Hope, Courage and Productive Failure

A prominent educationist Manu Kapur urges us to reframe our notion of failure whilst encouraging  us to suppress the instinct to jump in and save the day when students experience challenges.

Kapur believes that such impulsive reactions put us on the wrong side of learning and good teaching. Kapur’s maxim is if you are not failing, you are not learning! As a school two of our values are hope and courage, the former being a core School value, the latter an aspirational school value. For us, courage entails strength in the face of pain or grief and hope is deep-seated confident expectancy based on trust. These two values as we expose them enable us to reframe failure and allow us to persevere in the face of adversity, untenable circumstances, and failure.

As our students complete the year, some of them are coming to the realisation they may not have attained the outcomes they were expecting or that they set out to achieve. Even though we are nearing the year end, some of us are only now waking up to the reality of having missed our New year’s resolutions. As a school, we had our operational plans and strategic goals with earmarked performance indicators, some of which we know we have failed to materialise. This can lead to feelings of frustration, confusion, and loss. In these circumstances and with these emotions there is a revelation that we need to apprehend “for the righteous falls seven times, and rises again” Proverbs 24:16. The Godly aren’t promised freedom from losses, trials, failures, and attacks of the enemy even when the Lord watches over His children. He promises to be with us in our troubles and failures and to deliver us and honour us (Psalm 91:15). What we can learn from this is that failing and trying are instructive. As athletes hone their skills and work for that gold medal they often struggle, fall down, and lose. It is a messy affair. However, this messy affair of failure creates a powerful incentive for them to exert themselves, self-correct and eventually win. The initial failure is turned into something productive – productive failure.

As teachers, we employ this technique by presenting our students with carefully designed problem-solving activities instead of diving directly into explicit teaching. As students grapple with the problem, they generate incorrect ideas and ultimately end with solutions that are close to the optimal or correct solution. As students flounder and collectively brainstorm on solutions they build awareness and the learning effect – the desire to learn. These events suggest that when failure hits the sweet spot, deep learning occurs. For us, our sweet spot is that failure when it happens activates hope and courage. Instead of becoming despondently discouraged and clawing back in fear we get back onto our feet and spring back into action. With hope and courage, we are resilient which is a blessing for us as God’s children. Though we stumble and fail we rise again. The Lord directs the steps of those who fear Him and holds them by the hand. Thus, when we fail and fall we can say “Do not gloat over me,…for though I fall, I will rise again” (Psalm 37:23–24).

Failure in its various manifestations and in God’s presence is a safely curated opportunity for hope and courage to be rewarded. Failure is productive in that it is a divinely choreographed platform for making real and meaningful progress. We can trust wholly in the Lord because He rescues us from all our failures. We may fall seven times, but the Lord hears our cries. He upholds us when we stumble. He lifts us out of the mud and mire and sets our feet on solid ground. Through hope and courage let us see failure as productive because though we fall, we RISE.

Lifeas Kapofu — Principal

The Importance of Reading

There is no doubt reading is good for us. Reading is how we learn, how we express ourselves and ultimately, can determine the rates of success in terms of job satisfaction later in life. 

In terms of Australian statistics, most individuals read for just under an hour a day, which equates to six hours and 18 minutes of reading each week. From a comparison on a global perspective, Australia does not rate highly in this area, with the country coming fifteenth place, well outside the top 10 countries in the world. India is the winner in this area, with individuals reading an average of 11 hours each week. 

In terms of children, reading can literally change the life of a child. A study was completed, examining the reading habits of kindergarten to year 12 students, detailing that just 6 minutes of extra reading per day, can lead to improvement, leading to a child reaching benchmark literacy standards. 

Students who read for 15 minutes or more each day can improve their literacy skills at an accelerated rate. With these facts and figures in mind, it can be hard not to see the benefits in teaching our children the importance of this life skill and making time for it each and every day. 

Wherever we go outside our homes, we are faced with the opportunity to see and read what is before us. Thinking about taking the bus and reading the timetable, going to the grocery store and reading the specials on that week, or even thinking about being in remote areas such as bush walks and reading the signs that have been planted along the trails. Reading is fundamental to succeeding in this life and without this skill, people will struggle with daily tasks. 

“A person’s future opportunities for success and prosperity will be even more entwined with skilled reading abilities. It is therefore an important societal responsibility to offer every person the opportunity to become a skilled reader, and in many cases, this means becoming a skilled reader.” (Grin, 2012) 

We need to be encouraging our students to read, and not just read at school, but to prioritise opportunities to develop this skill in and outside of the home. 

