Believing in yourself is the secret to success

All of us, as individuals, need to feel motivated and gratified, both at work and in our daily life. Motivation is like active energy that should be constantly nourished, thanks to the recognition and celebration of successes. At SIAL we know that positive encouragement plays an extremely important role in the social, emotional and academic development of each of our students and we try to carry it forward every day.

President Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am a successful person today because I had a friend who believed in me and I did not have the courage to disappoint him.” At SIAL we want to be that friend, because we know how important it is to help children believe in themselves. This is what we do every day, when we explain to our children that skills are developed through practice and that even failures help us to grow. Indeed, failures give us the right incentive to improve ourselves and to ask for more from ourselves.

We believe a positive attitude is like a fly-wheel for increasing self-confidence and therefore motivation. At SIAL we like to recognise and celebrate when our children behave well.

This is part of the reason we adopt our House system. We have four Houses, to which each child is assigned at the time of entry to our school. Through this system we have created a program that aims to develop motivation and self-confidence in each student: every week the children are rewarded with stars (or house points) for various reasons, such as kindness, cooperation, self-discipline and respect as well as excellent academic work and thinking.  This system helps us to promote and recognise the importance of hard work, determination, consideration for others and community participation. All skills that will be constant during our children’s growth and that will provide them with an adequate preparation for any consequent phases of their lives.

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