Student councils come together

Young leaders from across the region united recently to share ideas about bringing change to their campuses.

The Pilbara Leadership Conference was held in Port Hedland last week, bringing together school councillors from far and wide to hear a range of motivational speeches before discussing their responsibilities as role models.

A notable guest at the seminar was John Coutis, an Australian man who was born with spina bifida.

His legs were amputated when he was 17 and he now travels around on a skateboard.

Mr Coutis made a big impression on attendees while sharing his condition and life stories, which included how he almost died in his first week at school when bullies tied him up, put him in a rubbish bin and set it on fire.

Other speakers at the conference included representatives of the Pilbara Ports Authority, Care for Hedland, BHP and the Town of Port Hedland.

Alongside the Port Hedland school groups were four students from South Newman Primary School, four from Roebourne District High School and 14 from Karratha Senior High School.

South Newman Primary School teacher Rebecca Armstrong drove her students the five hours to Port Hedland. .

“My student councillors put in an expression of interest and they had to write why they would like to come to the conference and what they would like to learn,” she said.

“So it’s quite a process for them to come along.”

“Our kids have already said we should do something similar to this in Newman — having people from our local community come and speak to us.”

The Pilbara Student Leadership Conference was organised as part of BHP’s Pilbara Education Partnership.