The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

A Wonderful Way to End  

Gratitude

At the start of Week 6, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the Year 5 camp at Moray. It was so wonderful to get back to Dwellingup – it had been too long. The boys worked in teams in an Amazing Race competition and went rafting along the Murray River. In the evening, we got the boys to pause and reflect on their time in Junior School coming to an end. We also got them to write thank you postcards to some of the people who had made a difference to their time in Junior School.

In the last couple of weeks, we have also spoken to the Year 8s about gratitude and they have been encouraged to write to say thank you to the people in their lives who have made a difference to the young man they are becoming. As I said to the boys, there are two very important things to note about a hand-written thank you notes: firstly, it takes time, which is the most precious commodity in any human life. Being willing to spend some time writing to express your gratitude is one of the highest forms of respect, in my opinion. And secondly, writing by hand is unique – there will never be another note so written, and that makes it terribly special.

In my position, I am so fortunate to interact with so many fine people – students, staff and parents. It is one of the joys of this job; often the only one! I take great joy from the small moments shared in a day – a smile, a laugh, a nod or other such acknowledgement. These are the strands which strengthen the fabric of our school and make it such a wonderful place to visit each day. For that, and for these people, I am grateful.

Kicker Thompson

At the end of Week 6, I attended a performance of the Middle School production, Kicker Thompson. It was an inspired choice for this group of boys. It was a prescient choice for our times, touching on the themes of anxiety and the importance of letting those around us know when we are struggling. It was also a paean to kindness and the importance of a community to protect us. It highlighted for me the power of letters (from Kicker's grandfather, after his grandfather has died) and the power of kindness (when Innes arranges for the football development officer to visit Babanillin so he can see Kicker's skills).

It was so good to see the boys take on the challenge of performing; to see them in a different environment from the classroom is one of the great joys of working in education. To get so many young boys up on stage for the whole time and for them to be so engaging, working together, so focused…that is just a rarity these days and it is something special about the arts and Drama in particular. Congratulations to everyone involved, particularly the director, Austin Castiglione. Check out some photos from the production.

Porridge

Last week, we were also fortunate to take in the Year 5 performance of Porridge. It, too, was remarkable: to see all Year 5s up on stage, singing and performing choreography, delivering dad-jokes like seasoned professionals, was a joy to behold. At one point, there was an amazing four-part harmony – with four different sets of movements – which involved every boy. My thanks to Phebe Samson for her amazing work in bringing this together in such a short space of time. And to the many other helpers who make such a show possible – particularly Matt Beaver – a big shout-out to you as well.

GRIT Week

Making mistakes is a part of life. Learning from them is part of a successful life.

Last week, in the Senior School, we ran our first GRIT Week.  We were hoping to start conversations about the F-word – failure – how it feels, how we can deal with it effectively, learn and grow from the experience. GRIT, for us, is an acronym: Growth Resides in Trying.

Grit ties in with the work we do with the boys on resilience, which is one of the Three Pillars of Wellbeing at Scotch. It ties in with the work we do with boys when they reflect on their schoolwork and their co-curricular activities. It ties in with developing a 'growth mindset', something our Wellbeing programme promotes.

At lunchtime on Monday, we ran a series of activities where boys were encouraged to try activities they were unlikely to have had prior experience with (or at least, be unlikely to be good at) such as juggling or kicking a football with a non-preferred foot into a sulo bin.  One of our bands – 76 Shenton – played songs around the theme of failure: Confidence by Ocean Alley, Learn to Fly by the Foo Fighters, Still Breathing by Green Day and Imagine Dragons' On Top of the World. During Mentor period, Student Council reps ran activities which focused on learning to deal with uncomfortable feelings associated with failure – disappointment, frustration or self-doubt. Chapel was also dedicated to the concept and at Assembly on Friday, Josh Ledger presented a video of some of the boys discussing failure.

The new Studio Scotch recorded interviews with several OSCs focusing on their experiences and thoughts on failure and grit.  Excerpts of these were shared with students.  It would be great for Scotch families to watch these together.  There are many gems of insight from Alex Aberle-Leeming (OSC 2008), Spencer Brooks (OSC 2012) and Michael Silbert (OSC 1979) worth discussion.  Watch the short, three-minute version of these interviews or an extended version (13 minutes).

Failure + Reflection + Adjustment = Progress

Of course, weeks such as this should not be seen as stand-alone events that can cure us of our fear of failure; it cannot remove the hesitance of tackling something when there is a risk that we will not be able to complete/or succeed in it. But such a week is important in terms of raising awareness. It can get us talking about failure so that we come to see it as something that everyone does every day. It brings to the fore our fears around failure and makes us more aware of how this can hold us back from reaching our potential. And hopefully, it can give each of us a little more confidence to approach failure as a starting point, rather than an end point, a temporary setback.  Our hope is that students will carry a little of this mentality into the rest of the year.

So, how can we encourage boys to 'fail forward'?

  • Ensure they understand the benefits that come from regularly seeking guidance, advice and feedback
  • Assist in setting reasonable and reachable expectations
  • Encourage them to practice – but practise smarter, by figuring out what went wrong and correcting this
  • Give them permission to be imperfect and sometimes to even be "average"
  • Show that your caring is not based on performance (be careful not to over-celebrate success or over-analyse less-than-perfect results)
  • Encourage them to try different activities which take them out of their comfort zone (even trying things with their non-dominant, non-preferred hand!)
  • Role-model the fact that it is alright to try something and not succeed
  • Laugh – making mistakes is a way of ensuring we do not take ourselves too seriously

A big thank you to Shauna Lipscombe, who has been the driving force behind the week. I must also commend Jim Allan and the Student Council for the way they took ownership of this initiative and ran a variety of activities through the Houses and the school.

Year's End

As this is the last Thistle for 2020, I just want to wish everyone a safe, enjoyable break. I hope you get time to pause and reflect on what this year has taught us about what is important and prioritise this for next year. May you get a chance to stop to consider how amazing life is: even though it is not always immediately apparent, there is so much good which exists in the world. I hope you rest. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.