Saying goodbye to our IB Graduates 2016

This Monday evening saw the year 13’s graduation dinner and graduation ceremony. It is the culmination of a lot of work and effort from their parents, their teachers but of course most of all the students. They have all spent around 15,000 hours in full time education in class. One can only marvel at how many hours of homework, research, revision and worry can be added to that total. It is a massive undertaking. It seems to me a shame that a student will be judged on those 15,000 plus hours by a two digit number! The ultimate in a reductionist approach! It also seems a shame that the school will be judged by a two digit number (IB average) when there have been over a third of a million teaching hours put into that year group across their time in full time education! Never mind, as the saying goes, ‘It is what it is!’

The evening was a great success with parents, teachers and students mingling and enjoying reminiscing about days gone by as well as being excited about days to come. It is always fantastic to see the primary teachers who taught the students when they could barely tie their shoe laces, chatting as they realise that they are off to universities around the world. But being in a ‘through-school’ allows us to do this. It is one of the joys. At the risk of being a bit listy it is worth first of all saying congratulations to each and every one of year 13. So well done and good luck to Georgina Cairns, Matilda Cimmerbeck, Zoe Cook, Sanaal Deshpande, Edwina Gautier de Charnace, Megan Jacques, Siddarth Jain, Maria Jane, Manon Jones, Ji Yong Kim, Argus Li, Thomas Liu, Hong Ching Lo, Zoe Rattigan, Miguel Santana, Justine Schipper, Tatum Stiles, Isabella Strapp, Chirag, Tirathrai, Alexandra Trodd, Daniella Wilson, Sophie Yeung and Melissa Yin Yeung Cho. These students have offers from many universities around the world, including but not limited to, Bath University, King’s College, London, Oxford, Bristol, Edinburgh, St. Andrew’s, Southampton-all UK. In the USA New York University, Northern Eastern, UCLA, in Canada McGill, Simon Fraser, in Hong Kong the university of science and technology, HK polytechnic university and in Australia, Melbourne University. They will be studying courses as diverse as medicine, physics, engineering, international relations, English literature, international development, maths, computer studies, media and communications, biotechnology, sport and social science, business management-phew! We are of course very proud of them all. They will make their way in the world where they will become the movers and shakers and the opinion formers of the next generation. We wish them well on that journey and remember, as Robert Browning said, ‘The best is yet to be!’
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To finish I would like to thank the teachers for their tireless efforts in getting the students through an exhausting but rewarding ride in education right from reception through to year 13 and beyond. What we all do is probably not only the most important job in the world, it is also the best. ‘ A teacher affects eternity, and can never tell where the influence stops.’

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