GAME PLAN FOR SCHOOL GREATNESS
TIME: 3-5 hours
AUDIENCE: Student Leaders (primary & high school)
DELIVERY MODE: Virtually via Zoom
OVERVIEW
Winston Churchill once said: “Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
Leadership begins in the midst of challenges. In light of COVID-19 disruption, restrictions, fear and uncertainty, it’s more important than ever for student leaders to rise up in this century defining epoch and become light-bearers in a world marred by darkness. Student leaders, above all, have the greatest power and influence to promote mental wellness and create cultural change within a school environment, and the world around them.
Engaging, interactive and impactful, the Game Plan for School Greatness three part student leadership program – delivered over 3-5 hours – will empower, inspire and equip student leaders to become drivers of student wellbeing initiatives to create a thriving school community.
1) AWARENESS – Discovering the 5 stepping stones and 10 qualities to rise up, let their light shine and become a remarkable leader, the 5 stumbling blocks of leadership, and practical strategies to effectively lead without a title.
- Key Focus: Self-leadership, self-awareness, influence, leading others, inspiration, resilience, community, and empowerment.
2) ALIGNMENT – Designing their own ‘leadership’ group vision connected to creating a thriving school community (e.g mental health, reduce bullying, positive peer relations, engagement, collaboration) through teamwork – leaving confident, optimistic and driven by purpose.
- Key Focus: Leading others, vision, positive engagement, teamwork, critical thinking
3) ACTION PLAN – Developing strategies and an implementation plan to turn the vision into reality – leaving with the clarity, practical tips and inspiration to take immediate action to follow-through and achieve their “documented” game plan, help others get the monkeys off their back, and create a thriving school community.
- Key Focus: Implementation, communication strategies, positive mindset, collaboration, community, accountability.
This program also includes optional post program implementation support and accountability.
Daniel is a Certified Virtual Presenter (CVP), therefore virtual experience via Zoom will be just as engaging as in person delivery with the use of a variety of different ways to make it fun, interactive and just as impactful as in person. For example, the use of breakout rooms, polling, reactions, chat functions, and more to keep students active, plus using a bunch of apps to enhance the online experience such as Jamboard for brainstorming, music, exercises and activities throughout. Students will be prompted to do something every 5-7 minutes to keep them active and energised throughout. Groups and breakout rooms can be set up beforehand. This is already set up, not requiring the school to do anything beforehand.
Testimonials
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“Students were really really engaged. Tailored delivery. Highly recommend – both in person and virtually.”
Newington College, NSW
Senior Years Advisor
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“Energetic and entertaining. So much fun. There was never a dull moment across the day. Highly recommend it.”
Oakhill College, NSW
Year 10 student
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“Resilience, how to stand up to bullying and the 5 monkeys, all of which I learned a lot from. Highly recommend him.”
Freeman Catholic College
Year 7 student
Virtual School
“Daniel is a motivated speaker to teenagers on a range of different contemporary issues affecting our students. He has strong interpersonal skills which is reflected in his practical and informative talks. I highly recommend Daniel Merza if you would like a speaker with strong knowledge, great presentation skills and a person genuine in helping our next generation”.
Curriculum Advisor
Virtual School
“Our students got a huge amount out of it. Highly recommend”.
Head of Middle School
Virtual School
“Brilliant. I thought it was just going to be a talk but Daniel made it interactive. They were using the chat function. Really engaging, really diverse with the videos, the chat, and the polls. Perfect. Recommend.”
Assistant Principal
Virtual School
“I learned about the monkeys and strategies to deal with bullying. I’d definitely recommend it to other schools.”
Year 7 student
Virtual School
“Biggest learning was the five steps for effective study planning. Very helpful. I would definitely recommend it to others”.
Year 8 student
Virtual School
“Very helpful. Biggest takeaway was to focus on finding common ground with people to help make new friends. I would definitely recommend this to other schools.”
Year 7 student
Virtual School
“My biggest takeaway was learning about the 7 ways to tackle procrastination.”
Year 8 student
Virtual School
“Very helpful and informative. It provided me with a better understanding of how to set effective goals.I’d encourage every single school to experience this because you are giving us directions on how to focus on improving ourselves and how to plan for our future.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“Awesome. Excellent content and clear messages not only for my child, but I took away a lot too. Would absolutely recommend it to other schools.”
Parent
Virtual School
“It was amazing and cleared so many questions I had. I loved the polls and Q & A, and learned about the 5 steps to be an effective learner. Highly recommended!”
Year 8 student
Virtual School
“Awesome. Loved it, especially meditation, types of fear, and that danger is real and fear is just a perspective.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“The session was quite informative and straight to the point and the biggest takeaway would be how people perceive fear with fear being a choice rather than an emotion.”
Year 11 student
Virtual School
“I loved it. Very engaging. My biggest takeaway was the idea of personal momentum and getting started to gain motivation. I also learned about the importance of scheduling our work and not letting our emotional state impact our ability to get it done. I would recommend these sessions to schools.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“I found the session quite engaging and learnt a lot about setting effective goals, in fact, I started writing goals as the content was given and now I just want to tick them all off!”
Year 11 student
Virtual School
“I found the session helpful. My biggest take away was that it will help me create achievable goals in the future. I’d recommend it to other schools.”
