Kia ora koutou. Talofa. Kia Orana. Malo e lelei. Bula Vinaka. Fakaalofa atu. Namaste. Kumusta. Haere mai ki Te Kura Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka. Warm greetings to the Hornby High School community.

I love that term 4 vibe, that feeling of celebration of mahi well done. At this time of year I always find myself reflecting on achievement, and what it looks like, feels like, sounds like, for our learners. While at prize givings we celebrate the best, achievement goes much deeper than that.

My own recent experience has been a great reminder. Lorraine and I are rock and roll dancers, and this year we competed nationally (for the first time in five years), this time for the first time as a ‘triples’ team, one guy (me) and two girls. We were absolute novices at this. We competed over Labour Weekend, and didn’t manage a placing. But.. we danced the best we have ever danced, and we were competing against the best in the country. I have an analogy for this drawn from my time as a runner (I used to run half marathons).

Our dance accomplishment looks and feels a little like this.

We started from scratch a year ago. Let’s say we could run a half marathon in two hours at the beginning. We worked hard, took advice, and managed to run a half marathon in an hour and twenty five minutes (I use that number because that’s a pretty respectable time for a half marathon). A fantastic achievement both in relative and absolute terms.

However the top runners regularly run an hour and five minutes. Going back to our dancing experience, there is no way we were ever going to be up with them. It would have been like running an hour and five for that half marathon. See what I mean?

It’s like that for many of our students. They may never be number one, but that’s not the game. This education thing is about learning and improving, about getting better than we were before, about progressing. That’s why our values are so important: commitment, resilience, and respect, result in achievement.

For us in our dancing we did a ‘personal best’, and have a great base on which to build next year; similarly for our young people. Achievement is relative. There are those for whom anything less than all Excellences is not their best. There are those for whom getting Achieved for everything they attempt is a fantastic result, it’s the best they could manage. There are those who fight battles most of us can’t even imagine, and simply getting out of bed and arriving at school is a major achievement.

Let’s celebrate all achievement, whatever it looks like. Let’s embrace all of our young people, and similarly let’s be gentle on ourselves too. We are all human, we all face our own battles. This is part of being an inclusive community, celebrating our diversity, being there for each other. Our diversity is our strength.

Please make sure you follow us on Facebook for the latest and most up to date news https://www.facebook.com/hornbyhighschool/ , and on our website www.hornby.school.nz . You can also follow my thinking our education journey at Hornby High School, and more generally, on my blog at https://whakataukihewakaekenoa.blogspot.co.nz/

Kia tau te mauri

Robin Sutton