‘Girl Leading’ Residential
On Friday 21st April Ms Powell and three Year 9 girls: Kacey Thurbon, Kiya Thomas and Trew-Blue Whayling-Green left Tower Hamlets to spend the weekend in the tiny village of Kilve, Somerset. It was an early start with a six-hour coach journey but in aid of a very special occasion. Mulberry School for Girls had invited us to their first residential called ‘Girl Leading’, a leadership development weekend focused on improving the skills of individuals taking part. This was part of the ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative that Michelle Obama launched at Mulberry School in 2015, so we were very excited to be taking part. The weekend was also to increase the student’s knowledge on current issues surrounding the lack of education for so many young girls around the world.
Friday afternoon started with a Panel where the girls listened to inspirational women from different industries talk about how they got to the place in their current careers today and the challenges and barriers they faced on their journey. Before dinner the girls were involved in a number of team building activities - all three of our girls were brilliant and instantly made friends with the other students, working together as a team to complete all of the challenges set for them in the amount of time allowed. Dinner followed and we were all very happy that the pudding was chocolate cake with chocolate sauce!
On Saturday morning, the girls took part in Workshops focused on improving self-esteem and spent time working with a voice coach to improve their public speaking skills. The afternoon included a series of Workshops where individually the girls learnt new skills from experienced and inspirational women.
The weekend came to an end on Sunday morning when our three young ladies started to plan a campaign of their own focused on raising awareness of the ‘Let Girls Learn’ campaign and the challenges girls face in relation to gaining an education. Look out for further events and information over the coming months.
Ms Powell
Working Together – The Bow Way
