Hat-trick Tuesday

Tuesday 15th September was a big day in the Step calendar. Chris and I were branching out from our usual St Albans and Harpenden schools and working with a new school on a new project: our Leadership Foundations Course in a Day! (Yes, I know – we need a better name, but all in good time!)

As the day began, we had three aims:

1. To invest in the 14 sixth formers joining us – not simply teaching them about leadership, but helping them feel seen, valued and encouraged to grow as leaders.
2. To see whether our six-week Leadership Foundations course could actually be condensed into one day.
3. To use our influence to make connections between John F Kennedy Catholic School and Youth Across Hemel (YAH), a charity doing similar work to Step in Hemel, with the hope that they might be able to run Leadership Foundations with the school in the future.

Well, from the title of this article, you can probably guess how it went!

1. The students:
The 14 students were an incredible bunch. They were friendly, thoughtful and willing to get stuck into everything we threw at them. Chris quickly learnt everyone's names and made a point of using them throughout the day, helping each student feel seen and valued.
They engaged brilliantly with the activities and discussions, and perhaps the best feedback we could have received was that they wanted more time with us!

2. Leadership Foundations in a day:
Could we really fit a six-week course into one day? The answer, we discovered, is yes!
It was definitely a whistle-stop tour, but Chris and I worked hard to make sure we included the essential elements of the course and that everything flowed in the right order. By the end of the day, we were confident that, with a few tweaks, we could take this format into other schools too.

3. Making connections:
Our third aim was to introduce Youth Across Hemel to Damian, Assistant Head at JFK, and see whether there might be an opportunity for them to work together in the future. It didn't take long to realise that they had plenty to talk about! Damian and the YAH team got on like a house on fire, and both parties were keen to explore what working together might look like.

So, a hat-trick it was!

Chris and I finished the day tired but deeply satisfied. We had invested in a brilliant group of young people, discovered that Leadership Foundations can work in a very different format, and helped make a new connection between JFK and YAH.

We're excited to see what the future holds for the students, Leadership Foundations, JFK and YAH!

Amy