the imPortAnCe oF exCellenCe

In January I wrote a New Year’s blog about the importance of excellence. Sometimes the words you write are out of date the moment they are published, but in this case, I stand by them.

The dangers of perfectionism and in particular the pressure it can put on young people are well documented. In a 2019 online article, authors Simon Sherry and Martin M Smith wrote: “Perfectionism involves striving for flawlessness and requiring perfection of oneself and others. Extremely negative reactions to mistakes, harsh self-criticism, nagging doubt about performance abilities and a strong sense that others are critical and demanding also define the trait.”

So while there may be nothing wrong in itself in striving for perfectionism, if it becomes damaging to oneself and others its value is questionable.

But avoiding perfectionism and avoiding excellence are two different things. Because excellence is about achieving the best possible standard with the resources and time available. And its pursuit is a great way to stay sharp, particularly in boarding. I have written before in this magazine about the danger of schools aiming to ‘meet’ regulations such as the National Minimum Standards (NMS) for Boarding in England.

The problem lies in thinking that meeting Standard 5.1 (“Suitable sleeping accommodation is provided for boarders”) and Standard 9.2 (“Boarders are able to obtain necessary personal and stationery items while accommodated at school”) is the same as being excellent. Clearly it isn’t.

I have visited hundreds of schools and boarding houses and 99 per cent of them have been NMS compliant. But I would not say that 99 per cent have also been excellent in their boarding provision.

Author and former UK table tennis champion Matthew Syed wrote in his book ‘Bounce’ that excellence takes time: “So the question is: How long do you need to practice in order to achieve excellence? Extensive research, it turns out, has come up with a very specific answer to that question: from art to science and from board games to tennis, it has been found that a minimum of ten years is required to reach worldclass status in any complex task.”

Robin Fletcher Chief Executive BSA and BSA Group

The problem of course with this statement is that if you have just started your first role in a boarding school it may take another nine years for you to achieve excellence.

But whether it takes a year or 10 years is not actually the point, rather that committing ourselves to the journey, purpose and aim of excellence is almost bound to help us do better tomorrow what we did yesterday.

In a sector which over the past three years has seen nearly 40 BSA UK members either stop boarding or close altogether, and where inspection failures are currently rising, I would argue that the time for excellence has never been more acute.

Maybe adopting an excellence mindset individually and collectively will make little difference in the face of external forces beyond our control. The risk however of not trying for excellence may be greater still.