What if the most important thing your child needs isn't a higher score, but someone who truly sees them?

Adam Hipwell knows what it feels like to believe school just isn't for you.

After leaving Year 12 disappointed with a score that didn't reflect what he was capable of, Adam made the courageous decision to repeat his final year. Looking back, it wasn't simply a higher score that changed his future. It was finding a school community where he felt seen, supported and challenged to believe in himself.

Today, Adam is a teacher, educational leader, instructional coach, father of two and musician. Every day, he works alongside teachers to create the kind of classrooms he once needed as a teenager. Places where relationships come before results and young people are encouraged to grow, not simply perform.

In this thoughtful and deeply practical conversation, Adam shares what helped him move from feeling unseen to helping others belong, why repeating Year 12 became one of the best decisions he ever made, and how parents can focus less on outcomes and more on the habits, relationships and mindset that set young people up for life.

Whether you're raising a child navigating school, supporting a teenager through exams, or simply wondering how to encourage confidence without adding pressure, this episode is full of reassurance, perspective and practical wisdom.

Because your child's future is never defined by one score. It is shaped by the people who believe in them along the way.

What You'll Discover:

• Why Adam chose to repeat Year 12 and how that decision changed the direction of his life.

• The surprising difference one supportive school community can make in a young person's confidence, wellbeing and achievement.

• Why feeling seen is one of the most powerful ingredients for helping children thrive.

• How the combination of high support and high challenge helps young people build confidence and resilience.

• Why effort, growth and relationships matter far more than chasing perfect grades.

• Practical ways parents can help their children navigate setbacks and build confidence when things don't go to plan.

• Why a school result is simply a snapshot in time, not a measure of your child's potential.

• Adam's powerful concept of replacing a traditional to do list with a to be list to define success by the person you're becoming, not just the achievements you're collecting.

• Lessons from Adam's experiences as a teacher, educational leader and father that every parent can apply at home.

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning assistant leader, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along here or at muchmorethanascore.com

What if the thing your child keeps getting in trouble for at school is the exact gift that will carry them through life?

In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Odette Barry, PR and media relations founder, community builder, and a self-described former professional nightmare.

Odette grew up in an affluent Melbourne community with two high-achieving older sisters and parents who valued education above almost everything and invested dearly for hers.

She struggled with authority, could not sit still, and collected report cards that told her, year after year, that she was failing. She left school with an ATAR score of around 56 and a core belief that she had let everyone down.

What came next was anything but a straight line.

Odette found her first real sense of worth blending drinks at Boost Juice, where the noise, the systems and the fun finally fit the way her brain worked. She married at twenty-one, became a mum at twenty-two, worked at Westpac while raising her son, ran a fashion side-business, and started university for the first time at twenty-six after one encouraging boss told her she could.

Today she runs Odette and Co, a Byron Bay agency helping not-for-profits and social change makers challenge the status quo, the very skill school kept trying to stamp out of her.

This conversation explores non-linear career paths, using your unique gifts, ADHD and the way different brains learn, self-doubt and confidence, self-compassion, and what it takes to parent a child who is nothing like you.

Odette is honest that the damage school did was real and lasting, and just as honest about what turned it around: being seen by the right people, being given agency, and slowly learning to trust herself.

For parents, it is a reminder that the kid who questions everything is not a problem to fix. For students, it is proof that a low score is a moment, not a measure of who you are. And for anyone staring down a changing job market and the rise of AI, Odette offers a clear-eyed, generous view of the human skills that will always matter.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why the traits school punished, challenging authority and questioning everything, became the core of Odette's career

• How report cards that said "failed" hardened into a core belief, and how long it took to undo

• Why Boost Juice, not school, was the first place she felt she had real value

• How a mentor named Steve Browning changed her path just by listening and telling her she could do more

• The reframe from her mother-in-law about a "neurological rewiring" that lifted years of guilt

• How she rebuilt her confidence, and why she still calls the confident version of herself a mask

• Why being a young mum was the best decision she ever made, despite the judgement

• The three ideas that shaped how she parents a son who is nothing like her

• Why she now sees learning outside the classroom as a genuine life force

• What she looks for when she hires young people, and the story of the candidate who would not take no

• An honest, practical message for parents about helping kids into the workforce in the age of AI

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning assistant leader, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along here or at muchmorethanascore.com

What if not knowing your path is not a problem to fix, but the very thing that builds a creative and resilient life?

