In keeping with the Prem Mission, what does ‘working together for a sustainable future and inspired by meaningful relationships, continuous learning and good thinking’ look like in the Diploma Years at Prem? How do our most senior students  build the bridge from our caring community into a big, wide – and increasingly uncertain – world?

As students are advised on the Homepage of The Diploma Years at Prem Website, whether within the IB DP, the IB CP or  the Prem Diploma, when they join Grade 11 they are entering the most challenging – but hopefully also stimulating and rewarding – years of their study at Prem. 

In recent weeks during ‘Connections’, the model of ‘Grit’ was introduced by Theory of Knowledge Coordinator Ajarn Erica as a defining quality that helps students to flourish in their Diploma Years programmes at Prem. 

In our ‘Connections’ session this Tuesday, we built on this idea of ‘Grit’: the idea that putting passion and perseverance towards an important long-term goal is essential to success in the Diploma Years. 

Ajarn Lisa, CP Coordinator, helped us to understand the significance of such dynamic 21st century skills and dispositions as ‘Grit’ to the world of work in our uncertain future, with useful reference to the World Economic Forum’s ‘Top Skills of 2025’.

Using a combination of digital conferencing and independent engagements via the ‘Growth and Grit’ page of the Diploma Years at Prem website, students started to explore how embracing challenges – even failures – paves the way for greater successes, and happiness in the future. Unpacking ‘The Growth Mindset’ and ‘Grit’ models, we also made meaningful connections to the ongoing work of Ajarn Dawn and her team in helping students prepare for university admissions and other pathways to success.

From here, our work in ‘Connections’ over the coming weeks in The Diploma Years at Prem will continue to build grit and growth in our students, as we help them to respond constructively to feedback from their subject teachers.  The goal-setting that emerges from this will also embrace their ‘core’ experiences such as CAS and Service Learning, Theory of Knowledge (TOK) and Personal and Professional Skills (PPS). CAS and Service Learning see us grow together; TOK and PPS create spaces in which we can step-back and reflect on what and why we are studying. These wider dimensions of learning in the Diploma Years ‘core’ are truly where we work together for a sustainable future, where we can be inspired by meaningful relationships, and so sustain continuous learning and good thinking.

Joe Holroyd

Assistant Principal