At her Harvard commencement speech, “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling offers inspiration and advice to graduating students including one hard-won lesson that she deems “worth more than any qualification I ever earned.”

A unique and innovative educational service and website makes the science of academic success accessible to all students in Year 12 and beyond, and their families.

SuccessDNA, an academic success specialist in the senior secondary and post secondary education sectors, has developed a unique and innovative service to equip students, parents and educators with the skills that are crucial not only to success but to high achievement.

SuccessDNA’s CEO, Vicki Jarnis, said the launch of the new SuccessDNA website will provide tailor made courses to suit individual learning styles, sustained research into how students succeed, and opportunities for collaboration with educators for continuous improvement in outcomes.

The SuccessDNA system is based on:

• a 12 year study to discover those critical factors most influential in creating success in learning
  an educational model that provides students with the necessary tools and dispositions for greater success
• a model for learning which recognises the important role of parents and educators in the success of a student and provides the means to ensure that a “winning and fruitful” relationship with the student is established
• the results of research which indicate a continuing need for students to develop the incremental steps which lead to higher achievement. All students can learn these incremental steps!
• the founder’s long and broad teaching experience at senior secondary level
• the founder’s leadership experience in national and state curriculum development, the professional development of teachers, and the mentoring of students.

We invite you to browse through SuccessDNA’s offerings on our website . There you will find a range of offerings for students, parents and educators.

We are confident that our services will further enhance staff and students’ achievement while empowering parents in the process.

We welcome further contact with students, parents and parent bodies, educators and community organisations where we could further present our model of success and excellence at Year 12 and beyond.

We are available online <contact@successdna.com.au> or telephone contact on 1300 261 689.

Looking forward to further contact with you.

As children we have all had our favourite heroes. People like Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, Stephen Hawking, Malala Yousafzai, Nelson Mandela, Don Bradman and Usain Bolt are some of those that come easily to mind. These are all individuals who inspire us, whose inherent talent and skills we admire, and whose achievements we marvel at. Many of us have tried to emulate them.

There is a widely held belief that these “superheroes” naturally excel at their craft. We believe that these gifted individuals were born with the extraordinary talents they display. Moreover, we believe they are able to easily sail on their road to success because of that inborn talent without too much hard work involved.

Some of these people are fortunate enough to have been born with particular talents and passions. Despite a widespread belief that their ability is purely innate, they spend inordinate amounts of time and endless hard work in pursuing and honing their craft, developing their skills and becoming an expert in their field. They train intensively, engage in deliberate practice, persist in the face of set backs and dedicate themselves to distinguishing themselves. Other individuals with perhaps immense talent, never manage to achieve success because they do not stick at it and are disdainful of serious effort.

A study by award-winning psychologist Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University and author of Mindset, has shown that what we come with is the raw material we have to develop. Her findings show that ability is something that can be developed and intelligence, like a muscle, grows stronger through exercise. She calls this a growth mindset.

Through decades of practical experience and 12 years of systematic research, the SuccessDNA founder has been figuring out answers to why some senior secondary and post secondary learners achieve their potential while equally talented others do not. The key she found, is not ability. It is a system of learning, a set of incremental skills which can learnt. Followed systematically, a learner can make dramatic strides in their performance and can excel.