What success means at Edenhurst
At Edenhurst, we love celebrating the achievements of all our boys and girls and we actively seek opportunities to do this. We are very much of the mindset that success breeds success. We like the Bill Rogers approach of ‘catching them being good’. This approach to character development at the school has proven successful over many years and is highly valued by the senior schools our children go on to.
It starts really small by rewarding the behaviours and attitudes we would like to encourage. For example, we award merits for being kind and helpful but also for producing good work and succeeding. Not only does this distinguish between two very important aspects of our Rewards and Sanctions policy but it shows that we value kindness equally to academic success.
This is then reinforced by awarding Head’s Commendations for: Perseverance, Courage, Resilience, Risk-taking, Open-mindedness and Curiosity because these are the learning dispositions that we believe will ensure that our children will flourish in an ever-changing world. Our school values of Courtesy, Honesty, Endeavour and Respect are ever present around the school and are evident in our lovely children.
Arguably, our most important task is to ensure that all of our children leave Edenhurst as better human beings, ready to take on any challenge that their lives may present. So how do you measure this? It isn’t as easy as assigning a number. We could say that over the past few years 100% of our children secured a place at their preferred school. We could also say that many of our children achieve scholarships and awards at very impressive schools – in fact out of 20 children in our current Prep 6 class, 9 scholarships have been awarded to date. But these numbers don’t paint a true picture. We are completely non-selective and scholarships will only reward the highest achievers often undervaluing the achievements of the rest. We could go on and bore you with parent, staff and pupil survey data but as you know data can be very subjective and will not always provide an accurate picture. I, for one, am never comfortable about defining children by a number.
This little school consistently ‘punches above its weight’ on the sportsfield. Just this week our netball girls won their group in the regionals, progressing to the national finals. Similar success has been enjoyed by our football teams in the past few years. But the most important measure is that every boy and girl in the Prep forms will represent their school every year. These are just some of the reasons we were nominated in the ISA awards for our outstanding sporting provision. The reason for this success? A dedicated team of teachers who truly understand the value of sport and the life lessons children learn from participating in it.
The same can be said about performing arts at Edenhurst. It is very much part of our character development program ensuring that our children are confident in front of a crowd. Music is woven into the fabric of their lives and our school is our choir. At the end of their time at Edenhurst, each of our Prep 6 class delivers an eloquent speech at the awards ceremony. They also star in a huge musical production, the standard of which needs to be seen to be believed.
So how do we measure success at Edenhurst? We start by truly getting to know our children and learning how to help them achieve the very best outcomes. Relationships are key to this. Children always come first. We make time to listen to our families and work with them to constantly improve what we are doing. In terms of measuring all this, there is only one method that actually works and that is to spend time with an Edenhurst child. This certainly works for me; I am impressed by them daily.
