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Failing Forward

Failing Forward

9 February 2023

Celebrating our Class of 2022

Our Class of 2022 publication celebrates the achievements of our Year 12 Cohort

It was with great pleasure this week that we welcomed the return of our Class of 2022 and celebrated their academic achievements at our Leavers’ Assembly on Monday.

These young women now join thousands of past students who, since our Foundation in 1896, have brought honour to themselves, their families, and St Catherine’s School. The celebrations included Book Prizes for First Place in each VCE subject, and recognition of the 2022 Dux of School, Angela Yu and Proxime Accessit to the Dux, Paula Chen.

The class of 2022 yielded the finest academic results on record, placing the school as the #1 Girls School in Victoria and #2 School in Victoria overall. On Monday, we enjoyed an opportunity to pay tribute to their success, recognise their fine example of scholarship and thank them for inspiring each one of us to achieve our personal goals.

During our Assembly, I reflected on what their achievements represent:

Sustained academic effort;
Consistency;
Persistence;
Diligence;
Interest;
Focus;
Aspiration;
Growth; and
Failing forward in order to succeed.

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.

In life, we prepare and manage risk all the time. We take an umbrella in case of rain, we take a spare pair of shoes in case our new ones give us blisters, I took two coats to Ballarat on Saturday to watch the rowing on Lake Wendouree – one in case it was cold and one in case it was really (really) cold!

However, sometimes we take a risk by not doing something. For example, we might not raise our hand or speak to a person. We miss opportunities all the time.

When making tertiary selections, career choices, and work decisions, students can be ‘told’ to study a subject or select a particular course at university, so they have something to ‘fall back on.’ We are by our very nature, risk averse.

However, I recognise, just sometimes, this approach might not work for us. It can limit our achievements, stifle our dreams. Do we avoid risk by focusing on ‘the worst thing that could happen,’ whereas perhaps we should focus on ‘the best thing that could happen.’

During the Leadership Assembly I challenged the girls to think, ‘What would happen if, as a student, you consistently applied yourself in class this year and to your studies? Perhaps you could fulfill your dreams.’

I encouraged all attending to not think about falling back on something in case of failure, rather to fail forward and persevere.