In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Manny Kechayas, musician, former teacher, self-taught video producer, and co-creator of the highly successful Australian children's entertainment group act Pevan & Sarah.

Manny spent most of school waiting for a lightbulb moment that never came. He was the quiet kid who flew under the radar, poured himself into drumming, and left school with a score he was embarrassed by and no obvious next step.

What followed was anything but a straight line. Manny auditioned into the Victorian College of the Arts, taught instrumental and classroom music, completed a Masters, and slowly built a children's music business almost by accident, beginning with songs his partner Sarah needed for her own classroom.

After years of underpaid gigs, including a now infamous concert played to nobody, the breakthrough came from a graph showing classrooms watching their videos during school hours.

They launched the subscription platform Cub Club just before the pandemic, and the work they had quietly prepared took off while the rest of the live arts industry fell silent.

This conversation explores non-linear career paths, creativity, self-directed learning, and what success looks like in a world without a playbook.

Manny makes a surprising case that restriction is the spark of creativity rather than the enemy of it, and offers parents a clear, practical message about letting young people be bored, giving them agency, and not being afraid to let them fail.

For parents, it is reassurance that a child without a clear plan is not a child who is behind. For students, it is proof that the slow, winding road can lead somewhere genuinely good. And for anyone navigating a changing job market and the rise of AI, Manny offers a grounded perspective on the human skills that will always matter.

• Why Manny left school with a low score and no clear career path, and how he sees it now

• What it means to wait for a lightbulb moment that never comes, and why that is okay

• How restriction and limits can fuel creativity rather than block it

• Why boredom is the beginning of invention, not a problem for parents to solve

• The case for letting young people make low-stakes mistakes while the cost is small

• How Manny taught himself music production and video editing from scratch

• The story behind Pevan & Sarah and the Cub Club learning platform

• How they found their audience by reading their own analytics

• What success looks like when the job you do did not exist a generation ago

• Why interpersonal skills and resilience outlast any single test result

• A reassuring message for parents whose child does not yet have a plan

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

What happens when your child does everything right and still hits a wall?

For any parent of a driven, high-achieving young person, Sarah Kechayas' (co-founder of Pevan & Sarah) story is both honest and reassuring.

This is part one of a two-part conversation. Sarah is a musician, performer and co-founder, with her partner Manny Kechayas, of the much-loved children's kids entertainment group Pevan & Sarah. (Now found on ABC iView!).

Sarah left a specialist music school as a high achiever who had cleaned up at her Year 12 awards and been told all her life that she could be whatever she wanted. Then she auditioned for every major performing arts course in the country and got into none of them.

At seventeen, having done everything she'd been told would lead to her dream, it felt like a rude awakening.

But Sarah didn't stop. She took a music certificate at the Adelaide Conservatorium, kept performing, kept making connections, and eventually completed a Bachelor of Music, only to discover how little a degree alone guarantees in the arts.

From there, her path wound through instrumental teaching, running children's parties, integration aide work, special needs teaching, and years in the classroom.

None of it looked linear, but all of it tied together: teaching, music and the work with kids combined into Pevan & Sarah, a national brand and company she and Manny took full-time in 2021, and which now reaches children right across the country.

We talk about the teachers who championed her, the rejection that taught her what awards never could, the trap of measuring yourself against a single path, and her honest reflections on ambition that never quite feels satisfied.

Her advice for any young person who feels behind is simple: keep your passion, but diversify, take the blinkers off, and stay open to possibilities you can't yet see.

If your child is comparing themselves to a tidier path, this conversation is a reminder that no score or rejection defines where they can end up. This is part one, so after you listen to this, tune into Part two, where the conversation continues with her co-founder Manny Kechayas.

What You'll Discover:

• Why doing everything right still doesn't guarantee the outcome you planned (and why that's not a failure).