Year 7 student
Virtual School
“Daniel’s virtual session was great, very engaging and welcoming, instilling in students that self belief comes from applying the right habits. Definitely recommend it to other schools.”
Teacher
Virtual School
“I found the session very inspirational. Daniel knew how to speak about the topics and I learned how to manage my time and effectively cope with subjects.”
Year 11 student
Virtual School
“My biggest takeaway was learning the HARP study method, prioritisation and setting clear goals. Daniel’s delivery was enthusiastic, engaging and interactive. Definitely recommend it.”
Year 11 student
Virtual School
“The biggest takeaway for me was how to find and overcome the problems we might face as we grow into the real world and not let it get to us. What I liked the most was how the monkeys were used to show to find what you may need help in or what problem you might have. I found it very easy to understand and it was explained very well. I had no trouble with anything. I would definitely recommend this to other schools. It gave me a much more clear understanding of the problems there might be and how to overcome.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“I loved the program”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“You were amazing Daniel. Thank you so much for the amazing 2 day experience. I learned so much!”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“I learned that I’m not the only one with these specific “monkeys” on my back. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone. Daniel was really into it and was hyping us up the whole way and getting us involved. Definitely encourage other schools to get involved.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“I learned how to be in control of my own life and not waste time pleasing other people. My favourite parts were how Daniel explained the monkeys and how they impact our everyday lives and I also really liked his story and finding out about the challenges he went through and how he turned his life around to become the man he is today. I really enjoyed it and suggest we do this sort of thing more often and there was honestly nothing that I didn’t like. Definitely recommend it to other schools, it’s extremely helpful.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“Daniel taught me that negative mindsets can be challenged – at the end of the day, I’m the only person who can turn my life around. The virtual experience was certainly something different, however it went well. I enjoyed the personifications of the negative mentalities – it helped me to better understand and visualise my own ‘monkeys’ and think about how to combat them. The delivery was smooth and engaging. I enjoyed the session very much. Highly recommend Daniel to other schools.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“My biggest takeaway was to focus on being yourself. Daniel was very good and relatable. Definitely recommend it.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“My biggest takeaway was to get the monkeys off your back, especially Darryl. I get distracted easily and he gave us a lot of information on how to get rid of the monkey on our back. I had fun listening to his experiences and learnt a lot. I love the way he speaks, and gets even those that get distracted easily to focus on what he is saying. Enjoyed the Q&A and how Daniel answered all questions given. I’d recommend it to other schools because like many people would gain a lot from the knowledge he shares and from listening…
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“Daniel’s delivery was clear and engaging and helped the students understand more about how to study effectively. Highly recommended.”
Teacher
Virtual School
“The virtual session was very good and I would recommend it to other schools. My biggest takeaway was learning how to properly manage my time throughout the week, and how to also properly set my life goals. The engagement throughout the class was great since Daniel often asked questions to involve us.”
Year 11 student
Virtual School
“My biggest takeaway from the lesson was don’t be like the 5 monkeys – Enzo, Scooter, Darryl, Tyson and Moi. I enjoyed the whole session. Daniel was a very nice and enthusiastic man at all times, which made it interesting and got me to listen the whole time and not get distracted (an achievement for me?). Daniel was able to be seen and heard clearly by us students. I would recommend this to other schools. It’s very interesting what Daniel has to say, he is good at presenting and what he says, sticks with you.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“I really loved how we got to speak to Daniel Merza via Zoom, so cool.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“It was an absolutely amazing experience. The screen was clear, videos were clear, everything was working well.”
Year 10 student
Virtual School
“Thank you Daniel. The students loved the two sessions”
Head of Senior School
About Daniel
Daniel Merza is a wellbeing and leadership specialist, award-winning international speaker, teen coach and author.
Having worn the “underdog” cap growing up, Daniel’s story can be summed up in three words – “Defying the odds”.
Bullied for a decade, diagnosed with a mental illness aged 13, and labelled as a student with “no hope”, Daniel faced up to his tormentors at 16 and turned his life around.
During an illustrious corporate career spanning 15 years with leading companies like KPMG and BDO, Daniel spent considerable time developing the weaker spots of younger staff – such as tenacity, emotional intelligence, stress management, self confidence, and leadership – as part of his senior leadership roles.
Having witnessed first-hand as a manager the degree to which young people lacked the essential skills to thrive post-school, Daniel left behind a six figure corporate pay packet to embark upon his mission to inspire tenacity, optimism and empowerment in high school students and “get them ready” to flourish in the real world.
Based in Sydney, Daniel has developed clever and fun ways to engage, empower and equip thousands of people worldwide to get the monkeys off their back and become the leader of their life. He has been featured on the radio and various newspaper and media outlets, and his work has also been acknowledged in NSW Parliament.
Daniel was a keynote speaker at the Middle East Youth Expo 2020 in Abu Dhabi, the largest youth event in the region with 10,000 students attending. Daniel also toured the UAE, speaking at high schools in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Daniel is also the author of Get the Monkeys off Your Back, a book specifically written for teens (and parents/educators), covering important topics such as self leadership, resilience, mental health, bullying, social media addiction, self discovery and peak performance.