From the Head of School

The Power to Choose During the pandemic, my son got into journaling. He became quite a keen writer, so for his last birthday I bought him a day course in novel writing. He worked out characters, wrote little descriptions of the street outside, planned sections of the books, and wrote a whole first chapter. It didn’t seem long ago that he was refusing to do his English homework, and struggled to write 100 words when at least 500 were required. The difference was not so much the passage of years (he would, to this day, refuse to engage with equations), but the introduction of choice. The writers workshop was his choice: as was so much through the day - the genre, the style, the scenes and the story. Fear may work for one-off motivation in the short term, but for sustained effort over time, nothing beats choice. On Wednesday, Grade 9s showed off their personal projects - passions they had pursued in their own time throughout the year. Vova wrote a history of his favourite football team; Santi had programmed a computer game; Thomas had developed his carpentry skills fashioning a sword and sheath; William perfected paper aeroplane designs; and Marianna created her perfect chicken dish. Joseph created his own band from the instruments he had learnt himself. Esen summed up the benefits when reflecting on his own project in three nifty bullet points: “self-improvement, confidence and better decision making.” It was a pleasure talking to young people about what interested them, about why it meant something and why so, often they were willing to try, try and try again until they got it right. They were able to feel the truth that excellence is less the result of success, more so of persistence through repeated failure. It has been a week of creativity at ISA. On Thursday, I went to the opening of print@theprintroom (see Stuart MacAlpine’s article) and today enjoyed Grade 10’s Jazz in the Street. None of this required; all of it a lot better because of that.

Paula and Owen - Grade 10 Jazz in the Street

Joseph - Grade 9 Personal Project