• What a wall of audition rejections taught Sarah that awards and accolades never could.

• How a "long and messy" path through teaching, music and work with kids quietly built the foundation for a national brand.

• Why a Bachelor of Music, or any degree, is a starting point rather than a guarantee, and how that realisation reshaped her thinking.

• How Sarah and Manny knew it was time to take Pevan & Sarah full-time, and the leap of faith behind it.

• Sarah's honest reflection on ambition that never feels satisfied, and what she's learning about pausing to celebrate.

• Practical advice for any young person who feels behind: keep the passion, diversify your toolkit, and take the blinkers off.

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

What if success has less to do with having a perfect plan and more to do with understanding your strengths?

In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Steve Younane: a business leader, CEO, musician, father, and someone whose pathway from school to leadership was far from predictable.

Growing up as one of seven children in a family that deeply valued education, Steve felt the pressure that comes with looking up to high-achieving siblings and wondering whether you could ever measure up.

At school, he wasn't driven by academic excellence. He openly shares how he struggled to focus, often felt distracted, and saw studying primarily as a way to get a score that would help him move on to the next stage.

What he didn't realise at the time was that many of the strengths that would shape his future were already emerging.

Through music, sport, leadership opportunities, and building relationships, Steve was developing skills that couldn't always be measured by tests or report cards.

From forming a school band and leading teams to eventually leading major organisations and global brands, Steve's story is a powerful reminder that success rarely follows a straight line.

This conversation explores comparison, confidence, self-awareness, leadership, and the importance of recognising that people contribute in different ways.

For parents, it's a reminder that a child's future isn't determined by how motivated they are by school alone. For young people, it's reassurance that not having everything figured out doesn't mean you're falling behind.

And for anyone navigating uncertainty, Steve offers a thoughtful perspective on finding your strengths, backing yourself, and building a meaningful life and career.

What You'll Discover

• What it was like growing up as one of seven children in a high-achieving family

• Why Steve often felt distracted and disconnected from traditional study

• The pressure of comparing yourself to siblings and peers

• How music became one of the first places he discovered confidence and purpose

• Why leadership often appears before we recognise it ourselves

• The surprising lessons Steve learned from forming a band and leading teams

• How strengths developed outside the classroom shaped his future success

• The role self-awareness has played throughout his career and leadership journey

• Why different people bring different strengths to teams

• What Steve wishes young people understood about success and career pathways

Recorded at Sabre Sound Studio

A special thanks to the team at Sabre Sound Studio for hosting this conversation and providing a fantastic space for meaningful conversations like this one. If you're looking for a professional podcast, audio, or creative recording space, be sure to check them out.

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

If your teenager is unsure what comes next, this episode is reassurance that confidence usually comes after action, not before. It is for parents supporting a young person through big decisions.

What if the right path only becomes clear once you stop chasing it? Athan Didaskalou, founder of the Australian luggage brand July, talks honestly about his uneasy relationship with school, the uncertainty he felt early on, and how curiosity and hands-on experience mattered more than perfect results.

His story is a reminder that there is no single right pathway after school, that skills are built through experience rather than qualifications alone, and that one result never defines future potential.

For any parent supporting exploration without pressure, or any young person rethinking their direction, this conversation offers a grounded, generous perspective. Success is built over time.

In this episode, you’ll discover and learn:

• Navigating uncertainty after school with no clear plan

• Why confidence comes after action, not before

• Building skills through experience rather than qualifications

• How parents can support exploration without pressure

• Why success looks different at every life stage

Because school is only one chapter, and success is built over time.

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

If your child is told off for the very things that make them, well them, this is for you. The traits flagged at school are often the foundations of a thriving life later.

What if the qualities that make your child different at school are exactly the ones that help them thrive in life?

Sarah Pound, known as Wholesome by Sarah, is a nutritionist, author, educator and mum of three whose report cards often said she talked too much. That trait became the foundation of a career built on communication, connection, storytelling and community.

Sarah reflects on the adults who believed in her, the times she was told she could not do something, and the many pivots that shaped her path. It is honest reassurance for parents raising children whose strengths do not always fit a classroom.

