Sixth form students from Sydenham High School GDST have been crowned winners at the seventh annual Girls’ Day School Trust Young Leaders’ Conference after they were inspired and put through their paces by leaders from all walks of life at an ‘Apprentice-style’ charity challenge, designed to help this new generation of leaders prepare for their futures.

The three-day event, from 29 September – 1 October 2017, aimed to give students experience of real-life situations and develop crucial leadership skills, from negotiation to financial planning.

The 140 delegates, from across the GDST, were split into teams and given less than 36 hours to create a digital fundraising and awareness campaign for one of four charities:  Hope and Homes for Children; mothers2mothers; Room to Read and Rwandan Youth Information Community Organisation (RYICO). In previous years, ideas proposed by students have inspired award-winning charity initiatives.

The overall winning team, who came up with a highly creative and deliverable campaign for international literacy charity Room to Read, included Sydenham High sixth former Amelia Bourne.  Amelia is one of the school’s two marketing prefects and a Head of House.  A second Sydenham High sixth former and Head of House, Itoro Udoaka, was a member of the runner-up team, which created a campaign to promote a social enterprise programme run by Rwandan charity rYico supporting vulnerable and abused girls and women.

Prior to the challenge, Team GB Olympic hockey gold medal winner and former team captain Kate Richardson-Walsh was among those on hand to inspire students. Along with other leadership role models, including Chartered Management Institute (CMI) CEO Ann Francke, Kate spoke with students and offered her top tips on leading successful teams. British Army officers then led a series of team-building exercises.