This week we celebrated many wonderful things about our College. Our awards ceremony on Wednesday celebrated excellence in a variety of aspects of College life. Did every student get an award? No. These are highly valued, well respected awards of EXCELLENCE, not prizes of participation. Will some students be disappointed? Yes. And that is a perfectly natural reaction. The great part about it is that this very disappointment provides our children with an opening to be great 'bucket fillers'. It gives them an opportunity to take joy in and congratulate others on their success. Is that easy? No! It is difficult, it takes explicit practice and it is something we work on consistently in our classrooms. This ability to enjoy another’s good fortune provides a building block for an emotionally mature future, resulting in successful relationships. It would be reckless of us to rob our children of such an opportunity.

Occasions such as these also offer wonderful goal setting scenarios for our students. The awards have clearly defined criteria that are transparent to the students. A focus on our College learning dispositions and learning pit have seen some students achieve beyond what they had dreamed possible, creating a whole new ‘habit of mind’ for them. How powerful is that? Author Steven Pressfield sums it up beautifully when he says:

“The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones”.

The Year 4’s have been learning how to write a persuasive essay with Mr Paffey over the past few weeks. They have been using the WTE (Write That Essay) program to support and scaffold their writing. They have been very busy creating their own cereal boxes using persuasive techniques.