Parents, not only teachers, are crucial to developing this lifelong skill. 

For young children, this could be simple things like taking five minutes to read a story before bed, making books accessible for children to grab and flick through the pages and interpret the pictures or discuss predictions. It can also look like singing nursery rhymes or even telling stories to your children yourself. This helps young children develop new vocabulary and ways to express themselves. Reading and storytelling for children promotes brain development, imagination and quite beautifully, strengthens relationships. (Raising Children, 2020)

With the temptation for teenagers to spend time on devices, reading needs to be encouraged in a variety of ways to further promote the healthy habits of reading daily. Thinking of things such as keeping a variety of reading materials at home, choosing a books that tie into your child’s interests, choosing graphic novels as a way to gauge your child into reading different genres and making time to read with your child, maybe thinking about spending time after dinner each night reading together as a family, instead of having the television on and phones or tablets accessible. 

 There are far too many benefits of reading to not encourage our students to make this a part of our daily routines. It may take some time to create some new habits that involve reading daily, however, the statistics are clear when demonstrating the benefits. 

Laura Ferguson — Head of Primary

Feedback and why it is important

Each year students complete assessments and receive a comment on the work that they have completed. Parents are sent a report and this too has a comment. What is the purpose of these comments?

Is it to compliment the student on their talent or is it to highlight what they have completed in line with what they need to be learning? When John Hattie interviewed teachers about what is meant by feedback, the answers were interesting and centred around giving a comment about what was completed correctly and what was not, according to certain criteria. When John Hattie interviewed students, they answered that feedback helps them to know where to go next. 

Over the years the staff at Emmanuel have completed professional learning around Visible Learning and Feedback and this is informing our teaching practice to be able to provide the best feedback to students and parents possible. Students and parents, alike want to know the following:

• Where am I going?

• How am I going?

• Where to next?

This helps students understand what they have achieved. Are they progressing through the unit and learning what is required? The “how am I going?” enables students to know their level of mastery in the topic; whether they have achieved a level of mastery or whether there are areas that need additional work. The last question “where to next?” gives students a pathway to follow. This will tell them if they need to revise or rework an area of content to achieve a better understanding, or whether they have mastered that content and need to progress to deeper learning of that topic. This is where teachers are able to provide extension for growth in the specific area.

Over the last year we, as a high school, have been moving into the space of continuous reporting. This is where teachers are working towards providing feedback to students and parents in the format outlined above. It has been a work in progress and we endeavour to refine our process as we move deeper into this area. As we move into a new year, we will be focussing on the structure of the feedback more and refining our feedback.

Janice Pieterse — Head of Teaching and Learning Secondary

Faith Matters!

I have professed before and here too, that the founders of Emmanuel Christian School were people of faith.

It required faith to build a Christian school in our current location and to believe it would one day be the great school that it is today. It is therefore not surprising that one of our core values is FAITH. It logically follows, that what is founded by faith can only be sustained by faith. But what does FAITH look like, both at and for Emmanuel Christian School?

The word faith, like other English words, is a term that has been given multiple interpretations. Whilst we may all know what it is, at times it can be difficult to nail it, depending on the context. Two dominant views of faith have been faith as exercised irrationally, by which having faith means being opposed to rational thought and knowledge. The other notion is one where faith assumes a form of exercised idolatry, as individuals believe that they have the power to change their circumstances. Despite the wide acceptance of these understandings of faith, they are inadequate for Christians and for any rational being.

Hebrews 11 declares that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. The prophet Habakkuk writes, ‘the righteous shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4). Whilst many may construe faith as ‘blind’ from Hebrews 11, it is far from it. Faith is not blind but active, intentional, and tangible; a visible commitment that is actioned as we live by it, pursuant to God’s promises. This is contrary to the idea of faith as a fatalistic embrace or mere mental assent to some utopia without evidence. Faith is both a state of being and expressed commitment. As a state of being, we believe in the one who made the promises. In Him, we live, move, and have our being. We have faith as we believe in the promise because the One who made the promise is infallible. Just like the ancients mentioned in Hebrews, our nature is to live our lives as God says because what He says is true. As such, this constitutes our reality, superseding naturally perceived sensory forms. In this state of being, we still function with reason, but reason, in this case, is the knowledge of the truth that God has given us. Faith in this case can be regarded as FAITH IN. At our school, we have FAITH IN Jesus Christ as a God-given promise for our ultimate atonement and sanctification.

