From the Acting Principal 

Earlier in the year, Mrs Nichols addressed the Year 12 cohort about the importance of English, the choices our students have in relation to their studies and encouraged them not to take education for granted. 

She read a poem by Antonio Jacinto  (Letter From A Contract Worker) 

It’s a beautiful poem full of descriptive language and rich metaphors – here is the opening verse:

I wanted to write you a letter my love, a letter that would tell of this desire to see you

of this fear of losing you of this more than benevolence that I feel of this indefinable ill that pursues me of this yearning to which I live in total surrender …

But it is the final verse that is designed to shake us out of our complacency and remind us about the gift we have been given.

I wanted to write you a letter …But oh my love, I cannot understand why it is, why, why, why it is, my dear that you cannot read and I – Oh the hopelessness! – cannot write! 

We tend to take so many things for granted – plentiful food, warmth, clothing, shelter, the ability to read and write – the latter the key to opening so many doors. Our students often forget, especially towards the end of term when they are busy and tired, that education is a gift and that they have so many choices in relation to their studies and their lives.

For millions around the world, choices in relation to education are limited or non-existent and the opportunity to learn to read and write, to complete maths tasks and develop many of the skills we take for granted is, quite literally, a matter of life and death. 

In 2012,  an eleven year old girl, Malala Yousafzai, from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman as she made her way home from school on a bus, simply for daring to demand the right to attend school; she survived the horrific attack and went on to become one of education’s greatest advocates and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner. 

Malala had choices about the way she chose to respond to this life-changing event; she could have capitulated to fear and the demands of the Taliban but she chose another path. 

Our students have choices every day, but they often forget the power of those choices.

Perhaps the end of term is a great chance for parents to discuss the gift of education; to remind students that they have the choice to make the most of something that can empower them for the rest of their lives and that millions of young people around the world would give anything to be in their shoes, even at the end of a busy term!

Thank you Mrs Nichols for your inspiration!