Amazing 5/6

Term 4 Week 11

As I said graduation night to our year 6’s, I hate this time of year. I hate goodbyes, I hate not seeing the kids again and I really will miss our incredibly quirky and amazing group of year 6’s. I want to congratulate all of them on an amazing year, term and last couple of weeks. It really has been a roller coaster of emotions and activities and you guys showed throughout just how amazing you are. Myself, Gemma, Sam, Maddie, Nick O, Anna and Claudia all wish you the absolute best of luck in your next adventure, please come back and tell us all about it.

It is also the final week before our Year 5’s take on that mantle of leadership and become the leaders of the school. We know that you all have the potential to do it, but it is up to all of you to step up and make the right choices that separate you from the rest. You all have it in you!

Mr D’s Graduation Speech

Good Evening everyone,

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce the Year 6 Class of 2024. But before I do that, I want to be selfish and differ from George and tell everyone just how much I hate this night. Apart from my horrible dislike of public speaking, I hate that this is unfortunately one of the last stops of our journeys together.

I hate that you are all growing up and beginning a variety of new adventures and will no longer require our help and advice. I hate how independent, resilient and amazing you have all become in our 2 years of working with each other, it genuinely frustrates me how awesome you have all become and how we have all become such an important part of each other’s lives. But most of all, and I can’t stress this enough, I hate that in your next adventure we aren’t going to be needed by you all anymore. As teachers, our ultimate goals is to teach students who become capable and are ready for the next stage, but personally, I will miss each and every one of you. Personal feeling aside, I hope each and every one of you enjoy your night tonight, but I hope you now understand why I won’t be smiling the whole time as well.

Now Quinn, please be kind on my maths here, but we have spent at one year working together as Year 6’s, 12 months playing outside together and accidently hurting one another, sorry Charlie, 365 days caring for each other, 8760 hours discussing our big feelings with one another and 525600 hours trying our absolute best to understand just how different we are from one another and that that is ok.

This group embodies persistence and resilience, and this year has more then shown it. There have been some simple lessons that each one of you have taught us. We have all learnt to be accepting of each other’s flaws, kind and caring about each other’s weaknesses and that it is okay to celebrate other’s victories, as well as your own.

I do have to say though that this is a group of terrible winners. The teasing and taunting of your teachers is just cruel, our girls are merciless and as a word of advice, it is never fair to challenge Clement to anything, be it chess, cards or even connect 4, as he will win and he will make sure you know it with a very condescending, “its alright Mr D, your just not very good”.

When the year started, we had an unproven and nervous group of captains who were shy, awkward and unsure as to what a leader looks like. Assemblies needed hand holding and pushing to be organised to the point where Miss Simos needed to step in. But we look at them now and should George, Courtney and Jarrod ever need a break, I reckon Azra, Shy and Hugo could run the school and Clement and Charlie could organise a great sport carnival. Well done captains, we are all proud of who you have become.

This group has had to be one of great resilience. We lost 2 days of camp to a freak cyclone that, without Jarrod’s persistence and determination, would have ruined one of the best events of the year. Highlights of which included, and in no particular order, Being roasted by an incredibly cruel Hugo Orkin the amazing dance routines of Patrick and Clem in the school talent show, the wayward adventures of Miss Simos and Miss Baker and their group in the canoes, the torrential rain on the high ropes course that drenched my group, but who then showed the amazing intensity and determination to finish the course, including Julia and Zara to finish the course.

Other amazing memories include the Zoo Excursion in term 2, with Quinn’s wheelchair Gerald and a fantastic day of spotting Mr D eating branches in the giraffe enclosure.

We had the junior mayor presentation by our captains, where Azra became our first ever Junior Councillor.

The Big Day Out to the Melbourne Cable Park, where Patrick showed off his golf skills, Charlie and Ciara flew on the High Ropes and the cruel betrayals of teachers and friends happening thick and fast on the water course.

Market Day showed their entrepreneurship with George Blakey shouting like he was at the South Melbourne Fish Market, the amazing cake stall boys who sold out in minutes and Matthew Bingham selling himself his own products.

We will all miss your constant fashion advice and cruel criticism. I will miss learning about girl math from Emma, Zara and Melis, where if you didn’t know, if you buy one more pair of socks in your online shopping order, to get yourself free shipping then the socks are basically free.

Finally, you are all not the only ones who are graduating tonight. Mr B is also leaving us for the big wide world, and it didn’t seem fair that we didn’t mention the biggest kid in 5/6 moving on with his own adventure. I know I speak for all of the Year 6’s in this room when I say that we will miss you and that every student here has appreciated everything that you do.

Year 6’s, we hope you will all miss the jokes, the sport games, the lunchtime detentions for not completing your homework, the learning and most importantly all of us when you move on to high school next year. We look forward to you coming back sometime and telling us all about them. We are all incredibly proud of what you have achieved, and I am incredibly proud to, for the last, time introduce you all to the Year 6 class of 2024.

Teacher Contact Information

If there are any queries please feel free to contact one of us:

Nick Duckett

nicholas.duckett@education.vic.gov.au

Maddie Simos

madeleine.simos@education.vic.gov.au

Gemma Baker & Sam Boontjes

gemma.baker@education.vic.gov.au

samuel.boontjes@education.vic.gov.au