From the Assistant Principal's Desk
I feel privileged to be asked to provide the educational supplement for this week’s Illalong Newsletter. Having spent last week in Winton visiting our brand-new accommodation facility, Barty’s Place, I returned feeling humbled and even more connected to A.B. Paterson College and all that we stand for.
As I stood in Outback Queensland, looking up at our state-of-the-art facility, I was reminded that the A.B. Difference such as this, does not happen by accident. I draw correlation between the persistent hard work it has taken to construct Barty’s Place and the persistence and hard work that it takes to maintain the high standards in dress and appearance, work habits and behaviour every day here at A.B. These high standards are what our brand is known for… It is the A.B. Difference.
Ms Sheehy, Mr Edgar, Ms Bakanay and I, have had many conversations with students over the past couple of months that have focussed on the why behind our desire to maintain our high standards. These conversations always centre around the necessity for us to provide an environment where students are challenged to strive beyond mediocrity, to present the best version of themselves in all context. Naturally, at times this takes persistence and hard work, however we fundamentally believe self-discipline and high personal standards in the school context will set our students up brilliantly for life after their time here at A.B. Paterson College.
The danger with mediocrity, is that students don’t seek it, it merely creeps up on them by default, securing its presence with each of the small choices they make day by day. The minute mediocrity becomes the accepted norm in any school, excellence dies a painful death. We challenge our students, staff and parents to ensure we do not succumb to the following characteristics that describe a mediocre school:
- Comfortable with the way things are;
- Do just enough to get by;
- Want to be better, but don’t know how to get there;
- Settle for the status quo – what is;
- Culture of busyness and excuse making;
- Breed experts who protect their patch; and
- Motivation and innovation are reserved for a few.
Instead, we want to focus on building on our A.B. Difference which is characterised by the following:
- Embrace change and lead it;
- Have a clear vision of what it will look like;
- Create our own paradigms and control our future;
- See the status quo merely as a launch pad;
- Do what we say we will do;
- Display strong community consciousness;
- Celebrate success;
- Lead as true leaders, not just good operators;
- Be emotionally intelligent in our actions, not just our words; and
- Understand that tough-love is still love.
Remember avoiding mediocrity isn’t an accident. It takes persistence, hard work and the complete alignment of our Values. It entails the capacity in equal measure, to embrace the past whilst progressively trailblazing the future. It is not about worrying what other schools are doing, or what they are prepared to accept. It is about setting a standard that each individual can be proud of, and others are inspired by.
It is okay to make mistakes and experiment within the boundaries that are set. True culture exists in schools when the students themselves determine these boundaries and keep their peers accountable to them. For each individual, this requires the maturity to recognise if they are not prepared to be part of the solution – then at the very least – they cannot be part of the problem.
I encourage our entire community to continue to work together this year to make our College one where our children, staff and parents continue to challenge the individual to achieve and to act with purpose and character, to experience our true A.B. Difference every day.
Darren Harvey
Assistant Principal
