Robert Wilson
Scottish Borders – Galashiels Academy
Having been selected at the start of fifth year to take part in
the Lead 2014 programme, as the least sporting on our team I was a
little apprehensive but also excited to get underway and was
looking forward to learning new things.
First came the conference in Edinburgh: Myself and the rest of
the team got a bus up to Edinburgh University where an informative
but fun day awaited us! Upon arrival we were escorted to a large
hall with all the other students from other Scottish schools and
split in to teams. These teams were then taken to different areas
and the days lessons began, taught by PE students at the University
not much older than ourselves. We learnt many leadership qualities:
motivation, discipline, safety, team working and of course we
worked on our organisational skills, which as with all teenagers
was well needed!
It was a great experience, not only from the learning point of
view, but also as it gave us a chance to meet with new people our
age and also helped us get an idea for university life by bonding
with the student tutors. Even as the least sporty person on our
team, I had no problem with the days challenges and it was clear
that physical attributes were not going to be an issue in leading
sporting events.
A few days after returning to school the team got together to
discuss what we had learned from the trip, how we could apply what
we had learned to our own event and all the other details that
would need to be planned and organised for our event to be held.
The meeting was productive and we decided that we were going to
host a rugby 7’s tournament for second year teams for schools
across the borders and also select schools from Edinburgh and even
Glasgow regions as we were able to access our teacher’s contacts.
The event would also double as a celebration of our school’s 150th
anniversary.
A few months later the event went ahead, all the promotional
work, and event organising complete. Aside from a few teams turning
up a little late everything went perfectly to plan, despite
continuous torrential rain through the majority of the event. It
went so well that while I wasn’t keeping the league board up to
date, I had the time to get teas and coffees for our guests,
including two members of the Scotland Rugby 7s squad.
The whole experience was truly heartening and it was incredibly
satisfying to see our event growing in to a reality with our hard
work. I even got the honour of presenting our own second year team
with the cup as they defeated the competition in a great final.