The 2020 Captains Breakfast was a huge success! The number of schools attending grew significantly this year – 16 in total brought their student leadership teams. This meant around 200 students all together to share ideas and network. Throughout the day there was incredible food served which helped facilitate a space and environment to get to know other students and build inter-school relationships. It was amazing to see the way all the students got out of their comfort zones and took initiative in starting conversations with each other.

Our very own Head of College, Mr Paul Valese, spoke in session One about the “Why” of leadership. He encouraged us to clearly identify and articulate the reason for being a leader, and ensure that all the ‘what’ that we will do as leaders and the ‘how’ we will go about achieving it, stems from that clearly known “Why”.

Mr Mark Broadbent then presented the Four levels of leadership, and the different reasons why people follow leaders. It challenged students to consider that effective leadership is much more than position, but about influence and positively investing into the lives of other students. The session was very interactive as questions were opened up for discussion, and students afforded the opportunity to share their ideas and responses.

The final session saw everyone move into mixed table groups and address some different real-life scenarios. Tables were able to talk them through collaboratively, and put to use the leadership principles learnt in the previous sessions into their own school contexts. It proved to be an invaluable time of meeting other student leaders and learning leadership skills and techniques.

‘I really enjoyed talking to the other school leaders and comparing how leadership at their school differed from leadership at Mueller. It was a great to exchange ideas and talk through ways to improve leadership in our schools. Not only did I get to make new friends, but I also got a fresh perspective of how blessed we are to attend Mueller, and what we as leaders can implement to improve the school culture.’ – Tim Wilson

‘It was encouraging to see how people grew more comfortable and confident throughout the day in speaking to each other and even answering questions in front of the entire group. During our own team’s debrief afterwards we all agreed that seeing the reaction of students from others schools to our facilities and venue gave our leadership team a newfound appreciation for our culture and the facilities we get to enjoy here at Mueller.’ – Mel Bryant

The atmosphere surrounding the day was warm, welcoming and really fun. We’re praying and believing that it’s going to grow even bigger and better in 2021.

Written by Tim Wilson (Male School Captain) and Mel Bryant (Female School Captain)