Learnin g to Lead:

Educating and Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders

Empowering children to have confidence in their own gifts is one of the key strengths of the faculty at Holy Child School at Rosemont. Our educators use experiences in and beyond the classroom to provide students with opportunities to perform, act, serve, and lead, guiding them to try new things and discover their talents. By doing so, they support our children as they learn about themselves in an environment that is “based on trust and reverence for the dignity and uniqueness of each person,” as our Holy Child Goal 5 states.

Growth in confidence, knowledge, and understanding of their own gifts contributes to the way our children develop as leaders. At every age, Holy Child students are provided with opportunities to learn and practice what it means to be a leader. Collaborating over service-learning projects, playing and sharing on the playground, and expressing one’s self through creativity and art are experiences that students across all three of our divisions participate in; while the opportunities are differentiated by age and skill level, these experiences are central to the holistic education that we prioritize in our curriculum. Beyond the traditional learning accomplished through reading, writing, research, and problem-solving, our children are practicing the soft skills that are essential to developing leaders: communication, collaboration, public speaking, and teamwork.

Developing Leaders in the Early Years

Throughout the year, Early Childhood and Lower School performances and prayer services incorporate speaking parts for children, such as sharing a welcome with the families in attendance, leading prayers and songs, or explaining the instruments they are using. Public speaking in front of a crowd, coupled with the responsibility of knowing one’s lines and cues to speak or sing, are growth opportunities for our budding leaders. In the classroom, Early Childhood and Lower School students are assigned duties that empower them to act as leaders, such as serving as a line leader or door holder. These classroom roles teach children responsibility — knowing when and how to perform their duty and taking ownership over it — and give them practice leading by example for their peers, which is important for leaders of any age.

Acting as Leaders and Role Models

Lower School and Middle School introduce new opportunities for our children to act as leaders. When students cross the bridge from Kindergarten to Grade 1, they are welcomed into the Buddy Program, where they are paired with Grade 5 Buddies. First graders look up to their Buddies as role models and leaders during prayer services and Masses; at the same time, Grade 5 marks the start of being the older Buddy in a pair. Our fifth graders are challenged to be leaders, especially in front of their younger Buddies, and they grow to understand the influence that they have. In addition to the Buddy Program, our Lower School and Middle School students have the chance to participate in Student Council, which invites them to serve as student body leaders and representatives in a multitude of ways: Student Council class representatives and co-presidents lead the charge on service-learning projects, such as our annual Service Day and Thanksgiving food drive; they speak at select assemblies, prayer services, and Masses; and they organize spirit days and special events to bring students together, including an all-school “Pajama Day” and a Middle School movie night hosted in the cafeteria. The Middle School Student Council representatives are also given unique opportunities to lead by welcoming and meeting with guests of the school, including alumni and visitors from the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and the Holy Child Network of Schools. In these moments, they speak confidently and with poise to groups of adults, oftentimes people they have just met, representing our school and student body well.

–Student from the Class of

Unique to the Middle School experience at Holy Child are the opportunities to participate in our three-season, no-cut athletics program and our Spring Play. While calling upon students to utilize different talents and gifts, both cocurricular programs present new experiences to our Middle School students who are developing as leaders. As team members or cast members, children make commitments to a greater group of people, which often means making individual sacrifices, such as dedicating free time to practice so that the larger production is better and stronger in the end. In challenging moments, such as missing a free throw or forgetting a line, teammates and castmates show up for one another, offering kindness and encouragement to try again. Even without the title of “captain” or a lead role in the play, our children act as leaders in moments when they boost team morale, lend a helping hand or a listening ear, and treat everyone in the group with respect and kindness, ultimately living out the motto of our founder, Cornelia Connelly, “Actions, Not Words.”