Lower Sixth girls developing the power to lead

Girls in the Lower Sixth recently had the chance to develop their power to lead in the Wycombe Abbey Leadership Summit.

Teamwork, resilience, self-reliance and leadership were all tested over the two-day event, which forms part of the School’s Sixth Form enrichment programme.

Every girl was given the opportunity to take the lead on at least one practical task, which ranged from crossing imaginary rivers with planks and barrels to planning a response to a forest fire.

At the end of the event, the girls raced over an assault course before completing a final leadership challenge to test all the skills they had developed.

The girls were joined for the event by boys from local John Hampden Grammar School.

One session featured an interesting discussion of gender aspects of leadership and the reasons why women are unrepresented in leadership roles.

Periods of downtime also allowed for barbeque socials and girls versus boys football and rounders matches.

Participants also had the opportunity to hear about the theory of leadership from a number of keynote speakers.

Lower VI girl Sophie commented: “Although initially I felt a little apprehensive about the prospect of unknown challenges and the promise of being pushed out of my ‘comfort zone’, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the two days. The tasks were engaging, demanding and really fun and I came away with the pride of completing my first ever assault course and the satisfaction of knowing exactly what kind of leader I want to be in the future.”

Another LVI girl, Jennifer, said: “The leadership conference really helped develop my confidence and made me think about leading and managing teams in different ways. The relaxed atmosphere made the conference really fun.”