Volume 23 Number 8Friday16 March 2012

From the Deputy Headmaster - Staff and Community Relations In this issue .. . From the:

Deputy Headmaster - Staff and Community Relations

• Deputy Headmaster -Extracurricular

• Head of Middle School

• Dean of Administration and Curriculum

• Director of Student Services

2012 Term D ates:

Term 1: 24 January 2012 - 30 March

Term 2: 17 April- 22June (lunchtime)

Term 3: 17 July- 21 September

Term 4: 8 October - 30 November (lunchtime)

2013 Term Dates:

Term 1: 28 January 2012 - 28 March

Term 2: 16 April - 21 June (lunchtime)

Term 3: 16 July - 20 September

Term 4: 8 October - 29 November (lunchtime)

Please see MyGrarnmar for the full list of dates for 2012 and 2013.

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I took the opportunity in my address at assembly iliis week to combine a few common

threads of some very traditional aspects of iliis school's culture with some more recent

understandings that have emerged from both researched and popular writing.

It is obvious from the School's values (community, learning, respect, leadership and

especially endeavour) and our motto, Nil sine Labore, which roughly translated means

nothing is gained without effort, that we as a school place significant emphasis and

importance on perseverance, efforr and endeavour. Not only are these attributes evident in

our values and motto, rhey are readily evident in all aspects of the daily Life of the School.

I see boys in my Mathematics class persevering and make great efforts to understand and

apply concepts and procedural knowledge; l see boys in mine and ochers' sporting reams

valuing practice and perseverance during training, and playing with passion and much effort

during fixtures; and we repeatedly see the results of enormous amounts of rehearsal char

contribute to some of rhe very fine music presentations at the School.

While we have an intuitive appreciation of effort, perseverance and passion, during

assembly I related some insights from the literature. The first of these was an article in the

journal Psychological Review by Professor Anders Ericsson (1994) from the University of

Colorado who rested che still widely held notion that people who are experts in the fields,

those people who perform at the edge of what is statistically plausible, become so because

of innate ability. The conclusion char Ericsson and his colleagues reached was that chis

notion of a pre-determined ability co become an expert was wrong and the most important difference between expert performers and the rest of us is the effectiveness of their sustained,

focused and deliberate practice.

The other insight that I relayed was that offered by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008

publication, Outliers: The Story of Success. As the title suggests, in his book G ladwell

examines the factors that contribute co exceptional levels of success. Throughout the

publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the '10 000 hours rule' claiming, like Ericsson

before him, char the key co achieving an exceptional level of success in any field is, co a large

extent, a matter of sustained , deliberate and focused practice.

The final reading char I reported on during assembly was an article published in rhejournal of Personality and Social Psychology written principally by Angela Duckworth from the

University of Pennsylvania. In her article titled Grit: Perseverance and Passion for long-term

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Goals, Duckworth and her colleagues, like Ericsson, attributed achievement and success not

simply co innate skill or intelligence but rather co an array of virtues: creativity, energy and

one in particular which she called grit. Duckworth describes grit in the following way:

Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over time, despite failure, adversity and plateaus in progress. 1he gritty individual approaches achievement tt.s a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina. Whereas disappointment or boredom means to others that it is time to change trajectory and cut /.osses, the gritty individual stays the course.

To rest her hypothesis, Duckworth developed a questionnaire to measure an individual's

perseverance and passion , what she calls their Grit Quotient, and admi nistered it to over

3,500 Ivy League university undergraduates and ocher students at the United Scares Military

Academy at West Point. In testing the grittiness of these students and then comparing ir

with their subsequent progress and achievement, she found that the single best prediccor of

significant accomplishment in science, arc, spores, communication, organisation or some

ocher endeavour was an individual's grittiness. That is, the higher an individual's GQ, the

more likely they are co achieve success.

Her research was so respected chat institutions like West Point now regularly test applicants'

GQ as well their IQ as pare of their recruitment and selection processes.

The messages in these readings are fai rly obvious and important, and these same principles

and strategies, albeit on a reduced scale, can be applied co our students' experiences and

goals at the School whed1er chey be goals associated with academic learning or goals

associated with skill development in sport, music, debating or other activities at the School.

During d1eir time at the School, the boys will face disappointment, they will experience

failure and they will be challenged by boredom, bur by showing grit through sustain ed,

deliberate and focused practice, by spending che necessary time, they will ul timately be

successful and ultimately achieve their goals by harnessing and developing their GQ.

