Principal’s Message

Spinning Coins!

Over the last few weeks I have been holding year level assemblies and speaking to students about our updated ‘Be your own remarkable’ KGV purpose. This purpose is about providing the support, opportunities and challenges for each and every student to be extraordinary in some way, and to engage in remarkable learning to achieve at high levels and be the best they can be.

With this in mind, I had the opportunity to listen to the guest speaker Mr Pindar Wong at our recent ESF KGV TEDx event. Mr Wong used the analogy of a spinning coin to describe the future of work for our young people. The faster a coin can spin, the more stable it becomes and as the coin slows down it starts to wobble, and eventually falls over. I shared Mr Wong’s analogy with the students where I highlighted the fact that our young people are more likely to ‘have a job for the life of the project than a job for life’. The ability to adapt, learn and ‘spin’ from one opportunity or project to the next, maybe the new definition of ‘career stability’ for our young people in their working lives.

I spoke about the reality that many of our students will be mid-career in 2060, and the only thing that we can predict in 2060 is that the world and the world of work will be vastly different. Change is the only constant, and the speed of change is likely to accelerate. The ability of our students to be agile in their thinking, to learn, unlearn and relearn is going to be fundamental to their success.

The message I gave students was that to engage in ‘remarkable learning’ as a lifelong project. It is about creating a growth mindset where failure is seen as a learning opportunity and where agility, adaptability and resilience will be some of the core attributes needed to provide a different type of stability. Our challenge as a school and as parents is to provide an environment where risk and challenge are embraced and where our young people can cultivate their own remarkable suite of learning skills based around collaboration, creativity, resilience, determination and agility.

It is also interesting to note the values that I have just mentioned are probably very similar to the words of advice that our own parents and grandparents sought to impart on us. It is ironic that these ‘old fashion values’ may still be the most important principles for our young people to embrace in these new times.

Kind regards

Mark Blackshaw
Principal
King George V