesday 12 September.

Following on from the 2016 event, over 150 young people from schools across the country travelled to Forest for the day conference which is aimed at Head Boys, Head Girls and pupils with responsibility.

This year’s keynote speaker, Olly Hicks, shared his inspirational experiences of leadership, resilience and purpose. Olly believes that extraordinary feats are achieved by ordinary people; you can do anything you set your mind to. He is the only person to have rowed alone from America to England and from Tasmania to New Zealand earning several unique world records along the way. His first at the age of 23 when he completed his first record-breaking adventure with a 4,000-mile solo row across the Atlantic, which is yet still to be matched.

Following Olly’s talk, Dr Ellie Herrington who was an organiser for the Democrats in Nevada for the 2016 presidential and state elections in the US spoke about ‘Leadership and failure? The 2016 US Presidential campaign’.  Ellie is also a parent at the School with Y3 twins.

Jeff Kayne, Deputy Head Pastoral at Forest School, spoke to pupils about leadership.  His speech entitled ‘What type of leader are you?’ was followed by scenario workshops and the afternoon culminated in questions to a Forest Leadership Panel led by Old Foresters, who had previously been school leaders.

The day was described as “enjoyable and worthwhile” by one visiting delegate who thanked the school for making everyone so welcome “inspiring our pupil leaders”.

Forest looks forward to hosting this event again next September.