WESTVILLE High School’s headmaster, Trevor Hall, was honoured to be chosen to deliver the final keynote address at the World Leading School’s Association (WLSA) conference at Yale University recently.
Hall said the main focus of his address was for schools to look outside themselves and influence the quality of education. He said he experienced feelings of trepidation, knowing that the principals of schools such as Eton College in the UK, Winchester and Harvard-Westlake, Groton School in the US and Beijing No4 School in China would be in the audience.
“The thought had crossed my mind about what I could possibly say to the world’s iconic schools about what it takes to be a leading school. However, after the address, I received much feedback from leaders of those schools who said they had found relevance from our experience as a school in the context of constant change. Some of them said their old prefect leadership model, based on control and a power differential, was no longer working for them in the 21st century, and they were grappling with strategies to infuse a positive influence leadership model into their schools,” said Hall.
In order to join WLSA, an invitation has to be extended by the WLSA Council to attend their conferences. WLSA invited WBHS to their conference in 2008 and explained that they had chosen WBHS because they did not have a representative from Africa, and they saw WBHS as a school which delivered on its promise of holistic all-round education in developing the whole person.
Their definition of ‘leading’ is not in the sense of reputation. Rather in the sense of ‘leading others’. WLSA strived to promote the development of the whole person because a number of leading academic schools might well fall short on developing the people skills needed for success in the new global world.
WLSA limits their membership to 50 schools from the West and 50 from the East. This is so that the East and West can learn from each other.
“After attending the conferences in 2009 and 2011, WLSA asked us to apply for formal membership. We had to meet a series of tough criteria and we had to make a submission on several key points. We succeeded in our submission and WBHS was admitted as a member last year,” added Hall.
