Deputy Principal

We Must Work to Achieve Results 

As someone who loves watching sport, I was in awe watching the majority of the Men’s semi-finals at the Australian Open Tennis, which had two, five set matches that both lasted over four hours. There was no questioning the commitment of the players who each brought their best games on the day to ensure that they did their best. 

There is a correlation between these tennis matches and what we have been speaking to our young men about over the last week upon their return. We have challenged them to do their best and to set high expectations for themselves. Achieving their best and getting good results is no fluke. Whether in the classroom, on the sporting fields, ensembles or on the stage, it requires hard work. It requires resilience and determination. 

Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic and Zverev, got to where they are because of hard work. Djokovic was written off for being too old, yet he beat his opponent who was 14 years younger. The message to our young men must be that not everything is going to go your way all the time. There are going to be losses on the sporting field, you may not get the marks you wanted on every exam, and you may miss making the production. At a particular point of time in their lives, they may not be good enough to make an ensemble. All of that is okay. Disappointment is a part of life. It is how they deal with it that is important.

We need to raise resilient children. How do we do that? We encourage them to do their best all the time. As a College, we work in partnership with our parents/carers and students to help them achieve their best. If they fail, which is okay, we work together collaboratively to put support measures in place to help them if needed. Sometimes though it can be just a matter of the student working harder. They may not have put the work in to achieve the results that they thought would come easier.

To reach the Semi-Final of the Australian Open required thousands of hours of work over a long period of time. It required discipline, organisation, and resilience. There are times when it would seem for these men that it would be easier to give up. However, they all played to the best of their ability. 

We do not expect our Year 5 students to be at their best already. They are starting their journey, starting to get organised, starting to practice routine. What we do expect from our students is that they will try their best, achieve their full potential. As their levels of maturity develop as they get older, some things will just get easier, however there is no replacement for hard work. Not every student is not going to achieve over 90 in their HSC, we do not expect that. What we do expect is that they work hard to do their best. As parents, surely that is all we want for our children. We want them to be happy and achieve their best.

There will be times throughout your son’s schooling where we will need to work closely together to ensure that he achieves his best. However, if he does not get the best mark in an exam or misses making a team, that does not mean as parents you go straight to ‘fix mode’ and try to solve the problem for your son. First and foremost, your son needs to have a look at his preparation for an exam or for making a particular team for sport. Remember there are only a certain number of spots in each team and they are competitive. Alcaraz did not win every tournament he played in. It has taken him a long time to get to World Number 1. 

Watching the press conferences after the semi-finals, what I did notice was the mutual respect that the players had for each other. They commented positively on their opponents. They did not put each other down; they understood that they all worked hard to get to this point in the tournament. At the end of the day someone was always going to beat their opponent. 

I would encourage you this year, when things may not go your son’s way and he experiences disappointment, to sit down and talk calmly with him. I encourage you to collaborate with us. The staff at the College are all professionals and have your son’s best interests at heart. Like you, our staff expect to be treated with the utmost respect. At SPC we have a Parent Code of Conduct, which you can view here. It is an expectation that all parents/carers follow this Code of Conduct. This will ensure that your son gets the support he needs on his journey here at the College. We all want the best for your son. He controls his own future, so we should help him establish effective routines and maintain high expectations. This will ensure that he sets himself up to do his best.

Adrian Byrne

Deputy Principal