One of the highlights of my week is my Biblical Studies lessons with Year 11. This week we had some visitors from the Junior School to help us unpack our learning. Our senior students were commencing a series of lessons where they needed to step into a scenario of an advertising executive and design an ad with a call to action. To do this successfully, the team needed to identify the target market and then understand the worldview and position of this group. The concept that needed to be communicated to the target audience was “wisdom in leadership”. This is a complex and polarising idea and would take some real grappling to develop a position and communicate this simply and well in a 20 second video advertisement.

As this was a Biblical Studies lesson, the target market was Christian new graduates and Christian parents. We needed an expert to provide insight into this market and fortunately we have plenty of such experts on hand!

Rev. James Rogers was a willing expert and was interviewed by Alex and George Blair, two brothers currently in our Junior School. Alex is in Kindergarten and George is in Year 1.

Our two interviewers were confident and fantastic presenters. Their much older Senior School peers were quite simply entranced by their great work and it was wonderful to see the full range of our student community in action together. Some of the questions Rev Rogers answered in this interview included:

• What are your qualifications in Biblical knowledge?
• Outline your experience in understanding what Christians believe or think?
• What does the bible say about wisdom?
• What components should be considered in order to make a wise decision?
• What is the opposite of wisdom?
• Is it possible to be educated and foolish?
• Is a wise decision always right? Can a wise decision be a wrong decision?

At the conclusion of the interview George confidently provided some feedback to the Year 11 students as to how they had participated as an audience. He said that they did very well because they sat still and didn’t fidget and he also noted that they listened carefully and had their eyes on him and his brother the whole time they spoke. 

Isn’t it great to hear our youngest learners having such clarity around how to respect and engage with key speakers and to have this so beautifully reinforced by our Seniors!

This unit is one that focuses on leadership as our Year 11 students prepare for their year of formal School leadership and positions. We have considered the nature of leadership, various theories of leadership, the biblical position on leadership as well as the character of leadership. 

As we finish the unit we are working through the concept of wise leadership and also some of the challenges that are experienced when leading. I am delighted to share with our community that our next group of student leaders are full of potential and possibility.