From our Principal, Mr Chisholm...

At our most recent whole school assembly, I talked about the power of creativity and thinking creatively. Creativity is one of our College values and I wanted to remind the students of how truly important this is to us, as learners.
“Your mind is an incredible asset; it’s such a powerful machine which just loves to be engaged and to work with and for you. 

 

 

At our most recent whole school assembly, I talked about the power of creativity and thinking creatively. Creativity is one of our College values and I wanted to remind the students of how truly important this is to us, as learners.


“Your mind is an incredible asset; it’s such a powerful machine which just loves to be engaged and to work with and for you. Your brains have been designed to take in lots of different inputs and then to process and make sense of them. That’s how we think.


There are billions of neurons in your brain, which are constantly firing, exchanging bits of information. They assemble ‘stuff’ what can starts as seemingly unconnected and messy, and turn that into something of real value. To me this is what we mean when we talk about creativity and creative thinking.


One of our school values is creativity. We talk about it often, we see it on posters around the school, it’s written on my office wall in big letters for us all to see. Why? Because it’s so important to us all as learners”


I then asked the students to take a moment and reflect; to think about how much they’re truly embracing their creative powers each day at school.


“Finding ways to really think creatively can be hard sometimes. The pressure and busy pace of school and life can sometimes squeeze out creative thinking time and replace it with long lists of things to do; work, sport, class, homework, test preparation – sometimes you might feel like the list is getting longer and longer, maybe you’re not getting through it all; especially as you tackle the VCE.


If that starts to happen, it’s so important that you stop, take some time to breathe and reflect – ask yourself, am I enabling myself to do my best? Is the world going to end if I put this to one side for half an hour and kick the football or read a book I love? Am I really thinking deeply or am I just rushing to get something done? Am I working smart or just working hard?


You can only have those conversations when you give yourself time to activate the creative part of your brain, and really value the time it takes to think, and to think differently. More and more we’re seeing people who have this ability to think creatively; to think outside the box; to see the world in different ways as doing better in your assignments, in VCE, in NAPLAN, in student leadership and then in the workplace too.

 

Your mind is the ultimate creativity machine and I invite you to reflect on this today. How much of this power are you tapping into at school? When your mind is full to overflowing with ideas and questions, supported by your great teachers in a great school like ours, and then given some freedom to function like it’s been designed, your creative powers will fly.


When this perfect combination takes place, what you can do is amazing. I see it in you every day; and I bet you know it in yourself – when the magic of creativity fills your mind, that magic can actually be on a huge, Harry Potter-like scale. As learners, all of us, I think we all know that and it’s a great feeling.


At Buckley Park, I want us to create that perfect combination together, where we unleash the creative potential of each of our minds; that means all of you, your teachers, your friends and families, and me. I know that at our school, we have the collective creative brainpower to do even better; to go that step further; to work smarter, not harder, and to ensure that we all contribute to our society which requires more and more creative thinkers all the time.


You don’t need to be the quickest to answer a question. You don’t need to rush through a task, just to finish first. If that’s what you’re doing, you’re focused on the wrong thing – you’re focused on finishing, not on the learning. Make time to plan to work smarter; make time to have fun with your learning; make sure that giving you’re giving school work your very best efforts; make time to embrace our value of creativity and actually really think and learn creatively.”


Have a wonderful long weekend!


Nathan Chisholm
Principal


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