Building Your Children's Future
American author, Brian Herbert, once said, "The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice." Just ponder on those words for a moment. As I reflect on this quote, I am grateful that we all have the gift which is the capacity to learn. As we grow and mature, the skill to learn also grows, matures and changes. However, the willingness to learn is not always enthusiastically embraced. Learning and moving forward and out of our comfort zone can be rather daunting at times and because of this, we may shy away from learning. A way to push beyond this fear, to truly embrace learning, is to celebrate learning.
One of my favourite parts of my job is when I see students learning from one another, and celebrating their learning. Last week, I received a visit from three Foundation students, who were sent down by their teacher to show me their writing work. The writing ability was varied, however, each child had succeeded and were so proud of their work. Their beaming smiles and the pride in their voices as they read about their "favourite dinner", couldn't help but put a smile on my face. Not only did they celebrate their own achievement, but also the achievements of one another. Their excitement over the praise and special stickers they received bubbled over, as they proudly showed their work and stickers to our office staff on their way out.
As I think of our new learners, who have started on their schooling journey this year, I can't help but to think of our older learners, our school leaders, who are coming to the end of their primary school learning journey and will soon embark on their highschool learning journey. These school leaders were once Foundation students, excited about forming words and sentences and learning to read. Their capacity to learn has been expanded, their ability to learn has been developed and extended and I am pleased to say that their willingness to learn has also grown. I am looking forward to celebrating their learning next Wednesday evening, for their Expo Night, as these students present their "Future Cities" to their peers, families and school community. I would like to encourage you to come along and celebrate the deep and rich learning that has taken place this term in Year 7, celebrating both the learning experiences and the learners.
It has been said that we never stop learning because life never stops teaching! Over these upcoming school holidays, our Admin team will be embracing an opportunity to learn and grow from others. We are travelling to the East Coast and spending three days with three of our sister schools on the Central Coast. We are keen to learn from the leaders at these schools, and in turn, hope that we are able to share learning experiences with them. When communicating with the leaders from these three schools, we all agreed that one of the best, and most valuable learning experiences comes from sharing with one another, growing together, and choosing to celebrate together.
How are you going to embrace learning this week? How are you going to celebrate the learning of your child this week? May I encourage you to reflect on the words I shared earlier by Brian Herbert, "The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice." You have this gift, you have developed the skills, the choice is up to you!
