Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Leadership isn’t solo

25 minutes

Find Out: Leadership in action

15 minutes

Take Action: Leading the school together

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

understand that strong leadership and influence happen through teamwork, not just individual effort
explore the behaviours that make effective leadership in teams or group settings.

Success criteria

Students can:

explain and practise how shared responsibility and leadership behaviours contribute to a team’s success
identify and reflect on what strengths and influences they bring to leading their school as a team.

Tune In: Leadership isn’t solo

Step 1

Introduce the idea that many things we see every day are created by teams. Ask students the question: How many people do you think it takes to make a movie?

Take a few responses before showing them the video clip from KPop Demon Hunters End Credits (youtube.com/watch?v=nk0DIQJOiOA). As students watch, encourage them to keep count of the number of names they see.

Explain that making a movie often takes hundreds of people working in different roles, before highlighting the following ideas:

Big outcomes usually require teamwork.
Everyone contributes in different ways based on their personal strengths.
Success often depends on how people work together.

Step 2

Explain to students that today they will explore leadership in teams and how people work together to achieve shared goals, just as they do when creating a movie.

Facilitate a class brainstorm based on the question: What makes a team work well?

Give students some quiet time to think, then invite them to share their ideas. Record responses on the board as they are offered.

If students need support generating ideas, prompt with questions such as:

What helps people work well together in a group?
What makes you feel comfortable or supported in a team?
What do good teammates say or do?
What makes teamwork harder or more frustrating?

Once a range of ideas has been collected, work with the class to sort them into 2 columns:

Helps a team succeed
Hurts a team’s success

Guide students to identify key themes, such as

communication (clear, respectful, inclusive)
listening (valuing others’ ideas)
respect (how we treat each other)
shared responsibility (everyone contributes)
flexibility (adapting to changes).

Draw attention to any contrasting ideas (e.g. interrupting vs. listening, excluding vs. including) to deepen understanding.

Step 3

Revisit the ideas generated for ‘helps a team succeed’ in Step 2, and explain that these are the ingredients of strong teamwork.

Guide a short discussion using questions such as:

What do you notice about the ideas in the ‘helps a team succeed’ column?
Are these things that only 1 person does, or should they be shared?
What happens to a team when only 1 person takes responsibility?
When have you seen leadership shared in a group? What did that look like?

As students share, begin to draw connections between their responses and the idea of shared leadership.

Explain that in teams, leadership doesn’t sit with just 1 person. It moves between people depending on the situation, the task and the strengths each person brings. For example

1 person might step forward to organise ideas
another might support by listening and encouraging
someone else might help the team adapt when something changes.

Emphasise the key message: The strongest leadership and the greatest influence don’t come from 1 person doing everything. They happen when people work together, support each other and share responsibility as a team.

Find Out: Leadership in action

Step 1

Explain to students that they will take part in a team challenge in which they must work together to achieve a shared goal.

Point out that the focus is not just on what they build, but how they work together as a team.

Divide students into small groups of 3–4 and provide each group with the following materials:

8 sheets of A4 paper
1 metre of masking tape
1 pair of scissors.

Set the challenge: build a bridge that can span a 30 cm gap (between 2 desks or surfaces) and hold the weight of a book for at least 10 seconds.

Clearly explain the expectations:

All group members must be involved.
The bridge must be free-standing (not held up by hands).
Each team will have 10 minutes to build.
There is no talking to other groups.

Before beginning the challenge, ask: What will help your team work well together during this challenge?

Allow a few quick responses to activate prior thinking from the Tune In section of the lesson

Step 2

Invite students to begin the challenge.

Allow groups to work for approximately 5 minutes, then introduce a change. Choose 1 or more of the following new rules based on how the groups are working. Select the rule/s that will most challenge their current approach.

