Success for Frome student at Rotary Club Youth Leaders Award

The Rotary Club Youth Leaders Award 2015 was held on 14th – 20th February at Dartmoor Training Centre.

Five Frome College students were selected for interview at the school by a panel of Rotary Club members and Liam Couch (12 SWP) was successful as they judged he had proved the ‘most capacity to improve’.  It was all quite daunting and Liam had to wait two weeks before finding out he had been selected.

Along with 22 students from other Somerset schools Liam arrived to spend a week in deepest Devon at Dartmoor Training Centre.  So, on Valentines’ Day Liam was on the moors in fabulous weather, cold but lovely with the prospect of camping in -4!

After arriving and meeting the other students it was straight into the first activity – Rollerball which consisted of two teams forging pathways across the moors.

The week was packed with activities including abseiling, rafting, and lots of team working with motivational tasks such as public speaking and presentation skills.  All run by an inspirational facilitator, Jack Russell, author of ‘Don’t tell the Bumble Bee’. Liam said he found him really engaging.

Although lots of exercises required team working by the end of the week they all came together as a whole group.

On the penultimate day all students had to nominate each other for a category and Liam was voted ‘most sociable’, to which Liam commented ‘the irony!’

The final day was spent giving individual presentations on ‘self-belief and how to develop’ to members of the Rotary Club and parents.  Jack Russell said that Liam’s was the best presentation he had seen for a long time.

To round off the week Liam says he has made lots of new friends and loads of FB sharing!

By Lindsay O’Connell

Post 16 Office Manager