🎧 What You'll Discover In this episode:

• Why Sarah never worried too much about being the "perfect student"

• How being told she talked too much eventually became a professional strength

• The role friendships, connection, and community played during her school years

• What happened when she was told she wouldn't be able to manage a Year 12 subject early

• How proving people wrong became a powerful source of motivation

• Why different learners don't always thrive in traditional classroom environments

• The impact of supportive parents who encouraged effort without applying pressure

• Sarah's journey through multiple careers, pivots, and reinventions

• What building Wholesome by Sarah has taught her about backing herself

• Why success isn't about following the expected path

• A reassuring message for parents raising children with different strengths and personalities

• How to recognise and nurture qualities that may not always be rewarded at school

In the words of Sarah: it's a cracker of an episode!

Know someone with an interesting or unique pathway? Tell us about it via an email to [email protected] or DM on Insta at @morethanascorepod.

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

If your child does not love the classroom or does not have a clear plan, they are far more normal than they feel. This episode is for parents of a young person who shines outside school.

What if success is less about getting it right the first time and more about staying open to opportunity? Stephanie Pahl is an athlete, captain, coach, and fitness professional whose confidence and identity came through sport, teamwork, and belonging rather than academic accolades.

Since school, her path has wound through university course changes, coaching, high-performance sport, and the fitness industry. It is a conversation about accepting change, trying different things, and understanding that progress does not need to be perfectly planned.

For parents, it is a reminder that success is not one size fits all, and not loving school does not mean your child is behind.

What you'll discover:

• When school doesn't reflect your child's strongest qualities

• How sport, teamwork and belonging build a young person's identity

• Why not loving school doesn't define your child's future

• Changing university course and finding a new direction

• Building adaptability and resilience through change

• Shifting the measure of success from results to fulfilment

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

If your child quietly compares themselves to high-achieving siblings or peers, this honest

conversation will help. Note: It briefly discusses suicide, so please choose what feels right for you.

What happens when the thing you worked so hard to achieve makes you question what success even means? Melissa Lozanovski is an educator, leader, former founding principal, and mum.

At school, she compared herself to academically high-achieving siblings and carried quiet pressure to measure up. She entered teaching young, led early, and built a new school from the ground up, while privately navigating grief, burnout, and a health scare that forced harder questions about what matters.

Her framework of becoming, belonging, and lifelong learning offers parents a hopeful way to think about success beyond grades, titles, and recognition, and why every child's path unfolds differently.

🎧 What You’ll Discover In this episode:

• How comparison with siblings and peers shapes a child's confidence

• Why one adult believing in a young person changes everything

• The emotional weight that can sit behind outward success

• Protecting wellbeing while chasing achievement

• Why belonging and emotional safety matter for growth

• Thinking about success beyond grades and titles

Know someone with a unique story or path? Share it with us at [email protected]!

If this conversation brings anything up for you, support is available:

• Lifeline Australia (24/7)

https://www.lifeline.org.au or 13 11 14

• Beyond Blue:

https://www.beyondblue.org.au or 1300 22 46 36

• Kids Helpline (for people aged 5–25): https://kidshelpline.com.au or 1800 55 1800

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.

If you are watching your teenager leave school without a clear direction, this episode is

a reassurance that they are not behind. It is for any parent worried about the missing plan.

What if success was never about the perfect plan, but learning to adapt when the plan

changes?

Ben Amos is a teacher turned entrepreneur and digital storyteller who built his career

by staying curious and figuring things out as he went. The path he first wanted did not work out, teaching became the fallback, and that backup became the foundation of a career spanning education, entrepreneurship, and creativity.

Ben reframes failure as feedback, draws a line between passively hoping and actively creating opportunities, and shows why adaptability can matter more than certainty. If your child has not figured it all out yet, this will help you breathe.

🎧 What You’ll Discover In this episode:

• Why a school score doesn't define your child's future

• How a fallback plan can become a launching pad

• Helping teenagers handle real responsibility

• Why adaptability matters more than certainty after school

• Reframing failure as feedback, not a final verdict

• Supporting a child who has no clear plan yet

More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along.