This event provides sixth form student leaders with practical skills to support them through their first experience of leadership, and inspirational role models to help them identify their own ambitious direction in life.
In 2024 the Company hosted the inaugural student leadership conference. 85 student leaders visited Haberdashers’ Hall for a two-day event in order to hear from inspiring leaders, build their leadership knowledge and skills, find their place in the Haberdasher community and establish relationships with other young leaders.
Student leaders are important role models in the school community, with potential to be ambassadors for Haberdashers’ Advantage, supporting the Haberdashers’ Company to achieve its aspiration to empower young people from every background to fulfil their potential. In order to achieve this, students need meaningful leadership roles and for their views and perspectives to be taken seriously. There are valuable insights to be gained from student leaders who can act as representatives for the wider student body and help influence school culture.
Each of the nine Haberdasher secondary schools maintains student leadership positions for sixth formers, which reflect the priorities of their school community. For example, as well as Head Boy, Head Girl, house captains and subject prefects there may be student leaders with responsibility for sustainability, diversity and inclusion or wellbeing.
The conference began with a networking reception where students were set the challenge of speaking to adults and students who they hadn’t met before and asking them about their own leadership journey. As well as the student leaders, attendees included Haberdashers with a range of leadership experience including political, business and social impact leadership.
During dinner students heard from a former Adams Head Girl, Harshini Muthukrishnan, about her experience in student leadership and as a Blue Peter presenter where she acts as a role model to tens of thousands of children. Her speech included an important reminder about the power of role models, supporting one another on your leadership journey and being proactive in taking opportunities to challenge yourself.
Day two of the event was opened by Lord Dr Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE. Beginning his career as a teacher, Lord Hastings then worked across government agencies on policies to build racial equality, including as a Commissioner with the Commission for Racial Equality. He was honoured with a CBE and Peerage to House of Lords in recognition for his services to crime reduction. He spoke to students about ‘Leading from the middle and following from behind‘, taking inspiration from political leaders and philosophers and challenging students to consider their own values in relation to leadership.
This was followed by Tom Vallings who shared insights from his leadership experience in the British Army. Tom discussed leadership styles and gave students a practical framework in which to consider their ‘leadership house’ and how to develop trust as a leader, illustrated using stories from Tom’s forces experience.
John Griffiths and Dr Joanna Abeyie MBE shared a slightly different perspective on leadership, focusing on civic responsibility and their roles as Common Counsellors in the City of London. They encouraged students to value civic responsibility and as leaders to inspire their peers to value political participation and make change in their communities.
Fleur Brading spoke to students about their career journey, how leadership skills can develop throughout their career journey and how to apply the experience gained in a student leadership role when entering the employment market. She shared the advice to never stop learning, embrace feedback and seek out good people, encouraging students to cultivate empathy and develop communication and problem-solving skills.
All speeches were delivered by Haberdasher members.
Education
Following speeches, students had opportunity to practice and apply their leadership skills through three workshops:
- Body language and non-verbal communication – Mike Carter
- Building your leadership house and addressing your leadership challenges – Tom Vallings
- Lego challenge team building – Victoria Gordon
During workshops students were in mixed-school groups, presenting the additional challenge of working with students they had not met before. They considered their personal presentation through body language, worked together on real life student leadership challenges (gaining insight into each other’s contexts as well as reflecting on their own strategies) and were encouraged to take a purposeful approach to teamwork through a Lego-building challenge.
We asked students who had attended these workshops to share how they had applied this in their school community. Some had used the Lego activity themselves when working with younger year groups on developing leadership, others had applied body language techniques when speaking to peers in assembly and many had applied the challenges explored to set their strategy as a student leadership team. Students had also kept in touch following the conference, continuing to learn from each other’s experience and varied contexts.
