The number of soldiers making up Roman centuria or "century" was, as the name implies, one hundred or thereabouts, and so, the number of learners from Inanda and Ekuthuleni Primary Schools was “thereabouts” with 90 Grade 7s attending the Leadership Day Camp held on the fields of Northwood School.
Two millennia ago, the commanding officer would have been a centurion. On the day run by leadership development training company, Edge Schools, the aim was not to develop top-down but peer-to-peer leadership. Edge’s Lutho Ngebeza described how the day designed to develop is ability to guide, inspire and motivate a group towards a common goal through collaboration and accountability. “We focused on communication, conflict resolution, team work and public speaking.” Time was also spent discussing how to deal with bullying.
The event had been facilitated by The Domino Foundation’s Life Skills programme which partners with the two schools and whose youth workers will come alongside the learners in the projects they were encouraged to start using the new tools they had learnt once they were back on home turf.
Domino’s Thobile Msani thanked Northwood School for the loan of their fields and for providing lunch for the facilitators and Bluff Meat Supply for the learners’ hot dogs. “Every time we facilitate a leadership day, we see all the parties coming together to provide something to impact the learners. Again, it was a great success and we would really like to take it to the next level in future with weekend leadership camps rather than just one day. It would also make sense to hold it at the start of the year so that the skills the children have learnt can be used through the whole of their final primary school year.”
