Callum Hunter
Galashiels Academy
On the 25th of March 2011, eight pupils from Galashiels Academy
set off in our minibus to Edinburgh University for the Lead 2014
conference. We were all really excited and a little apprehensive
about representing our school at such a big event. Our group was
made up of S3 and S4 pupils, two girls and six boys, and we all
agreed it was an amazing day. From start to finish we were mentored
and focused on “leadership” and “responsibility”. I personally
loved meeting the other representatives and felt proud to be a part
of Glasgow 2014.
When we arrived back at school we gathered for a meeting to
discuss our future plan for our festival. After a lot of decision
making we unanimously decided on an S2 rugby festival. We met every
two weeks thereafter to work on our plans. There was a lot of work
to do, we each had a main responsibility to report on at our
meetings namely; invitations to teams, special guests, catering,
sponsorship, advertising, tournament, pitch planning, car parking,
programmes and media. We were a very committed group because we
wanted the tournament to be a big success. We also became really
good as we relied on each other a lot and worked really well as a
team.
Out tournament was held on Friday 16th September and
unfortunately the one thing we could not organise was the weather!
All the teams really enjoyed themselves and the rugby was a very
high standard. Our assembly hall looked fabulous when decorated
with Lead 2014 bunting and posters and was a great venue for
shelter and catering throughout the day. A total of 16 schools
participated and came from Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Scottish
Borders, to compete in the festival. Mr McKay our Head teacher
presented the new trophy to Galashiels Academy which gave us a lot
of pleasure. All the visiting teams seemed to really enjoy their
day and gave us great feedback, for example Mr Bertram from Pebbles
HS said: “For such a big tournament and so many teams entered it
was very well organised and ran so smoothly.”
We have all gained so much confidence and great leadership
skills from organising our event and now realise what a lot of work
goes into planning an event. Mrs Rome our Active Schools
coordinator helped us throughout the organisation of this and
trusted us with our duties meaning we really took on the
responsibility and it made it extremely rewarding for us all.