Dorset Leadership Academy 2025
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At the end of the Autumn term we were lucky enough to be invited to the Dorset Leadership Academy with 14 students. The purpose of the day was to introduce leadership opportunities to some of our younger pupils but to also enhance the work that some of our older leaders have undertaken in previous years. As a result we took a selection of yr 8/9 and Yr 11 students to take part, with Yr 8 looking at basic leadership skills through a young leaders programme, Yr 9 focussing on the silver leadership academy and our Yr 11 taking part in the Young Coach Academy. We also took a mixture of yr 8/9 girls to undertake some football leadership training to enable them to help deliver football extra curricular activities to younger students.
Throughout the day our students undertook a range of activities and were lucky enough to work alongside numerous athletes and outstanding coaches in their own field including Lizzie Yarnold, Liz Roberts, James Hind and Rob Belbin.
One of the main highlights of the day was two of our own students being asked to open the conference to all the secondary schools in the area where they would be presenting to approx. 600 students, athletes, deliverers and Youth sports trust employees.
The guest of honour to the event was Lizzie Yarnold, a double Winter Olympic Gold Medalist for the Skeleton Bob. She was an absolute inspiration and her journey throughout her career is commendable. Starting out being selected for the Skeleton Bob through a talent scheme where the athlete was matched to a sport, the girsl4gold programme in 2008. She won her first Olympic medal in 2014 and retained this in 2018.
Both Alice Warren and Trina Ndzeshu did a tremendous job opening the conference and introducing Lizzie to the stage. A very proud moment for The Purbeck School. Well done ladies.