The Thames Valley Learning Partnership’s (TVLP) annual event programme started on Thursday 3 October with a very successful student leadership conference at St Mary’s School, Ascot.
This year TVLP chose the charity Together as One to deliver a day of engaging and inspiring workshops across multiple school groups of young student leaders. Together As One is a youth lead charity, bringing communities together as one through training, youth work and creative projects. All 11 schools in the TVLP took part this year, making the event a great start to the events programme.
The 11 schools that make up the TVLP are: St Mary’s School, Ascot, Windsor Girls’ School, Herschel Grammar School, St Joseph’s Catholic High School, Beechwood School, The Langley Academy, Holyport College, The Windsor Boys’ School, Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy and Eton College.
Sunita Shroff, TV presenter, actress, events producer, and property expert, opened the event with a brilliant keynote speech on the importance of strong and compassionate leadership. Together As One then began their delivery of workshops covering leadership skills and the qualities need to become a successful leader.
The students were then split into groups to allow for networking and relationship building. After lunch, the workshops were geared towards preparing the students for the Dragons’ Den. The task was to find a charity, develop a fund-raising idea and persuade the Dragons to award your team with £100.00 to get projects started.
The Dragons were:
- Stephen Helal, Chair of the Maidenhead Book Festival
- Nick Higham, Schools Programme Coordinaor at Hopefull
- Liz Jenkins, Director of Liz Jenkins Education
- Jackie Bryans, PR and Development Manager at Theatre Royal, Windsor
- Alexander Barfield, High Sheriff of Berkshire
- Dean Soden, Director of the Loading Bay Café and Artistic Director of 4 motion CIC.
Together they heard 15 pitches from 116 students!
The winners were:
Team Dragon who plan to raise funds for the Elizabeth Fry Charity who offer support to women on leaving prison.
Save Scheme: who plan to raise funds for Stand Against Violence who support victims of knife crime and domestic abuse.
Both teams were made up of students from different schools. They will be working together to take their ideas forward with the £100.00 prize money. Many thanks to all those involved in making the day a success and congratulations to Team Dragon and Save Scheme!
