Principal's Report

Try Persevere Achieve

Our Staughton motto is ‘Try, Persevere, Achieve’.

It is worth briefly reflecting on what this actually means to us as a school community.

It is easy to say that with effort comes success. It is less easy to actually put in this effort and, even against the odds, persevere in order to achieve goals.

Our motto is about our actions and behaviours, not just about what we say. It is about putting in the hard work to get results.

It makes me extremely proud when the students and staff in our school persevere to reach difficult goals.

Here are some recent examples of staff and students living out the behaviours implied our motto.

• All of the students and staff involved in the Variety Show set an enormously high challenge to put on a professional performance. This involved many weeks of afterschool and weekend rehearsals, not to mention the practice that went on in many students homes!                                                                                 The end result was a sensational spectacle that showcased the many and varied performing talents at Staughton. After suffering a significant injury on the first night, the return of School Captain Chelsea Pollock to the second night’s performance was nothing short of inspirational.
• This year’s NAPLAN results showed particular improvement in numeracy learning for Year 9 students over the past two years. Students can take credit for this improvement.                                                                                                       I recently went into a Maths class where students proudly showed me how much they had improved using their unit rubric. They explained how they set goals and went about achieving them.                                                                                                                       Teachers also deserve credit for this improvement. They have worked in teams during standard meeting times, and in extra meetings outside of hours, to understand how our students learn Maths, and to design the teaching approach that will help students learn.
• A number of VCAL students have been successful in being offered apprenticeships commencing during this year. To do this each student had to independently contact professional bodies and individual employers, apply, be interviewed and then be selected. Some students had to persevere through this process many times before they were successful.                                                                                           It is a credit to every student who has succeeded in this way. They have fast tracked their progress to get to where they want to be.

These are just a selection of examples from across the school where our motto of ‘Try, Persevere, Achieve’ is clearly evident. There are many more I could have used.

We are not far away from our next interim reports. This will be a good time for all of us in the Staughton community to sit down and look at how we can all aim for our next goals, and commit to persevering to achieve them.

DAVID LORD

Principal