On Thursday 8 February, Churchill Academy and Sixth Form was delighted to host the second LSP Student Leadership conference.

The conference involved 85 students from across the trust from year 7 to 13. Student leaders from each school presented on the theme of “The challenges and achievements of student leadership”. It was inspiring to see our student leaders presenting with such confidence and clarity and to hear about the challenges of leadership, how these can be managed and their achievements as student leaders.

Following the presentations, we were all challenged in our thinking by our guest speaker Sandra Lawson, Senior Community Organiser at Citizens UK, who took the students on a leadership journey through the 5 (+1) steps to social change. Asking the students to think about leadership skills such as communication and deeper self-reflection and empowering them with the belief that they can be a catalyst for change.

"It was a wonderful opportunity to hear about other schools and the things they are working on. It was also interesting to hear about the opportunities in Sixth Form. After listening to all these ideas, we have been inspired to start new, exciting projects so keep an eye out for some additions across the academy in the future."
Keziah, Year 10, Churchill Academy and Sixth Form

The conference provided a tremendous opportunity for the students from the Trust's schools to interact together both whilst working, and also over a lunch provided by Parent Pay.

After lunch Sandra continued the leadership journey, looking at the 5 (+1) steps to social change. Finally we had some thanks and closing words from LSP CEO, Gary Lewis. The students left buzzing and full of ideas about what they wanted to do next.

Thank you to the staff and student leaders form Chew Valley School, Backwell School, Gordano School and Churchill Academy and Sixth Form, plus our guest speaker Sandra Lawson, Director of Secondary Education at LSP, Natalie Wilcox and LSP CEO Gary Lewis.