Deputy Principal

Learning From One’s Mistakes and Moving Forward

Recently, I was met in the foyer of the Hickey Building by a teacher who had a Year 8 student with him. The teacher was upset because while he was on duty, he was directing some students to clean up their area and the young man he had brought up to meet with me was standing behind him at the time mimicking him. As I was dealing with another matter, I asked the young man to come back and see me later so I could talk with him about his actions. Before I could meet with him, we had a College Assembly. As it happened, I had a direct line of sight to this young man who spent some of the assembly talking with one of his mates and not listening to the presenters. 

When I met him the next day, I talked to him not only about his original actions but also his poor judgement and lack of respect for those presenting at the assembly. Often young men will try and show off in front of their peers to gain kudos. This is not unusual, nor is it acceptable. We talked about flying under the radar and that his actions were impacting his reputation. He knew by the end of our conversation that it would never be acceptable to be rude to a member of staff or to be disrespectful during an assembly.

Fast forward four days later to last Friday and I was walking past Mr Biviano’s Year 8 PDHPE class, and I could hear the familiar sounds of the BEEP test going off. As I walked in, there were two young men still running and one happened to be the student that I had talked to earlier in the week. They ran for a few minutes together before the other student dropped out and he was left by himself. The class and Mr Biviano then rallied behind him and pushed him to do his best. He finished with an impressive score of 13.4!

It was great for me to be able to see the positive side of that student. At the bus lines that afternoon I was able to shake his hand and congratulate him. We all make mistakes, which is a given. What is important is that we learn from those mistakes and move forward, and we give everybody a chance to show themselves at their best.

Adrian Byrne

Deputy Principal