GDST Diploma Graduates Celebrate Success at The Shard
By Ms Adam, Enterprise Co-ordinator
Last Friday, our GDST Diploma Alumnae attended their graduation lunch at London’s iconic Shard. The event was an opportunity to celebrate our students’ high flying success, hard work, and dedication to the diploma. The lunch brought together everyone involved in the programme, including the University of Buckingham and Henley Business School.
After a whole host of speeches, filled with congratulations and advice for the future, each graduate was called forward to receive their diploma by Cheryl Giovannoni, CEO of the Girls’ Day School Trust, and Amanda Parker Jones from the University of Buckingham.
The graduation ceremony ended with a networking event where graduates mingled and shared their experience of the diploma.
The purpose of the GDST Diploma course is for students to develop knowledge and skills which will enable them to engage successfully with leadership and management roles which they encounter in school and beyond.
The course is divided into three co-equal strands:
The Leadership Strand – Students will learn about some of the theoretical and practical aspects of leadership practices, understanding a number of different models of successful leadership. They will develop heightened awareness and self-awareness and use this to develop their own leadership practices at school and beyond.
The Business Strand – Students will develop their knowledge of business management basics. Some of the content of this course will draw on Business Studies GCSE and A Level courses and there will therefore be some overlap with these specifications.
The Enterprise Strand – students apply the key theoretical concepts learnt in the course to a real business through an Enterprise Challenge in partnership with an entrepreneur.
To allow students to develop their autonomy, the course is taught on a blended learning basis. They have one hour in a classroom with a teacher who leads the discussion, and one hour of self-guided learning where students can explore our innovative set of interactive resources.
