UNITED LEARNING | GSL CATALYST
Back in July 2016 Future Foundations launched the pilot programme of the Global Social Leaders Catalyst programme in partnership with the Wellington Leadership Institute and United Learning. This exciting programme is a condensed version of the World Summit, with attendees developing self-awareness, leadership skills and launching their own GSL Society to work on social action projects throughout the year within their school. Having celebrated a variety of societies at the Future Foundations Annual Awards, it was fantastic to work with United Learning again for a second year.
Thirty students from six nationwide United Learning academies arrived at Wellington college on July 10th 2017 ready for the intensive three-day leadership programme. These young people are from the leadership teams within their schools and in addition to empowering them to launch impactful projects in the new academic year, this project also acts as a celebration for all of their hard work so far. This programme was led by coach Alex , with Owen also coaching and operations led by Amy . We were also delighted to welcome two student ambassadors from Wellington College, Will and Finn , who assisted in the delivery of the project.
RATE THE PROGRAMME
100% of participants rated this programme as 5 out of 5.
97% of students feel more confident than they did at the beginning of the programme.
93% of students feel more inspired to achieve their full potential.
82% of students feel that they are now a better leader than at the start of the programme.
Each morning, students were invited to ‘kickstart’ sessions to start the day positively. An inspiring plenary would then be held to set the theme for the day before students commenced work in their coaching groups, allowing them to mix with other academies from across the UK and develop their own understanding of self-leadership. Whilst students attended these sessions, accompanying teachers attended their own leadership training held by the Wellington Leadership Institute, in order to continue to support their students beyond the programme.
The young people and teachers would re-convene throughout the programmes with particular highlights being the Future Foundations classic experiential leadership game ‘Toxic Dump,’ ‘The Big Debate’ evening and the ‘Microloan Pitches’ in which students select an entrepreneur in a developing country to represent before a judging panel, with the winning team awarded a contribution to financially back this entrepreneur. The three days culminated in returning to the school teams to work on their next social action project.
Highly innovative and beautifully inspiring; everything conducted is highly beneficial to everybody and clearly opens the eyes of young minds.
My confidence level has gone up from the amount of interactions with people that I have never met. This has also helped me increase my level of social skills in the process.
This experience was amazing and I hope to inspire others.
UNITED LEARNING | GSL CATALYST YEAR 2
GSL Catalyst for United Learning (Year 2)
We were thrilled to be invited to run the GSL Catalyst with United Learning again in July 2017. The Course Director was Alex Bustamante with Owen Bailey as coach and Amy Mander as the Operations Director who was supported by two volunteers from Wellington school Flynn and Will.
The programme took a similar format to the previous year of a 3 day residential hosted at Wellington College. For many students this was their first experience of being at boarding school.
30 students aged between 12-13 years old and 7 teachers came together from Seahaven Academy, Walthamstow Academy, Regis School, The Totteridge Academy and Northampton Academy. The teachers had their own programme with workshops being delivered by the Wellington Leadership Institute. The focus for the teachers was for them to develop an understanding of the training and teaching mechanisms and conversations needed to encourage young people and action within school.
