Message from the Principal
On the evening of October 18 our community gathered at the Capitol Theatre to celebrate our school's first graduating class. Award recipients can be found on the Graduation Awards page of this newsletter. The following is the Principal's oration at the graduation
Principal's address to the Graduating Class of 2024.
Cohort 2024. All other things aside ... all of the contributions of politicians and parents, teachers, myself, High School for Preston … all of the efforts of those groups would have come to naught were it not for you. Students make a school. Not the rest of us. We can shape and guide and poke and prod and construct learning and experiences, but at the end of the day the school is the success that it is today because of you. So, thank you. And now, my final message to you all after six years together.
School is about becoming.
In 2018 I spent a lot of time talking with Primary School parents at school gates and at Preston Market at stalls on the weekends – many of those parents are here today. Those conversations shaped the vision for Preston High School that is captured in those three words you have been hearing for the last six years – Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders.
In this sense, Preston High School has always been, and always will be imaginary - a manifestation of our collective effort to build a resolute promise for the future, a promise that our graduates today are ready to fulfil. A promise of what you could become. Of what you are becoming.
Yours is a school founded on a central tenet that the only thing that matters is the quantity and the quality of your growth – the only purpose of our buildings, our staff, curriculum and assessment all the things that make up the tangible parts of your school – a core idea that these tangible things only exist to maximise the growth of our learners. To grow proud connected, resilient young people who are skilled and knowledgeable and are prepared to step into – and to lead – the world beyond our school gates.
We have hammered you, from day one, with this narrative about growth in order to empower you, to put in your minds and your hearts the notion that you have a power to change, to excel, to shape the cognitive world you inhabit, to learn … in short, to grow. No matter your starting point – skill by skill – to know that it is within your power to push and challenge yourself, and through that effort to become the next version of yourself … to Become the next version of yourself.
But here is the point - of all that work that went into our unrelenting focus on growth – the point is, and the wonderful fascinating part of life is, that it doesn’t stop here. Becoming graduates of our school, you enter a world and a life of becoming … becoming adults; becoming tertiary students; becoming workers; becoming active citizens; becoming investors, inventors and instigators; becoming parents, and partners, and grandparents; becoming managers and leaders and activists; becoming what you will be next.
Eschew a life of quiet desperation. Live out loud. Be known for your acts and your kindness and your diligence and your bravery. Be known for who you are and be proud. Be proud of yourself. Be proud of each other. Be proud of this school you built. And be proud of this school community who lifted you up and shaped you. Be proud and know that you leave us empowered, and that you are tomorrow’s leaders.
It has been a wonderful six years with you. Witnessing your growth, your heart breaks, your friendships, your losses, your triumphs. Witnessing your change from those cute 12-year-olds open to a world of possibility, to the adults that you are today, ready to step confidently into your onward journey. I am incredibly proud of each of you.
Sean Butler
Principal