THE Mansfield Steiner School community wishes to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the 2024 Year 12 students, who all achieved their IB Diplomas.

“We are extremely proud of our year 12 International Baccalaureate students for achieving their diploma," said Glenn Hood, principal.

"The holistic structure of the course demands that all students think broadly and deeply about the world and their place within it.

"The development of each student across the two years of the course has been a privilege to watch and we can't wait to see what they go onto achieve the years ahead.”

Upon receiving their results, students are reminded that completing their International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is a significant milestone in the development of who they are as people.

Its combination of six subjects across a wide range of disciplines, together with core components of research, writing, critical thinking, community engagement, creative practice and physical activity, grow listening, thinking, expressing, and perhaps most of all self-managing skills.

Through stretching themselves in these different ways, these young adults are placed to make choices about how to move out into the world and participate meaningfully with a greater sense of freedom and confidence.

Each student received an ATAR above 70; the highest ATAR was 94.55, converted from an IBDP score of 38.

These scores include results from subjects that are not necessarily personal strengths of the students.

Aligned with one core principle of Steiner Education, the IB emphasises the importance of developing strong generalist capacities before beginning to specialise.

This is not least because it is through challenging ourselves that we grow the most.

The program engages broadly and deeply with how the world works, how we express our understandings of these phenomena and how we can think through how to move forwards.

The above numbers are measures to be proud of that will gain the students quick access to many different pathways, but as their coordinator and teacher I reiterated to them that the numbers do not adequately represent their efforts.

I asked them to focus their reflection, as much as possible, on the times their efforts translated to growth within themselves and their relationships with others and the world. These times can perhaps somehow be reflected well in the numbers, though not always.

The broader philosophy that guides our school means that we can really bring to life the important qualities of an IB education by crafting embodied experiences of learning. This cohort exemplified what it means to be open to trying new activities or ideas together, to respectfully persist through things that are difficult, and to play with the creative expression of our understandings.

These habits are perhaps some of the best immeasurable measures of a good education.