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by SMC

From the Principal

Diana Patchett - February 28, 2019

Today’s Academic Awards assembly offered us the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the academic achievements of 120 Year 12 and 13 girls.

It was my pleasure to look them in the eye, to shake their hand and offer them my congratulations, for to realise excellence endorsement, and for many in more than one subject, is worthy of our accolades.

This is testament to the laudable culture at St Margaret’s of doing your best. This is an invaluable element of the school fabric, for it is their attitude, as much as their achievements, that will set our girls up for ongoing success - whatever success looks like for them.

Einstein said, ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think’.

I quite like this athletic metaphor as it offers us cause to consider what is really important about our time at school. As I tested this ‘training of the mind’ quote with the assembly today, I offered these three pieces of advice.

Set your own PB and celebrate the small steps
While an athlete may have an ambition to be an Olympian, they know that the training required to get there is arduous and that it’s going to be a long haul. So they set PBs, incremental goals to achieve, and then a wee prize to congratulate themselves, maybe a day off training, or a special meal. It’s these little rewards along the way that will make the training worth it and help them stay the course to realise their bigger dream.

Maybe silver ties and badges and blazers are not the goal (yet) for your daughter, though it is great to know that these are indeed achievable. But like an athlete, it is important for our girls to set themselves some intermediate goals along the way. And excellence endorsement may not be their goal (yet), and that’s okay as well. I am not suggesting they settle for second best, or be satisfied with mediocrity, but it’s called a PB for a reason - it’s a personal best.

If they set their goals too high, it is too easy to just opt out, to not even try, and that would be a real waste of the incredible opportunities they have to succeed here at school. This is the time and place for the girls to test themselves, to realise what they can achieve and what effort it takes to get there.

As parents, you can support your daughter in her goal setting, identifying her PBs, and then be sure to include the celebrations when these are achieved.

Don’t peak too early
Top athletes don’t just prepare for one season, they are in it for the long game. Coaches prepare training programmes that incorporate concentrated periods of hard work, but these are balanced with times of rest, recovery, downtime, playing other sports, looking after an athlete’s physical and mental wellbeing. Good coaches know that this will ensure athletes are at their peak when it counts. Trying to hold them at that high level for prolonged periods of time will surely result in fatigue, injury and burnout.

Again, there is a powerful parallel to be drawn with school life. A message to our girls should be to pace themselves, to take advantage of their chances to try different things, to join something new each year, and to balance their academic efforts with a mix of pursuits. We shouldn’t expect them to be studying 24/7, which is why there is so much more going on here at SMC. Help them see those possibilities and take advantage of them.

A winning team has all bases covered
A successful netball team isn’t made up of seven goal shooters, a hockey team won’t win with 11 defenders, even a rowing crew needs balance across the eight seats. So it is in life.

A homogeneous workforce, one where everyone has the same skills and abilities, will be of very little benefit to the future. What the world needs now is not just the problem solvers, we need the problem finders.

To be part of a winning team, it is vital that the girls come to know and play to their individual strengths. Something I admire about St Margaret’s is our commitment to amplify diversity, to discover the gifts that each girl brings and to fan the flames of their talents. Each and every one of them is a valuable member of Team SMC.

To conclude the brain training and sport metaphor, any good trophy acceptance speech thanks the coaches, managers and supporters. So my thanks to the parent community for the invaluable partnership we share and for your positive influence on the SMC culture of doing your best. We are also blessed with fabulous teachers, for they are much more than educators, they are incredible life coaches and powerful role models for our girls.

I am confident that Einstein would be impressed with the ‘training of the minds’ being realised here.