Giving More, Growing More

Each week, our students share their insights with their peers in Assembly.

My name is Poppy and, as Wenona’s Head Prefect, I am delighted to welcome the many of you attending Senior School Assembly for the first time this year to our community, a community you will now always belong to.

I hope you have all had a restful and safe summer break, with plenty of opportunities to spend time with family and friends, and that you are enjoying being back amongst your peers and teachers.

Five years ago, someone standing behind this same lectern told me that “at Wenona, you’re new for a day and then you’re a Wenonian”. These words have stayed with me and still offer great comfort in challenging moments. As you begin the new school year, I hope your peers will be quick to show you around, offer a warm welcome, and prove the truth behind this Wenona saying.

The beginning of a new year is often a time when we set goals for the months ahead. They might be academic, sporting, performing, or leadership ambitions, or personal or social goals to enrich our lives. They may be prompted by conversations with family, teachers, or coaches, or discovered quietly on our own. Some are carefully written down, while others exist only as motivation we carry with us. Some are powerful when shared, while others are self driven.

Whatever form they take, I invite you to bring to mind one goal you can see yourself setting for this year.

With any goal, there are factors we can control. We can choose to be brave enough to be passionate, to work hard, to put ourselves forward, and to make sacrifices. We can be brave enough to give, as our current Prefect initiative, Give More, Grow More, reminds us.

But there is also so much we cannot control. If we want to improve our performance, or make a team, or reach a particular result, we can only control our own efforts, not how others perform. We cannot control the conditions, the exam questions, how we feel on the day, or whether we face injury or misadventure.

That is why, when you think about the goal you have in mind, it is important, even though it is much easier said than done, to focus on what you can control. And something it has taken me many failures to understand is that the most important thing you can control is your perspective when you do not succeed.

One way is to say that, for five years, my dad dedicated himself to the goal of making the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 1500 metres and ultimately did not qualify.

Another way to tell the same story is that, because of that goal, he went from not making his school cross country team to earning three state records, one national championship, and running a sub four minute mile, which I am told is significant to people who know about running.

All of us have people like this in our lives. People we admire, whose achievements seem extraordinary to us. Yet often, what we see as their successes are what they see as failed attempts at even bigger goals.

Perhaps that makes the failures we encounter while pursuing our own goals just as worthy of pride. Perhaps they are exactly why to give more is to grow more. Because when we feel we have missed the mark, someone else may think we have ended up exactly where we were meant to be.

And as I am reminded when my dad’s athletics friends visit and my family is entertained by stories of their shared memories, perhaps the greatest achievements are not the visible ones at all, but the friendships we make along the way.

So, as my cohort begins our Year 12 journey, I want to remind you, and myself, to dream big in 2026. Set ambitious goals and believe you can achieve them.

Do not be limited by fear of failure. Be proud to try, knowing that missing out often takes you further than never trying at all.

Thank you.