Perseverance

This term in assembly we are continuing to look at the topic of perseverance.

Whether it is in sport, study, learning a skill or a language, or any other endeavour, things rarely come easy at first. It is in these early stages that people often decide that "this isn’t for me" when they don’t experience instant success. Perseverance means choosing to continue, even when you fail or when progress feels slow.

Roger Federer spent 237 consecutive weeks as the Number 1 tennis player in the world, winning almost 80% of his matches. However, during all of those matches, he only won 54% of the points he played. That means he lost 46% of the time, and kept going. He didn’t walk off after a bad point. He stayed focused, stayed consistent and trusted that if he kept doing the right things, the wins would follow.

In the same way, we want our students to understand that growth rarely comes from instant success. It comes from trying, failing, adjusting and trying again. This is particularly important in learning. If a maths concept or paragraph structure or musical piece feels difficult, that doesn’t mean you are not good at it, it just means you are in the learning phase.

This term, we’ll continue encouraging students to:

• Embrace challenges rather than avoid them
• See mistakes as part of the learning journey
• Keep going even when they feel like giving up
• Celebrate effort, not just results