Our Year 9 LEAP students (Queen's Leadership and Enhanced Academic Programme) had an inspirational day at Chester's Storyhouse as we celebrated a belated International Women's Day at the Storyhouse's Women Schools' Day (rescheduled from March due to snow).
The day involved talks from an exciting range of positive local female roles models, who shared their stories about their careers, their passions, their challenges and how they have overcome them. Keynote speaker was Samatha Dixon MBE, MP for the City of Chester. Samantha spoke about her childhood, family and education that led her to a career in politics. She shared stories about her work as a counsellor to shape our beautiful city, such as the Storyhouse and new market projects, and her current campaign to stop the legal dumping of sewage in the River Dee. Samatha Dixon was also able to answer questions from the audience - including questions from our students at Queen's - about her inspirations and passions, and tips for women trying to juggle a successful career with a family life.
The pupils took park in a workshop designed to improve their communication skills and boost their confidence in getting a message across. The session was delivered by Maggie Chen, co-founder of Girls in Charge – How to be a Better Communicator. It focussed on the importance of non-verbal communication and body language with fun activities to highlight how what you say is only part of the story when it comes to effective communication - how you say it and how you stand have a big impact too!
Finally, the day closed with a panel discussion featuring three local women who had interesting careers and stories to tell. Taya Hughes is the founder and CEO of Liverpool based fashion brands Seven Streets, Tayamika and Tayameco. Carly Skelly is a paediatric nurse who at the age of 29, after having her second child, started boxing and within 18 months was boxing for GB. And Abi Van-Loon who is one of the only around 8% of our countries firefighters who are female. All the role models had wonderful stories to tell about the resilience and determination it has taken for then to follow their dreams.
We really enjoyed this trip because we had the chance to hear from women in roles of power, in different professions and learn how they built up their career, with all the difficulties they faced. We also took part in a workshop based on communication, and were we learned different skills to improve the way we communicate. We played a few games that incorporated these skills which was fun.
Author....Likitha Pydah was one of the students who attended the trip.
Bella Wood added: ‘I enjoyed listening to the lives and stories of the panelists and how they have overcome the barriers and challenges in their careers.’
Thank you to the Storyhouse for a great day.
Find out more about LEAP here.