Discomfort on the Path to Greatness

Trying something new is sometimes scary. St Catherine’s School’s Deputy Principal for Student Programs, Mrs Gina Peele, discusses why students need to be bold, independent and experience discomfort on the path to greatness.

 

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”
Andy Rooney, journalist 

St Catherine’s School offers a variety of co-curricular programs and experiences supporting students with opportunities to reach their full potential.  

Each opportunity presents a complementary skill set to those undertaken in the classroom. It provides opportunities for students to approach all endeavours with the courage necessary to take positive risks, curiosity to explore, and strength to lead.  

To be open to the capacity for growth and learning supports our girls to become independent, globally responsive young women who approach all endeavours with empathy, integrity, responsibility, commitment, and determination. 

For our current students, the start of the school year is a great time to try new activities and learn more about themselves. Trying something new is sometimes scary. Students need to be bold and independent to try something new.  

There are many situations throughout life where being uncomfortable is part of the learning and growth process. For example, if you want to learn how to debate, you need to sign up and start training with the team. If you want to be in the school production, you need to sign up and audition. Each of these stages in the process can be daunting. 

To learn and grow, we need to branch away from our comfort zones and deliberately place ourselves in situations where we may fail or be uncomfortable. Mrs Michelle Carroll raised the concept of ‘failing forward’ in our first Senior School Assembly this year. 

“The notion of ‘failing forward’ is the ability to make mistakes and take all feedback provided in order to improve in the next attempt. Failing forward is possibly the most powerful strategy in any student’s arsenal on their journey to success. It is about taking the risk of failing to grow and achieve goals.”  Michelle Carroll, Principal, St Catherine’s School.

Failing forward is to get better at mitigating risk and at the same time, not holding ourselves back. Failing forward is trying something new, something that we are afraid to do and stepping outside our comfort zone, even if the outcome and path is not clear.  

During the summer holidays, eight St Catherine’s students travelled to France on a French Language Exchange with our exchange partner school Course Fénelon. These students opted into an experience that was new and unknown to them. During this experience, our students lived with their exchange family and went to school in a French speaking school. The purpose of this Language Exchange is more than improving the girls’ French speaking skills. The Exchange provides experiential learning opportunities for the girls who experience living in a new home, with another family, living in a new culture and being away from their families. The girls navigated the challenges and unknown each day of their Exchange.  

Across the course of the first four weeks of school, I have had many conversations with parents about their daughters. Parents play an important role in encouraging their daughters to fail forward and take positive risks, particularly around trying new activities. 

The banks of the Barwon River on a Saturday afternoon are filled with parents of Years 9 and 10 rowers who are supporting their daughters trying something new, as they commence their Rowing journeys. This may include working as a team, receiving, and working through feedback provided to them by their coach or managing the shared goals they have as a crew. 

At the end of the girls’ Rowing journeys, I enjoy speaking with parents whose daughters are involved in the Senior Rowing Program (Years 11/12). These girls have been involved in Rowing for three to four years and have embraced the physical and technical challenges the sport requires. At this level, the student-athletes have completed hundreds of hours of training and are embracing the fail forward philosophy, where they trust their coaches implicitly, and can push themselves technically and physically further than they ever have before.  

My conversations with parents are often around the learning and growth they are witnessing in their daughter’s commitment, goal setting and perseverance. Rowers at this level are balancing their training commitments with the academic requirements of VCE. This requires exceptional organisation, time management and an elevated level of maturity. Many of these students will explore the opportunities to study abroad at universities overseas, where Rowing provides the avenue for these studies. Saturdays at the river are full of positive stories about failing forward. 

St Catherine’s School has many opportunities for our students to grow, develop and learn through exploring interests and taking up new opportunities. Parents play an integral role in supporting and nurturing their children to take positive risks and explore new opportunities.

I look forward to more conversations with parents and seeing our students thrive in the opportunities our co-curricular program provides. 

Mrs Gina Peele

Deputy Principal - Student Programs

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