There is a difference between telling a young person that it is alright to make mistakes and giving them the confidence to actually do so.
In the classroom, getting something wrong can feel like a reflection of how capable a student is, rather than simply a part of learning. That fear can hold young people back, making them reluctant to put their hand up, take on something unfamiliar or risk getting an answer wrong in front of their peers.
Having run Combined Cadet Force (CCF) contingents for over a decade, I have seen what happens when young people are given the freedom to make mistakes and work out how to put them right.
At Loughborough Schools Foundation, around 20 staff support 300 cadets across Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force sections, and within this we regularly ask students to take on unfamiliar tasks, make decisions under pressure and work together to solve problems. They will not always get it right first time, but that is where some of the most valuable learning takes place.
When mistakes become personal
Schools have an important responsibility to support students in achieving their academic potential. Assessments matter, and students need to understand the value of working hard and taking responsibility for their progress. The difficulty comes when a disappointing result starts to feel like a judgement on their ability, rather than an indication of what they might need to work on.
I’ve noticed how quickly this can affect a student’s willingness to get involved. They might avoid answering a question, offering an idea or taking the lead in a group because they are worried about looking foolish if things do not go to plan. What appears to be a lack of confidence or willingness to participate can sometimes be a fear of getting something wrong.
Simply telling students that making mistakes or getting things wrong is okay is unlikely to change that. This is made even more complex in an environment wherein getting their grades ‘right’ could have real and tangible impact.
What we can do is help them put setbacks into perspective. An experience that doesn’t go to plan should be something they can talk about, understand and learn from, rather than something that defines what they believe they are capable of.
The case for structured failure
Students join the CCF in Year 10, aged 14 or 15, when many are still working out who they are and where they fit. We put them in uniform and ask them to take on tasks that feel strange, from learning to march to taking responsibility for a group of younger cadets. For many, it is a completely unfamiliar environment, and getting things wrong is part of the experience.
A missed step on parade, a poor decision under pressure or a command task that falls apart will not affect their GCSE results or university application. That gives us room to laugh about what happened, talk through where things went wrong and have another go, allowing students to focus on learning from the experience rather than worrying about getting everything right first time.
Of course, putting someone in a difficult situation and expecting them to work it out themselves is not enough; the important part is what happens afterwards. We need to help students think about the decisions they made, where their approach might have fallen short and what they could do differently next time. Otherwise, failure is just a frustrating experience rather than an opportunity to learn.
I’ve noticed students often approach a second attempt differently after taking time to reflect. Someone who struggled with a command task might listen more carefully to their team, take a moment before making a decision or recognise when they need to change direction. They might still find it challenging, but they now have something to draw on. Over time, they begin to understand that getting something wrong does not mean they cannot succeed.
Challenge built on trust
There is a balance to strike between challenging students and making them feel uncomfortable for the sake of it. Young people need to be pushed beyond what they already know, but they also need to feel they can make a mistake without being embarrassed or made to regret trying.
A lot of that comes down to how we respond as adults. Humour can take the embarrassment out of a situation when everyone is laughing together, but it can just as easily make a student feel singled out. Asking why a decision did not work encourages them to think about what they could change. Questioning whether they should have been trusted with the task in the first place sends a very different message.
Some of the most valuable experiences I have had with cadets have come from working alongside students in difficult conditions, braving the same rain and cold, while sharing the responsibility for getting the task done. I have seen that shared experience can change a relationship, as a student who might be hard to reach in the classroom can begin to see that their teacher is dealing with the same discomfort and working towards the same goal.
Schools do not need a field exercise to apply that principle and create a sense of trust. It can start by taking their difficulties seriously, acknowledging uncertainty and helping them work out the next step. If we want young people to become more resilient, we also need to show them that asking for help is part of that process. It should never feel as though they are expected to cope with everything on their own.
Recognising more than academic ability
One of the things I value about the CCF is that it gives us another way to recognise what young people are capable of. Academic results are important, but they don’t always tell us how someone works with others, responds to responsibility or develops as a leader.
We recently awarded the Carter Cup, which recognises the greatest development in junior leadership across the contingent over the year, to a student who had grown enormously after being given responsibility. They were empathetic, instinctive with younger cadets and genuinely inspiring to be around, demonstrating qualities that would not necessarily show up in their grades.
I think it is important that students have opportunities to discover what they are good at outside the classroom. Knowing that they can lead a team, support someone younger or take responsibility when it matters gives them something else to feel confident about. The grade still matters, but it can help them see it as one part of a much bigger picture.
Making room to try again
For school leaders, the challenge is to make this approach part of everyday teaching, rather than something students only experience through extracurricular activities. There are plenty of opportunities to do this in the classroom, whether that means allowing students to attempt an unfamiliar problem before showing them how to solve it, reviewing how a group approached a task or giving them the chance to revise a piece of work after receiving feedback.
What matters is that students have time to put what they have learnt in practice. Feedback is useful, but its value is limited if they never get the opportunity to act on it. Teachers should also look beyond whether the second attempt was successful.
Did a student ask for help sooner? Did they listen to someone else’s suggestion? Did they recognise that their original approach was not working and try something different? These are all signs of progress worth recognising.
None of this means lowering expectations or overlooking poor performance. We should still encourage students to work hard, take responsibility and learn from feedback, but they also need to know that a disappointing result does not determine what they can achieve.
After all, we cannot expect young people to become confident in handling challenges if they are never given the chance to experience them. Sometimes the most important lesson is not how to get something right first time, but knowing what to do when you don’t.
Lt Col. Ben Ward is a Design and Technology teacher as well as Contingent Commander of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) at Loughborough Schools Foundation.
Loughborough Schools Foundation is a unique family of independent schools in the heart of Leicestershire, offering education from six weeks through to eighteen years.
