The agency imbued by high-performance learning equips, empowers and enables students to test what’s possible and act with an increased sense of purpose that can guide them to thrive in their world. We in schools must cultivate the development of this individual agency within the interdependence of relationships and positive group culture. We need to acknowledge the impact that the collective experience, inspired by the challenge of a set of agreed standards for excellence, and influenced by leadership that constructs and tells a compelling narrative from yesterday to today to tomorrow, can have on the courage and conviction of individuals to engage in an ongoing process of growth in the adaptive expertise and self-efficacy that are characterised by the purpose, persistence and reflection of high-performance learning.