New rule options:

Teams can no longer use scissors.
Only 1 person in the group can touch the materials at a time.
No talking is allowed for the remainder of the challenge.
One team member must keep their hands behind their back.
One team member becomes an ‘observer’ and cannot physically help.
Teams must rebuild part of their structure using only folded paper (no tape for that section).
Teams have 2 minutes less than originally planned to finish.

Allow students to continue working for the remainder of the time. As they complete the challenge, observe group dynamics, noting examples of collaboration, problem-solving and adaptability to reference during the activity debrief.

Step 3

At the end of the building time, test each bridge by placing a book on top for 10 seconds. Celebrate all efforts, regardless of outcome.

Bring the class together in a group circle for a structured reflection. Use the following prompts:

What helped your team work well together?
What challenges did your team face?

Which teams were successful? What do you think helped?
How did your team respond when the rules changed?
What did people in your group do that helped the team move forward?

Then, guide students to reflect specifically on leadership within their teams, drawing on their experience and observations throughout the activity. Ask targeted questions such as:

Did 1 person lead the whole time, or did leadership change?
When did someone step forward to guide the group?
When did someone support by listening, encouraging or helping?

As students respond, draw out key insights that emphasise that, in team situations, leadership often shifts among people depending on what is needed in the moment.

Reiterate the message that has been repeated throughout this lesson: Strong teams don’t rely on 1 leader. They share leadership by collaborating, listening, adapting and taking responsibility together.

Step 4

Explain to students that effective leaders know how to adjust their role depending on the situation.

Introduce 3 ways people can lead in a team:

Lead from the front: guiding, directing or helping the group get started.
Lead from the side: working alongside others, contributing ideas and supporting decisions.
Lead from behind: encouraging, including others and helping the group stay motivated.

Provide clear, real-life examples of each leadership style:

Leading from the front might look like someone clearly guiding others or taking responsibility for direction.

For example

a school captain speaking at assembly
a basketball coach explaining drills at training
a student saying, ‘Let’s start with this idea’ during group work.

Leading from the side might look like working alongside others, supporting and problem-solving together.
For example
- a teammate helping adjust a strategy on game day
- a student checking in at lunch and making sure everyone is included
- someone in a group saying, ‘What if we try it this way?’ while building or working together.

Leading from behind might look like encouraging others, building confidence and helping others step forward.
For example
- a coach encouraging the team captain to lead or call the play
- a student saying, ‘That’s a great idea, you should share it’
- someone supporting a quieter classmate to contribute to the group.

To embed understanding of these leadership positions, ask students to reflect:

When did you use 1 of these leadership styles during the bridge-building challenge?
Which style felt most natural to you?
When might each type of leadership be helpful?

Facilitate a short discussion to highlight that different situations require different types of leadership and strong teams benefit from people being able to move between these roles.

Step 5

Explain to students that they are going to take part in a short activity to practise recognising different ways of leading in team situations.

Ask students to stand in a circle, leaving enough space to take a small step forward or backward.

Explain how the activity will work:

Students will hear a short scenario read aloud.
They will then choose how they would lead in that situation by
- stepping forward (lead from the front)
- staying where they are (lead from the side)
- stepping back (lead from behind).

Remind students before the activity begins that there is no single ‘right’ answer. Different people may respond in different ways, and that’s okay. What matters is thinking about why a choice is made and how it would support the team.

Read aloud each of the following scenarios, pausing for students to respond with movement (stepping forward or back, or staying where they are):

Your group is stuck, and no one knows what to do next.
Two people in your group disagree about which idea to use.
One person in your group hasn’t had a chance to speak yet.
Your team has a good idea, but isn’t sure how to get started.
A teammate is feeling frustrated and wants to give up.
Your group is working well, but 1 person is doing most of the work.
The teacher gives new instructions, and your group is confused.
Someone in your group has a great idea, but is too nervous to share it.
Your team is running out of time and hasn’t finished the task.
Everyone is talking at once, and no one is listening.

