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'Failure week' encourages Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar students to embrace mistakes

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Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School creates Failure Week to build resilience among students Invanhoe Girls' Grammar School Is Embracing Mistakes The school teaching students that it's OK to fail The school teaching students that it's OK to fail

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'Failure week' encourages Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar students to embrace mistakes * r/melbourne

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98 points and 24 comments so far on reddit

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One of Melbourne's elite girls' schools is teaching its students to embrace their blunders and learn from them as it launches 'Failure Week'.

Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar is urging students not to focus on perfection but to embrace failure instead, with teachers suggesting it's important students learn from their errors and build resilience.

As part of 'Failure Week' - believed to be the first program of its kind across the nation - teachers' mistakes will be projected onto screens in every classroom from today.

It is understood students will also be made to learn new skills such as crochet, dancing, crosswords and reciting medieval poetry.

All tasks will be completed in front of their peers and teachers are expecting students to flunk.

But students will still be rewarded for their "normality" and "averageness".

The school's head of counselling Bridget McPherson said "we are trying to curb an increasing trend we are seeing in students around perfectionism and concerns about grades, outcomes and achievement."

"We want our students to recognise that failure, and making mistakes, is a really crucial part of learning," she added.

One of the teachers at the prestigious high-school will reveal she failed part of her teaching degree while another will detail how she started a historical tours business that buckled ahead of its maiden event, leaving tourists stranded.

The move follows the release of statistics which revealed only 62 percent of girls in secondary school girls had a strong sense of wellbeing and more than 55 percent were anxious.

Now, experts say fear of failure in the classroom could extend to other aspects of life.

Dr McPherson said many young women are worried about disappointing their families, teachers and peers or are stressed and anxious about grades.

According to reports, Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar generally sees 63 percent of its students achieve an ATAR score above 80.

The state-wide average of students achieving an 80+ ATAR is just 20 percent.

In addition, Dr McPherson will be sharing a story about how she crashed a car during her initial driving lesson.

Though, not everyone is impressed with the plan.

Dr Bella d'Abrera, from the Institute of Public Affairs, said failure is not a subject and a natural part of life, meaning it should not be taught in the classrooms.

"This is yet another example of schools failing to educate their students and interfering where they shouldn't," she told News Corp.

"Parents paying high school fees expect their kids to be sensibly educated. Failure week does not meet that expectation."

Year 12 exams kick-off in less than two months.

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Prestigious girls' school launches 'Failure Week'

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Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar is urging students not to focus on perfection but to embrace failure instead, with teachers suggesting it's important students learn from their errors and build resilience. As part of 'Failure Week' - believed to be the first program of its kind across the nation - teachers' mistakes will be projected onto screens in every classroom from today.

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Posted August 28, 2017 09:22:33

An elite Melbourne school has encouraged its students not to focus on perfection but to embrace failure in an attempt to build resilience and teach them to learn from their mistakes.

Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School has developed "failure week", which involves projecting the mistakes of teachers onto screens in every classroom.

The school's head of counselling, Bridget McPherson, said it was vital for students to recognise that failure was an important part of learning.

"It's actually impossible to learn and learn well if you don't make mistakes and you don't reassess your strategy and you don't experience things going wrong," she said.

"Focussing everything on perfection and achievement doesn't get you very far at all in terms of learning, so it's crucial for that."

An independent study released last week found only 62 per cent of girls in secondary schools had a strong sense of wellbeing and more than 55 per cent were assessed as anxious.

The study found there has been a huge growth Australian schools trying to address the issue, with nine in 10 independents schools now offering a wellness service to students, and public schools following suit.

Ms McPherson said fear of failure in the classroom could easily spread to other areas of life.

"We have young people who are reluctant to offer answers in class, because they're fearful of what they might look like if they get the answer wrong," she said.

"That moves all the way through to being quite stressed and anxious about grades and feedback from teachers for fear of disappointing people or looking, perhaps, not clever enough in front of their teachers and families."

With this year's Year 12 exams beginning in less than two months, student anxiety levels are heightened across the state.

Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar prides itself on its well above average ENTER scores. The school released a graph showing 63 per cent of its students achieved a score of above 80, compared to 20 per cent of students statewide.

The school boasts "excellent VCE results" as a top feature of the school on its website.

Ms McPherson said teachers were initially wary of the idea of celebrating their failures, but had since got on board.

"There was a little bit of anxiety when we first talked about it, the word failure itself has a huge stigma to it, I think even naming the week failure week people found a little bit strange," she said.

Ms McPherson said she would be sharing her own story about when she crashed a car during her first driving lesson.

"Mine is actually about a pretty major car accident on my first ever driving lesson where I managed to mount the curb and drive into an antique wall of my neighbour's. It was pretty spectacular," she said.

Parents were not pre-warned about the idea, but she said she hoped that it would spread to conversations in the home.

"I would really strongly encourage parents to talk about their failures. It seems like something that parents don't do, I think more just through lack of thinking about it," she said.

"But it's amazingly powerful for young people to hear that their parents have had small failures, and bigger ones, over the course of their lives."

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'Failure week' urges schoolkids to embrace mistakes

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Posted August 28, 2017 09:22:33 An elite Melbourne school has encouraged its students not to focus on perfection but to embrace failure in an attempt to build resilience and teach them to learn from their mistakes. Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School has developed "failure week", which involves projecting the mistakes of teachers onto screens in every classroom.

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Rather than celebrating triumph, an elite Melbourne girls' school is teaching its students a lesson in mental resilience by encouraging them to participate in tricky activities most are expected to fail at.

