On Tuesday, Upper Prep students had a chance to visit the Margaret E. and Henry R. Roberts Center for Leadership, where they worked with upper school students and Upper School teacher and Director of the Leadership Center, Stacey Goss, doing interactive initiatives focused on communication.

This year, select students from the middle school have volunteered to be on the middle school leadership council, and as part of the work that they do, they are teaming up with Goss and upper school students for monthly workshops in the leadership center. Goss talked about the key components of communication, like active listening, being attentive, asking good questions, and working through conflicts effectively. Next, in small groups, she led them through a series of exercises on communication components such as active listening, being attentive, asking good questions, and working through conflicts effectively.

As a warm-up exercise, they had to line up by birthday without speaking. Using a series of hand gestures and holding up fingers for numbers, groups rushed to be the first ones to complete the task. The second exercise was more involved. Students had to pair up, sit back-to-back, and draw a picture. Next, they had to describe what they drew to their partner, and the other person had to replicate the drawing using only the cues given to them. Finally, they did a role play of conflict resolution where Goss would give them a scenario, and they had to take turns playing each side. The goal was to resolve the conflict by having them use body language and listening and talking skills. The prompts included things like, “You were picked to be the captain of your team, and now your good friend isn’t talking to you because he was hoping to be selected as captain,” and “a friend copied your work and got a better mark than you did.”

The group was incredibly engaged and committed to the exercises, giving a great deal of effort and thought to the initiatives. No doubt there are some rising leaders in the Kingswood Oxford Middle School!