Over the past six blogs I have shared my thoughts on the value of making connections academically and socially, the significance of the 3Ps of Patience, Positivity and Perseverance in our achievements and how to attain motivation and happiness.

The news reports on 31 May of the successful docking of the Space X Dragon capsule with the International Space station, the outcome of nine years of hard work, highlight the importance of another valuable tool in building success, that of productive failures. You may think it odd that I am touching on the topic of failure for my blog this week, given the assessments that are on the horizon for some of our year groups, but bear with me.

Whilst unproductive failure results from apathy and a lack of effort, the productive kind is a result of positive effort. To achieve the milestone of sending crew into space for the first time since 2011, Elon Musk and his engineering team overcame a string of failures and had to make some swift design changes to reach the point of a successful launch. Jeff Hoffman, Professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a former NASA astronaut, was quoted shortly after the event by The Guardian as saying ‘’At NASA, failure is not an option, but at SpaceX failure is how they learn, how they get things right’’.

Taking calculated risks and embracing failure is an honourable pursuit and one which is well-documented to bring success, so long as those working alongside you adopt a similar mentality and a culture of learning from failures is in place. Whilst it is important for our own levels of motivation to succeed, it is also true that when we always have success, we can lose focus and fail to be motivated to look for improvement

We can become over-confident when we succeed too often. This is a circular argument though, as we need a certain number of successes under our belts in order to make us more resilient to the concept of failure. Failing forwards as it has come to be known, certainly becomes easier to practise when you have more expert knowledge of a topic.

I don’t know what Henry Ford, one of the most renowned entrepreneurs in history, would have made of the Tesla electric cars used to transport the astronauts to their launch pad! It is a far cry from the vision he set out, more than a century ago, of transforming transportation with the development of the automobile. Although the path to success was not a smooth one for Henry, it is said that he did not allow failure to hinder innovation, rather using these setbacks to instruct his future success. He was once quoted as saying “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”.

Failing forward is a concept embraced and encouraged within OLA. I am sure that the Year 11 and Upper Sixth pupils currently learning something new within the Learning Journeys programme will have experienced one or two productive failures over the last few weeks. Perhaps their attempts at French cooking, juggling or learning Japanese may not have been jaw-droppingly good after the first try! But if we keep in mind Henry Ford’s words, it does not feel so much like a failure as an opportunity.

As pupils embark on next week’s assessments, I would urge them to strive for success, as it is worth seeking for the motivational rewards it brings, but to view any setbacks through the lens of failing forward; a necessary and helpful step to reaching your goals.

I would like to wish all families a relaxing weekend.

W.O.R.L.D Awards for this week

Congratulations to everyone who has won an award this week.