Students at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School is dedicating the entire week to celebrating their shortcomings by understanding that failure is a crucial part of learning.

During Failure Week students will try their hands at juggling, cryptic crosswords, a spelling bee, drama workshop, abstract painting, and other activities to learn a tricky new skill they will struggle to master.

On Friday, the students have the opportunity to share their newly acquired skills, which they will most likely fail at, in front of their "supportive" peers, the school said.

"Every two years the school runs an entire week of surprise classroom and lunchtime activities for Prep to Year 12 students, aimed at building psychological wellness and resilience," the school said in a statement.

This year's focus is on taking a risk and having a go while learning failure is a crucial part of learning. Students are being taught to focus on their efforts, not only achievements or outcomes, the school said.

Clinical psychologist and author Judith Locke will also speak with staff and parents during the week about how they can help students build resilience and become more confident and capable.

"Our students feel a pressure to achieve very high levels of academic performance, and they set high expectations for themselves," said Ivanhoe Girls' Head of Counselling Dr Bridget McPherson.

"They often worry about making mistakes, and they struggle to tolerate the uncomfortable emotions that come with failing or being imperfect.

"Research has shown that fear of failure can lead to a range of behaviours that impede learning, including procrastination, excessive checking and difficulty making decisions.

"Failure Week aims to give our students an understanding of the importance of failure, to encourage them to tackle their learning in a brave way, without fear of making mistakes," Dr McPherson said.

Principal Dr Heather Schnagl said fear of failure often holds us back, but it is through failure that we genuinely learn.

"It is very important that girls embrace the opportunities available to take a risk, grow and develop," she said.

So far the high-achieving school has reported Failure Week has begun with a success.

"Failure Week has been extremely well received from students and staff of Ivanhoe Girls' today," the school announced on its Facebook page, with the initiative being positively received by its school community.

"What a fabulous concept," one woman commented.

"Failure often precedes success and I believe it's so important to teach our young women to face all challenges, irrespective of result!"

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Melbourne school stages 'Failure Week' to encourage students to take risks

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Rather than celebrating triumph, an elite Melbourne girls' school is teaching its students a lesson in mental resilience by encouraging them to participate in tricky activities most are expected to fail at. Students at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School is dedicating the entire week to celebrating their shortcomings by understanding that failure is a crucial part of learning.

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In a world where top ATARs and success are celebrated, one Melbourne school is embracing failure.

On Monday, the worst stuff-ups of Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School teachers will be projected onto screens in every classroom as the school kicks off Failure Week.

"We are trying to curb an increasing trend we are seeing in students around perfectionism and concerns about grades, outcomes and achievement," the school's head of counselling Bridget McPherson said.

"We want our students to recognise that failure, and making mistakes, is a really crucial part of learning."

The raw and personal stories are designed to normalise failure.

One teacher at the high-achieving school details how she failed part of her teaching degree.

Another writes about how she started a historical tours business which collapsed ahead of its first event, leaving tourists stranded.

Students from prep to year 12 will be taught new skills that they will struggle to master, including abstract painting, juggling, cryptic crosswords, reciting medieval poetry and dancing.

At the end of the week, in front of hundreds of their peers in a packed auditorium, the girls will display these new skills and most likely, stuff up.

"The whole idea of the week is to get students not only to fail but to be OK about publicly failing," Dr McPherson said.

"One of the big issues is that students are reluctant to display their learning or their knowledge or their curiosity for fear of not being right."

The initiative is aimed at building resilience - an education buzzword that promises to prepare students for the real world, ward off mental health issues and help them succeed.

Overseas students who outperform their Australian peers in international education rankings are more resilient, according to Kevin Donnelly, a senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University.

"Asian kids, in particular, are more resilient," he said, singling out students from Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.

"They have a stronger sense of their own ability to overcome adversity and to meet challenges. Even though it might be difficult and they may have failed, they have a willingness and ability to overcome adversity and work hard."

For a long time, there's been a perception that failure damages people, according to Professor Stephen Dinham​, Associate Dean of the University of Melbourne' Graduate School of Education.

"We have bred a generation where it's not OK to get critical feedback. It's not OK to tell someone that they haven't reached a certain standard," he said.

"We tend to get feedback on effort rather than achievement."

The thinking was that positive feedback would boost students' self-esteem, leading to improvements in their learning.

"We know that's not the case," Professor Dinham said.

"When you give kids a lot of positive reinforcement and no negative feedback ... it tends to confuse them and gives them a false sense of how they are going. It sets up a situation where they get into the big world and suddenly they are not as good as they think they are."

If handled properly, failure gives students feedback that helps them reach the required standard, he said.

"That's a good thing."

House captain Lucy Wong comes from an academic family - both her parents are doctors - and she initially put a lot of pressure on herself to achieve top VCE results.

But the aspiring actor realised that she didn't want to bust herself to achieve an ATAR of 99.

Lucy wants to study theatre and acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, courses where entry is based on auditions.

"Acting is obviously going to encounter a lot of failure, a lot of rejection," the year 12 student said. "I am hoping that Failure Week makes me totally immune.

"Taking the foot off the gas of needing to achieve, achieve, achieve and be perfect has been so enlightening."

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The school teaching students that it's OK to fail

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In a world where top ATARs and success are celebrated, one Melbourne school is embracing failure. On Monday, the worst stuff-ups of Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School teachers will be projected onto screens in every classroom as the school kicks off Failure Week.