I recently read the book, Legacy by James Kerr. The book focuses on the All Blacks rugby team and the principles that underpin their success. One of the key ideas is that a culture of learning drives continuous improvement. The book uses examples from different sports to illustrate how small, incremental improvements, the aggregation of marginal gains, make a huge difference to overall success. One percent improvements applied repeatedly make the biggest impact. Kerr says, ‘The challenge is to always improve, to always get better, even when you are the best. Especially when you are the best.’
At Avondale School we aspire to cultivate a love of learning in our students; to create students who are life-long learners. Our staff and leaders are also learners. We are curious and we strive for continuous improvement in our school culture, teaching and learning, wellbeing, faith development, and our capacity to support our students to grow in all domains. Our entire staff spent last Monday learning more about the latest research in school improvement, working collaboratively to understand our strengths and weaknesses, and beginning to narrow down improvement priorities.
A critical part of this journey is hearing the voice of our community. We looked at some past data from surveys, but we look forward to seeing the data from the current survey that has been sent to students, staff and parents. We know your time is precious, but we would really appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey. Our focus for school improvement will be more impactful if we have an accurate understanding of the perspectives of parents, students and staff.
'Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence', writes Tom Peters in Thriving on Chaos, 'only in constant improvement and constant change'. As our school focuses on continuous improvement, we get to be a daily example to our students of what it means to seek feedback, learn, and try again. We get to live out the idea of incremental improvement. We get to flourish.
At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith. Galatians 6:9-10 MSG
Mrs Deb Cooper
Principal
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