Rollercoasters and Squiggles
Welcome to Term 3! A Lutheran school Principal recently mentioned how they make it clear to prospective parents and students in every enrolment interview that students are ‘on a rollercoaster’ and that we are all on ‘rollercoasters’ through life. She mentioned that it is more important than ever in our current context to normalise that all of us will go through peaks and troughs during our personal and educational journeys so that parents and children can find resilience and comfort in this thought. If life ran along in a flat line, she said, where would the excitement, personal growth and learning come from?
Along the same lines (squiggly ones at that), at the end of last term, one of our captains and I had the pleasure of listening to Tennis champion, Ash Barty, speak about her journey. Ash talked about the ‘squiggles’ she has encountered in her life. I really enjoyed hearing this analogy because a squiggle shows that life has so much variety and opportunity that we can take hold of. Life can often take you on interesting and unexpected twists and turns. Variables come your way and you might not know exactly where things will end up but you just need to make best possible choices at the time. In Ash’s case, her squiggles have eventually led to great success in her sport and life.
This week, our new Head of Secondary Years, Mr Piacun, also talked about ‘The Learning Challenge’ with staff and how it points to healthy learning. Originally conceptualised by James Nottingham (2007), within each Learning Challenge a person faces, there will be a place called ‘The Learning Pit’. This is a place where a person will have unresolved questions due to thinking deeply about a particular topic. People will only reach true mastery in their learning and move out of ‘The Learning Pit’ once they discover the answers. Seeing learning in this way ourselves in life, and encouraging our children to see learning in this way, normalises the importance of challenge. Things won’t come to us easily; things won’t always be easy. But learning to live in the pit for a bit will bring about critical thinking, resilience and reflection so that a growth mindset is developed. It is healthy.
Rollercoasters, squiggles, peaks and pits. It is my encouragement to us all to normalise the ups and downs of life, to realise and harness the potential of the different squiggly paths that life can take us on and to know that great learning will only come on the other side of great challenge.
As we move into the Semester 2, continue to support your children to navigate change in a healthy, balanced way as they grow older and develop; talk to them often; play with them often; help them find the confidence to follow alternative pathways to reach their aspirations and goals when needed; encourage them to embrace the challenge in their learning. At St Peters Springfield, we will do this too for your children because we care deeply for them.
Now, from squiggles to ripples in the water … we wish to congratulate a famous sportsperson from our very own College, Year 12 student, Mollie O for her achievement of World Champion for the Women’s 100 metre Freestyle and the youngest world champion in more than 30 years. We know that Mollie has worked extremely hard to get to this amazing peak in her life. Well done, Mollie.
We also congratulate Mrs Sue Grotherr, our previous Head of Secondary Years, on being awarded the Educational Leadership Commendation Award from the Australian Council for Educational Leaders.
More information on both of these outstanding achievements in this Cornerstone.
This term, we are extremely excited to bring onboard our new Head of Secondary Years, Mr Dominic Piacun and our inaugural Director of Studies and Pedagogy, Years 7-12, Ms Sarah Gunn. I know our community will welcome both of these leaders into our community with open arms. They will continue to work to provide excellence in culture and innovation in teaching and learning in our Secondary Years. Mr Piacun and Ms Gunn will write future articles in Cornerstone publications to introduce themselves and their goals for our great College.
For tonight, we wish our Year 8s who have been busily preparing over many months for their Year 8 Production: “Fractured Fairytales”, a spectacular evening. They have written their own scripts, choreographed acting and have even produced their own music with the assistance of professionals. There will have been many learning pits through this process, I’m sure, but we are excited to see what they have produced on the other side. We congratulate the Year 8 students for their creativity and dedication.
Life has its squiggles. Life has its rollercoasters. Life has its learning pits. They will happen in Term 3 and in each term of our lives. Take comfort that God has plans for you at all times, plans to prosper you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Every blessing to all in our community for Term 3!