Finally this week, Mr Micallef has asked char I include the first paragraph of che School

Captain's assembly address to students concerning coday's National Day for Action Against

Bullying and Violence. It reads:

Bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence are all abuses of power. Bullying and harassment occur when people use and abuse power to trouble, annoy or oppress a person. 1his week is Say No to Bullying week and Friday March 16 is the National Day far action against Bullying and Violence. The focus of the 2012 day wi!L be on parents and families taking a stand together with school communities and recognising the important role everyone plays. As many as 20 per cent of students in Australian schools have experienced bullying and harassment. The real figure may be even higher, because many problems are not reported. However, Grammar's anti-bullying policy makes it very dear that such abuses of power are never alright and unacceptable at this School.

Besc wishes

Ed Roper

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C .. Marchews, M. D. and Kelly, D.R. (2007) Cric: Perseverance and Passion for Long-1c rm

Coals. In Joumfll tf Pmonflfity 1111tl Sorifll Psyrhology, Vol. 92. No. 6. 1087- 110 I.

Ericsson, K. A., ·nunmpe, R. T. and l esch-Romer, C. ( 1993) 1he Role of Delibernce Practice in the Acquisition of Ex pen

Performance. In Psychologicnl Review. Vol. I 00. No. 3. 363-406.

Gladwell. M. (2008) Outliers: 17Je Story ofSurms. Boston: Li erle, Brown and Company.

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From the Deputy Headmaster - Extracurriculum

From the Head of Middle School

This is the third year our Middle School precinct has been awash with the colour orange as

part of our commitment ro acknowledge Say No to Bullying Day. The week was marked by

extensive and meaningfu l discussion of this critically important topic, along with a range

of activities to promote positive actions that fight bullying. At our Middle School assembly

I rook the opportunity to explore the themes of Say No to Bullying Day. The starting point Pg4

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was co raise the topic in d1e context of one of the School's core values, respect, which sics

at the heart of how safe and happy we are as a community. As a simple and general guide, students were encouraged co creac others as they would wish co be created. This involves

behaving in a proper manner coward to all people, regardless of background, family history,

skin colour or age. The next point I made was that we should be proud that we have a very

respectful community in our Middle School which is why we should collectively work to

protect it from bullying behaviour.

The most important message co scudents was that, as a school, we do not tolerate che

behaviour of boys who purposely set out to hurt other boys and make them scressed

and sad. Bullies can have a very destructive influence on any community which is why

we need co work together to eradicate any evidence of these behaviours. Pleasingly, our

regular bullying surveys indicate that ours is a school community where bullying is not a

big problem because most boys embrace the value of respect and we enjoy a culture where

people who have witnessed inappropriate behaviour report it.

Our students are provided wirh explicit instruction on the behaviours that conscicuce

bullying through the work they do in their Persona! Development classes. There are a range

of other activities and drama performances throughout the year chat support this awareness

raising. If parents would like co read the School's policy on bullying they can access it in

the student Record Book where me types of unacceptable behaviours are clearly explained.

This covers verbal, physical, extortion, exclusion and cyber bullying. The policy also clearly

outlines the steps che School will cake in responding when bullying has occurred.

Say No to Bullying Day is noc only about raising awareness of me effects of bullying, ic sends

a very powerful message about the negative effects of bystander behaviour. Bullying ex is cs

in communities where people allow it co happen; in places where bystanders do nothing co

scop d1e behaviours. I concluded my assembly address by saying that I hoped the boys in

our community make a conscious choice co do two things if they witness bullying. Firstly,

students can choose nor co join in these behaviours if they witness mem. Bullies often

behave the way they do because chey are seeking me approval of peers. By joining in or

standing by and watching, bullies are affirmed. Secondly, I encouraged our students co help

protect our community by quietly reporting any bullying mey witness to their Form Tutor,

Form Senior or Head of Year. Tirnt way we can respond swiftly and collectively to stamp out

these behaviours.

Finally, I finished the assembly by saying chat while Friday 16 March provides an

opportunity co chink about our own behaviour and our response to bullying, we need to

make a commitment co make every day in che Middle School Say No to Bullying Day.

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www.brisbanegrammar.com @ BRISBANE GRAMMAR SCHOOL ~

A Non-denominational Day and Boarding School for Boys. Boarding from Year 7.

Gregory Terrace, Brisbane Qld 4000. Telephone on (07) 3834 5200 or email enrolments@brisbanegrammar.com

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