PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

THE YEAR OF THE LONG SHOT

How often do we see an underdog team win an important game? A champion tennis player knocked out by a lower ranked player? A runner who seems to come from nowhere to win the race?

These are all long shots - an attempt that has only the slightest chance of succeeding.

Sometimes people say, "It's a long shot, but well worth trying".

In photography a long shot is one where the camera takes in the whole picture, from the foreground right into the distance.

Perhaps for you this could be your year of the long shot.

Today is a good time to stand back and picture the whole year ahead of you. How is it going to end? What is going to happen along the way? What do you want this year? How are you going to get what you want? Have you set yourself some really hard goals – the long shot that you just might succeed in achieving?

Plenty of people have tried the long shot. Why shouldn’t you? We all know we can achieve far more than we dream of.

To succeed in your long shot the first thing you need is self-belief, knowing that you do have the ability and the skills to get to where you want to be.

Sometimes all that is needed is being better organised, or managing your time better. Sometimes it may mean hours more work. Only you know if winning the long shot is worth the effort.

All long shots seem to have in common a good team – people around them who share the same vision, want the same dream and want the best for others.

You can build your self-belief but you don’t have to build your team. It is already here. Look around you. Every teacher in this school is here to make sure every one of you can succeed this year. This is your team.

They are here to help you focus on your talents, work on your weak areas, build on your strengths, invest time and energy into helping you succeed.

With you and with your team, anything is possible. A team like this creates its own success.

Is 2017 going to be your year of the long shot?

Acknowledgement: Stuart Carruthers.