What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world. What you do for others lives on forever.” – Sir Ken Robinson

Educators across the globe were saddened with the news of the passing of Sir Ken Robinson this past week. He challenged all to refocus the very essence of schooling, in particular, the need to prepare children for the unpredictability of future events by placing a stronger focus on creativity and learning through failure, rather than being afraid of it.

Children starting school this year, will be retiring in 2080! Needless to say, it is even hard to imagine what the world will look like 12 months from today, as at the commencement of Spring last year no one would have believed we would be restricted to a 5km radius of our home, and that our students would be connected to teachers and their learning, via MS Teams.

The unpredictability is extraordinary. Never more so evident than today.

I encourage parents to take 18 minutes of their one hour walk this weekend to listen to one of the world’s most inspired and visionary leaders. Sir Ken Robinson so aptly questioned the status quo in his desire to bring about meaningful change in education. The TED Talk (linked below) captures Sir Ken’s clever wit with his humorous nature ever so present in this address; yet, behind his charm and engaging manner as an inspiring storyteller, the fitting message about educational systems is profound.

Sir Ken first came to my radar with this Ted Talk in 2006, titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity”. He regales a lovely story about a little 6-year-old girl who was enjoying a drawing lesson.

Teacher: “What are you drawing?”

6-year-old girl: “I am drawing a picture of god.”

Teacher: “But no one knows what god looks like.”

6-year-old girl: “They will in a minute.”

Sir Ken noticed that what children will do is ‘take a chance and if they don’t know, they will still have a go’. Sir Ken recognised that children are not frightened of being wrong. Noting, that whilst being wrong bears no correlation with creativity but if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will actually not come up with anything that is original.

Robinson believed that “we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up,” he said. “I believe passionately that we don’t grow into creativity – we grow out of it, or rather, we are educated out of it”.

Sir Ken pushed to transform education over many years: “The key is not to standardise education but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.” Undoubtedly, Sir Ken encouraged educators to think differently about the role of education within our society, and how schools can and should nurture the unique talents of every child. Nurturing individuality and assuming the limitless potential of every student resonates with us all at St Catherine’s.

Critical thinking and creativity have been identified as two core capabilities that will help young people prepare for the world, and workplaces, of tomorrow. While critical thinking can be clearly defined as the objective analysis of facts to form a judgment, creativity comes with many misconceptions. Robinson suggests the most significant misconception about creativity that schools and students should recognise, is that it is just about the arts.

“It’s much more than this. It’s not just about letting go, kicking your shoes off and doing whatever you think. Creativity, properly conceived, is a set of skills, as well as dispositions and practices,” he explained. This can and should be nurtured across many subject areas and facilitated in different approaches to teaching. “Teaching isn’t just instruction – it’s about creating conditions for learning. It’s about mentoring, coaching and inspiring.”

Over the past 12 months, St Catherine’s has invested in a partnership with the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project. This very targeted Staff Professional Learning focus actively assists teachers in embedding critical and creative thinking in disciplinary context, shifting the focus of education from the dissemination of accumulated knowledge from the teacher to engaging students in thinking.

Our educational platform will serve students well in the future and in so many ways, honours the visionary leadership of Sir Ken Robinson by widening participation in learning beyond just rote learning facts to promoting creative and critical thinking, individualising the learning experience through autonomous inquiry and aspiring girls to do something they love. Robinson believed, “if you are passionate about what you are doing, you never really work”.

This TED Talk is still the most watched TED Talk at over 66 million views on the TED platform and another 19 million views on YouTube. It can be viewed here.

Susan McLean Webinar:

We concluded a three-week series of Information Sessions on Cyber Safety with renowned expert, Susan Maclean, delivering a powerful message to parents on Wednesday evening. Susan has also presented to our Year 7-10 students, and separately to Year 11-12 girls on Monday afternoon.

COVID-19 has provided the perfect example of how technology can enable a life line for continued learning and maintaining connection with friends. Undoubtedly, the use of Apps and social media platforms has also provided much needed social connection for young people in a time of physical distancing. However, the increased screen time comes with considerable risks, unless appropriate privacy settings and protective behaviours are adopted in family homes. As such, Susan McLean’s presentation on the topic of cybersafety for parents has never been more relevant or more pressing.

Susan was the first Victorian Police Officer appointed to a position involving Cybersafety and young people and has since conducted extensive research and training in this ever-changing space. She is Australia’s foremost expert in her field and is a member of the Australian Government Cybersafety Working Group, the National Centre Against Bullying and she is a published author.

Susan provides a wealth of resources on her Website and is available to respond to individual questions should the need arise. Unfortunately, we were not given permission to film’s Susan presentation but my key takeaways were:

• Openly discussing with your daughter/s about their digital reputation. Assessing the trail people can find online about you requires twice yearly audits: Is it positive? Is it negative? Could people take it the wrong way?
• Remove devices from bedrooms, certainly avoiding anything with cameras;
• Know your child’s password / passcodes;
• Learn about the sites and Apps they use;
• Utilise all security settings and parental controls;
• Never post pictures wearing a school uniform!
• To not shy away from openly discussing with your younger children the threats of online predators.

More information can be found at Susan McLean’s website here.