How to be successful at our school: tips to students

• Don’t talk about yourself all the time.
• Don’t say anything bad about someone until you’ve run out of all the good things you can say about them.
• Volunteer to do stuff even when you’re exhausted. When everybody is totally tired is when the real heroes come out!
• Don’t think you have to be fantastic at stuff you’ve never done before. Don’t think you have to be brilliant at stuff you’ve only been doing for a short time.
• Give the teachers chocolate.
• If you make a mess, we’ll help you clean it up, but ultimately it is your responsibility.
• Do your homework. Just do it.
• Your teacher is not a jukebox. You don’t press a button and get the lesson you want. Trust the teacher to know what he or she is doing.
• When you’ve done the wrong thing, try to put your hand up and be direct and open about it. When we, the teachers, do the wrong thing, we’ll try to do the same.
• Finally, here’s the secret of good conversation:

When you’re talking to someone, give them information that they can work with.

Bad conversation:

Sam: What did you do at the weekend?
Alex: Not much.
Sam: Oh.

Good conversation:

Sam: What did you do at the weekend?
Alex: Not much. Played tennis Saturday.
Sam: Who with?
Alex: My cousin. I got thrashed! 6-0, 6-0, 6-3.
Sam: Well at least you improved.
Alex: Yeah, I started hitting to his backhand all the time.
Sam: Yeah, I hate backhands. I like serving best…

Alex gives Sam a new piece of information each time. Now they have the basis of a conversation!