Ask students to take a seat before summarising the activity with the key message: effective leaders don’t lead in the same way all the time. They notice what their team needs and adjust how they show up, sometimes stepping forward to guide, sometimes working alongside others, and sometimes stepping back to help others grow.

Learning extension: Invite students to extend their thinking by observing and reflecting on the different responses during the activity. After each scenario (or after several scenarios), encourage students to look around the circle and notice where others have positioned themselves. Prompt students to consider what they observed, why different people may have made different choices, and how each response could support the team.

Take Action: Leading the school together

Step 1

Explain that students are now going to think about their role as current and future leaders of the school.

Remind students that next year, they will be the oldest students in the school. This means others will look to them as the school's leaders. Emphasise that this won’t be because of a title, but because of how they act, how they treat people and how they work together.

Highlight that leadership doesn’t start in Year 6. It starts now, through choices made every day.

Ask students to think-pair-share, reflecting on the following questions:

What kind of leaders do you want to be next year?
How do you want younger students to experience you?

Invite pairs to share their responses with the class and list key words or phrases used on the board (e.g. kind, fair, supportive, confident, inclusive).

Step 2

Explain that strong leadership in a school community is not about 1 person leading; it is about how a group leads together.

Connect this idea back to what has been taught throughout the lesson:

leadership is shared
leadership can shift
everyone plays a role in influencing others.

As a class, identify 3 shared leadership behaviours that students want to model as they move into Year 6.

Guide students with prompts such as:

How do we want to communicate with others?
How do we include and support younger students?
What do we do when things don’t go to plan?

As students share, support them to move from general ideas to clear, actionable behaviours. For example, students might suggest:

Be kind: ‘We will speak respectfully and use encouraging language.’
Help others: ‘We will check in on younger students and include them in games.’
Don’t get angry: ‘We will stay calm and problem-solve when things go wrong.’

Record and refine responses into 3 agreed class statements.

Learning extension: Invite students to extend their thinking by creating a piece to share with the wider school community. Students can choose to write a short article for the school newsletter or create a comic strip or cartoon that shows what strong leadership looks like in action. Their piece should respond to questions, such as what strong leadership looks like in the school, or how Year 5 students will lead as a team next year. Encourage students to include specific examples of leadership behaviours, messages or advice for younger students, and ways everyone can contribute to a positive and inclusive school community.

Step 3

Outline to students that they are now going to bring together everything they have explored in the lesson to create a shared approach to leadership.

Remind students that during the team challenge, leadership looked different at different moments. At times, individuals stepped forward to guide, worked alongside others, or supported from behind. Communication, listening and adapting all contributed to how successfully teams worked together.

Explain that students will now use these ideas to create a ‘Team Leadership Agreement’ that describes how they will lead together as a cohort.

Divide students into small groups and provide each group with a copy of the Student Worksheet.

Explain that their agreement should include

how they communicate
how they solve problems
how they support others (especially younger students).

Encourage students to

be specific (e.g. ‘We will listen to everyone’s ideas before deciding.’)
think about real situations in the school (classroom, playground, events).

Once complete, invite each group to share 1–2 key ideas from their agreement with the class.

As groups share, highlight connections between responses and reinforce the key message: strong leadership is shared. It happens when people work together, adapt to different situations and support each other to succeed.

Reflection

Recap the message that leadership is not something we wait for; it is something we practise every day.

Ask students to reflect on their learning from today’s lesson and their role as future leaders of the school. Provide the following prompt: One way I will start being this kind of leader now is…

Encourage students to consider a specific, achievable action they can take this week.

Guide students to reflect more deeply using these prompts:

What kind of leader do I want to be in Year 6?
How do I want others to experience me as a leader?

Allow students time to think and/or write independently.

Invite students to share their responses with a partner before whole-group sharing.

The Power of Team

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions

Success criteria

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills Required

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Information

Related Professional Learning

In this lesson

The Power of Team

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions

Success criteria

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills Required

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Information

Related Professional Learning

In this lesson