Do the right thing and do the thing right!

In the Middle School, we are currently focusing on the power of feedback and other Wellbeing Fitness Challenges, including leadership. This focus is especially important as the boys complete their academic program and begin to prepare for examinations.

During adolescence, the boys’ capacities to stay focused on the job at hand and ignore distractions are often tested. Focusing on the strengths of leadership, bravery, self-regulation and perspective will help to connect them to the moment, enabling them to do the right thing and do the thing right. It’s about developing grit.

grit = passion + long-term persistence

Many students need to learn the difference between activity and action:

• activity – having little meaning and purpose for what they are doing and allowing their minds to be hijacked by their emotions;
• action – having meaning and purpose for what they are doing and following through on what they say they will do;

Leaders understand this difference.

The key qualities of a successful leader are:

• believing that others matter
• having a higher purpose in life
• using a combination of their own and others’ strengths to achieve what the group sets out to do
• understanding that the right thing to do is nearly always the hard thing to do – and then being prepared to do it
• welcoming challenges and overcoming them by using growth mindsets to learn new approaches to building their brains’ abilities.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” Helen Keller

Travis Hopgood
Deputy Head – Middle School