Message from the Principal

‘Can a pack of wolves really change the course of rivers?’

I had the opportunity over the past week to speak to nearly all our students at year level assemblies. At the assemblies, I took the opportunity to show a nature video on wolves that I first experienced at CWBS during the Year 4 Adaptation Inquiry Unit Showcase a few months ago. Even though the video was about the impact of the reintroduction of wolves as apex predators, I challenged our students to draw analogies between this process and that of leadership. It is a short and fascinating four-minute video which highlights how, in complex systems like nature, small acts of ‘leadership’ can have ‘cascading’ impacts throughout the whole system. This is the link to the film – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

After we watched the video, students had to opportunity to discuss the concepts and to identify what messages came through this video about leadership. This was quite an interesting task for students to find analogies between nature and student leadership.

I highlighted the following points to our students regarding what I thought we could draw from what occurred in Yellowstone National Park:

• Having a position of leadership is such a privilege, because of the powerful effect it can have
• Leadership in complex systems like natural ecosystems or schools is especially powerful, as small changes or actions can sometimes have a dramatic influence.
• A small number of leaders can have a huge influence as ‘even though few in numbers, the wolves had the most remarkable impact’
• Leadership is about actions and our own behaviours. Our actions as leaders can have a big effect on others and we may not even know at all
• Most of the time, the most powerful part of leadership is providing space and ‘protection’ for others to lead and grow
• Leadership is often about many small things that you do that can eventually add up to something huge, like ‘changing the course of rivers’
• Finally and probably most important, leadership is not about title or position. We can all be leaders, and it is our everyday actions that have the most profound impact. As the well-known saying goes, ‘how we live each day, is how we live our lives’ and our everyday actions define who we are in our classroom, playground, workplace and family

So the video also made me reflect on my role as Principal at KGV School. It is a privilege and honour to be part of a professional team of teachers and support staff, and a pleasure to interact every day, with our most remarkable, talented and hardworking group of students.

Kind regards

Mark Blackshaw
Principal
King George V