Our FAITH IN drives us to have the second form of faith which is FAITH FOR. Our FAITH IN does not allow us to be idle and sit quietly, but continuously nudges us to act on what God has promised. When the author of Hebrews mentions being ‘sure’ and ‘certain’, these are dominant mental states that warrant and prompt action. Thus, through FAITH IN Him, we align our activities with God revealing the case about reality, whether about ourselves, Him, others, and both animate and inanimate objects around us. Though at times we use our God-given endowments, our faith in this case ceases to be a blind leap into unknowns but a rational, deliberate commitment to think, act, respond and overtly express ourselves beyond our natural abilities. Action beyond our natural endowments and oppositional extant realities is an expression of faith in God’s ways and in whom He is to us.

Implicit in our core value of faith are these two forms of faith, that is, FAITH IN and FAITH FOR. We have faith in Christ hence a Christian school acknowledging our humanity, the rebellious fall, our redemption, and reconciliation. We have faith in the One Creator God hence we worship and pray. We have faith in the Bible hence we present it as the true infallible spoken word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. We have faith in the Holy Spirit as the third person of the trinity who abides in us and leads us into all truth. We have faith in the family as a God-ordained institution for bringing forth and raising children according to His purpose and realisation of His will. We have faith in the church as a body of believers in Christ established for transformation into Christ’s likeness.

As a school, we also have FAITH FOR. Just like the commended ancients in Hebrews who believed, and obeyed in order for them to receive what God had promised them we also believe and obey to receive what God promises us throughout His word. We have faith for a future of abundant life for the precious children that our parents have entrusted to us. We have faith for the realisation of God’s greatness and goodness in their lives. We have faith for the redemptive and restorative power of the cross for all in our school. We have faith for God sustaining families as a vital unit for Godly societies and effective education. We have faith for God’s blessing upon our school as we unite in heart and mind. We have faith for resources to obtain in seasons of austerity for the provisioning of Christian education of the highest quality. Thus, faith for, drives, and sustains us as we labour with hope and love.

For us as a school, faith matters in all matters because all our matters are matters of faith.

Lifeas Kapofu — Principal

Outdoor Learning

In Outdoor Learning we have completed some great projects as well as built relationships.

We have learnt how to use hand and battery tools with the safety of everyone in mind. It has been great to be part of a team that is able to invest in the school, both with project work as well as emotional wellbeing.

One key learning for students has been that we are not a group that sits idle. We work hard. We work hard at improving our skills when working with tools, but even harder at improving and investing in our understanding of ourselves.

Our team are constantly looking at what to improve in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, as well as making wise decisions. Our focus plans incorporate these areas, these are discussed weekly but can be changed or amended every three weeks. This enables us to keep moving forward with our goals as well as acknowledge our strengths and growth.

One thing we have learnt in Outdoor Learning is that it takes time to change and improve our skills in self-awareness and how we relate to others. We have learnt that we will not always achieve our goals, and that is ok, as long as we are striving to do better.

We are about having a place of belonging and acceptance. Where we can strive to use our awareness to serve others, and encourage them to grow personally as well.

The biggest lesson we have learnt in life is that work is hard. Often people want to give up and walk away. We have moved several tons of soil, spent many hours building furniture for some of our classrooms and fitting out our home, the shipping container behind the PAC!

The key for us in Outdoor Learning is to have a place we belong in. A place where we can learn and practice our skills with self-management. We can have those discussions on how we improve ourselves and learn to serve others. Our team and staff have noted the development of maturity in the students we have been working with. 

In Outdoor Learning yesterday, we started painting the container inside to freshen it up and make it feel more like our home. Whilst students worked, the conversations were amazing. We spoke of the skills we used with brushes and rollers being able to be used for work, or to renovate our own homes. Students connected the skills with real life situations, seeing the purpose of not only serving others, but learning new skills while we served.

In the future, as our team develops the skills and attitude of servanthood, we plan to take on more students. It is exciting to be part of this space.

I would like to thank our volunteer Peppi, who always helps out on Mondays, especially with the catering for lunches. She has been instrumental to the program’s success.

Ed Moroni — Head of Teaching & Learning Secondary