Edinburgh prep school holds ‘failure week’ to encourage students to embrace risk

Last week, Fettes College paraphrased Theodore Roosevelt in a tweet: “One who never makes mistakes, never makes anything.”

The challenging tweet was part of the Scottish prep school’s “failure week,” a celebration of risk and learning from mistakes as a response to the concern that pupils face too much pressure to succeed.

[tweet 1]

According to Fettes College’s official site:

“This week at Fettes we have been focusing on one of the most misunderstood ingredients of success: failure. While we are often scared of failure, it is important to learn that it is only through failing, often many times, that we learn how to succeed. All through the week, we have looked at the experiences of some of the most successful inventors, artists and entrepreneurs, who failed hundreds, if not thousands, of times in their journey to success.”

During the week, students were encouraged to try things they’d never done before, like play an instrument in front of an audience for the first time. At a coffee concert on Wednesday, a number of students “bravely” overcame their fear of failure to play musical instruments, juggle and perform magic tricks in front of a packed concert hall.

“The concert was extremely enjoyable, proving that we should always try not to worry about failure and have a go!” the school posted on its website.

The students were also taught about the failures of notable successes, like J.K. Rowling and Richard Branson.

[tweet 2]

Sue Bruce, head of personal and social education at the co-ed boarding school, told The Herald that the school wanted students to understand failure was an important part of success.

"If they let the fear of failure stop them from doing something, they are actually stopping themselves from learning, developing and potentially succeeding,” she said.

"Young people today from all walks of life live in a high-pressure environment where they are striving to achieve a level of perfection that is simply untenable.”

"Within schools like Fettes, we understand that pupils want to be the best that they can be and there are pressures from family, friends and staff to achieve so we want our pupils to have realistic goals and learn how to manage these pressures."

[tweet 3]

Alastair Armstrong, Fettes’ director of teaching and learning, added that “failure week” was to help ensure pupils had experienced failure before they left school — so they would be better equipped to face it after graduation.

"By teaching them about failure now, they can learn emotional resilience and how to turn what might appear to be a setback into a springboard for future progress,” Armstrong said.

[tweet 4]