Raising leaders at Breifne College
- Marc Chander -
Breifne College has led the way in successfully raising a flag for leadership.
The Cavan Town school is the first 2023/24 recipient of the LIFT Flag and joins 24 other schools around Ireland. Breifne College was awarded the flag in recognition of its commitment to developing leaders among the school community.
LIFT stands for ‘Leading Ireland’s Future Together' and the programme supports students to develop their leadership values on an ongoing basis. Breifne College has brought LIFT to over 900 students in the school.
Sarah-Lyn McKenna of LIFT Ireland noted that Breifne College had worked hard to create a culture of values-based leadership in the school. She presented the flag and LIFT Leadership statement to principal Breege Reilly and Alma Hitillambeau, along with student leaders from first year right through to sixth year.
Principal Breege Reilly reminded students of the importance of one small action at a time and that "extraordinary things are achieved by doing ordinary things with extraordinary consistency".
Speaking to the celt, Alma Hitillambeau, supervisor, said she was proud of the school's and student's achievements in this area.
"It is embedding leadership qualities in the school and, for the students, we’re all leaders, everyone is a leader, it is making the students more self-aware that they are leaders.”
The core values of the LIFT programme include listening, a positive attitude, honesty, resilience, empathy, respect, accountability, dedication, and understanding.
Making students more aware and what it means to listen, Ms Hitillambeau explained: “We can listen to reply, but we need to listen to understand.”
On the student involvement, the teacher said: “The prefects did a great job, I’m really proud of them seeing them grow. Even those who might be nervous about presenting, who grew with the programme, was extraordinary. It was great to see sixth years working with all the other years to facilitate the programme."
Students also received their LIFT facilitators certificates, a wonderful achievement allowing them to pass on their knowledge and growth in leadership to other people. The skills learned are transferable in further education or to the workplace.
When asked what the goals of the school going forward, Ms Hitillambeau said: “We want to continue to embed these core values going forward into our school, to make it more democratic and student-centred. Going forward, around September, when new students come in, we will run the programme again and with other classes doing different themes, like accountability for the older classes for example, running it on a yearly basis definitely, small little things throughout the day to promote these core values.”
Joanne Hession of LIFT Ireland explained: “We believe in the immense potential that lies within every individual, regardless of where they come from or what their background might be. We believe that everyone deserves to have the opportunity to reach that potential and discover their agency, power and purpose. The vision of LIFT’s youth programme is to build a better Ireland, one young person at a time.”