Torch - 2021 Edition

Principal’s Message

“

Agency is a process: students need to experience stretch and be provided with opportunities to apply their learning.

“

Nurturing Positive Growth By Catherine Misson

Generation —provides for the investment in developing a Junior Kindergarten to 12 Wellbeing Program. Our immediate priority is to develop a culture of wellbeing across the College, inviting Faculty, Staff, students and families to be active participants in enlivening our values, fostering a sense of belonging and inclusivity to support wellbeing and learning outcomes. We are in the early stages of development, learning to fail forward as we understand the needs of our students and listen to those tasked with implementing the Program, trialling and improving as we gather momentum. There is discomfort as we familiarize ourselves with this integrated approach, and there is the uplift of seeing initial work beginning to define the scope and substance of the Wellbeing Program. Central to what we aim to achieve is an enhanced focus on student agency, which is the development of an inner confidence to shape one’s future opportunities. Agency is a process: students need to experience stretch and be provided with opportunities to apply their learning in a context that offers authentic choice and independence of action. Research shows that children who are supported to develop agency are more likely to flourish in their education, build and maintain positive relationships, be effective team members and leaders, and respond constructively to challenges. They also tend to have better mental health in their teen and adult lives. I am encouraged by what is unfolding within Havergal as our community engages with the strategic aspiration to provide a leading Wellbeing Program. Over the coming months, further elements of the Program will take shape. In reading this edition of Torch magazine, you will gain additional insights that I hope will inspire conversations and curiosity, as well as trust in the teams that are leading this exciting chapter of Havergal’s history of providing an outstanding education for our students.

As western societies began to adapt to the 21st-century advent of 24-7 information streams, economies began an accelerated digitalization of work; social media disrupted the curve of adolescent development with online mediation of relationships; and educators, with an eye on the horizon, contemplated the future role of schools in supporting the healthy development of young people. From around 2015, the United Nations and other invested think tanks began producing frameworks and infographics setting out the likely skills and attributes required for thriving in 2030 and beyond. Gazing into the future, there was a need to equip children with the understanding, tools and agency to adapt, for they would be pioneers of this evolving human experience. Speaking at a global conference in Bangkok in 2018, I made the bold suggestion that the value proposition for schools would soon be the development of outstanding wellbeing programs that are infused into the experience of curriculum and community, not added as an adjunct to the academic program. At that time, there was a mounting evidence base that the developmental cycle for children was evolving—including both the positive and worrying implications. It was clear that the division between nurturing the wellbeing of a child and their cognitive capabilities needed to be replaced with a more mature educational model, one in which the whole child is the centre of complex, rich, rigorous and expansive programming that delivers on both academic and wellbeing outcomes to mutually reinforce the healthy, resilient and positive growth of a young person as they learn to transition through each stage of life. The end result is, ultimately, a graduate who is well equipped for post-school destinations. Havergal is committed to this vision for our students. The current strategic direction— Havergal 2020+: Future-Proofing the Next

2021 EDITION • TORCH 3