Heads of School Conference

On Friday 7 October Wellington College hosted the 17th annual Heads of School Conference. Started by the head boy of Wellington in 1995, this conference is always a highlight in the calendar and this year was no exception!

Despite battling train strikes, over one hundred heads of school attended, from 52 different schools. The theme of the day was ‘World Class: Why Teamship is More Important than Leadership’ and the opening plenary was by Will Greenwood who has published a book on that theme. He reflected on his own journey of leadership and the top ten lessons he would share with new leaders. These covered themes such as self-leadership (having high expectations of yourself, being prepared, strategic use of time and being kind to yourself), also the importance of having clear team values that people buy into and live out. A quote from Will that resonated with many of the students was, “Be strong on values and flexible on opinions.”

There was plenty of time for networking and our prefects designed and led three breakout sessions on the topics of:

• United Leadership: Every person, a piece of the jigsaw

• Social Leadership: Creating cultures and dealing with conflict

• Sustaining Leadership: Looking after our mental health

The day ended with a Q&A session where the students quizzed a group of leaders (with experience in professional sport, the corporate world, academia and education) about their views.

Overall, it was a day when new friendships were formed and the students were encouraged and inspired to keep going with the joyful burden of leading schools.