More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School

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.

If your child has ever been labelled at school, this episode is for you. Being called lazy was

never the real story. It is a reassurance for any parent advocating for a child who learns

differently.

Called lazy, placed on the lowest table, and told she would not succeed. The truth was very different. Myfanwy (Van) Fitzpatrick struggled at school not because she lacked ability, but because her dyslexia and dyspraxia went undiagnosed.

She absorbed those early labels into her identity for years. Then, despite being written off, she completed multiple university degrees, became a teacher and moved into counselling.

This is a conversation about how labels shape a child, the hidden impact of undiagnosed learning differences, and the critical role parents play in advocating when the system gets it wrong. Intelligence is not the grade you get.

What you'll discover:

• What to do when your child is called lazy at school

• Signs of undiagnosed dyslexia and dyspraxia in school

• How early labels shape a child's identity and confidence

• The turning point of finally being diagnosed and understood

• How to advocate for a child who learns differently

• Why intelligence is not the grade you get

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 left school without a clear sense of what success looks like, they are more normal than they feel. This is for parents who want to support without forcing a path.

What does it look like to navigate school, life, and identity when the path is not clear? If your teenager left school without a clear sense of what success looks like for them, they are far more normal than they feel.

For Jasper Nettlefold, school often felt like a minefield, something to get through rather than connect with. He left without a clear plan and without a strong sense of what he wanted. If that sounds familiar, either for you or your child, this conversation will land.

What followed for Jasper was not a perfectly mapped journey. It was a series of experiences through sport, different jobs, travel, and relationships that gradually built his confidence, perspective, and sense of who he was.

Success, in his story, was not handed to him at the end of school. It was shaped slowly through the choices he made, the people he surrounded himself with, and his willingness to keep moving even when he was unsure where it was all heading.

We explore what it feels like when school does not quite fit, why not having a plan after school is far more common than most families assume, and how everyday jobs and experiences can quietly build identity and confidence. Jasper is open about the role of mentors and relationships, and about how comparison to others can hold a young person back from finding their own definition of success.

For parents, there is a clear and gentle message: you can support your child without forcing a path. For students and anyone who did not follow a straight line, this is reassurance that taking a different route does not mean falling behind. You do not need to have it all figured out. You just need to keep moving forward and trust that it will come together.

What you'll discover:

• When school doesn't fit and feels like something to get through

• Why having no plan after school is more common than you think

• How everyday jobs and experiences build confidence and identity

• The role of mentors and relationships in finding direction

• Supporting your child without forcing a path

• Why taking a different route is not falling behind

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 have ever worried that your child does not fit the traditional mould, this is a hopeful, practical listen for parents and educators alike.

What happens when school does not quite fit, but life beyond it opens something bigger? Lael Stone is a speaker, educator, author, and school founder who reflects on leaving school without being defined by her score, traveling overseas alone at seventeen, and starting businesses before she had it all figured out.

This is a conversation about what becomes possible when young people are given permission to explore, and adults choose connection over judgment. Lael offers practical insight on how young people actually ask for help, why vulnerability matters, and what it takes to become a safe adult in a young person's world.

• Why a school score never has to define your child

• Helping a young person who feels not smart at school

• Travel and real-world experience as a different education

• What stops teenagers asking for help, and how to lower the barrier

• How to become a safe adult in a young person's world

• Building learning around connection and emotional safety

Know someone who'd be perfect for the pod? Get in touch with us at [email protected].

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 child step off the traditional track, this is reassurance. For Sam, leaving school in Year 11 was the start, not the setback.

What happens if you leave school early and do not follow the expected path? Sam Gawenda left in Year 11, became a bricklayer, moved into mortgage broking, built and sold a business, and is now starting a new chapter. His pathway is a clear reminder that success is rarely linear.

But the conversation goes deeper than careers: it is about doing hard, uncomfortable things even when fear is present, and the role of mentors and environment in shaping who we become. He also explores rites of passage and what is missing for many young people today. No single score or decision defines your future.

🎧 What You’ll Discover:

• Why leaving school early in Year 11 didn't limit success

• The non-linear path from a trade to building a business

• Why doing hard, uncomfortable things drives growth

• How environment and mentors shape a young person

• Modelling courage and resilience as a parent

• Focusing on vision rather than the exact process

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

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 measuring their worth by a number, this episode offers a better measure. It is for parents who want to understand what actually shapes a meaningful life.

Blaise Witnish got an ATAR she was proud of, but that is not what made her successful. A CEO and global team leader, she boarded in Year 12 after financial hardship, found her strengths through drama and stand-up comedy, and built a twenty-year career from the ground up.

What stands out is what she learned about people, strengths, resilience, and connection.

She explains why understanding your child's strengths is a game-changer, introduces the eight-to-one rule for building confidence, and makes the case that communication is a future-proof skill. Scores can open doors, but they do not define the life you build.

What you'll discover:

• Why understanding your child's strengths is a game changer

• The eight to one rule and how it builds confidence in young people

• How hardship and change build real resilience

• Why communication and connection are future-proof skills

• What an ATAR really does and does not mean

• Strengths tools to explore: Clifton Strengths and VIA Character Strengths

🔗 Explore Your Strengths (As Mentioned in This Episode)

If this episode sparked your thinking about strengths and self-awareness, here are a few great tools to explore:

• Gallup CliftonStrengths - a widely used tool that helps identify your top strengths and how to apply them in life and work.

• VIA Character Strengths Survey - free, research-based survey that highlights your core character strengths.

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - personality framework that helps you understand preferences in how you think, work, and relate to others.

These tools are discussed in the episode as potential helpful starting points for people, parents and educators to better understand themselves and each other.

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.