Assistant Principal -

Wellbeing

Today we farewell the class of 2023. 

It is always with a touch of sadness we watch a graduating class walk out the front gates on the last day of term 3.

As teachers, we are entrusted with the responsibility of preparing these young minds to be ready to reach out and take on the world with a sense of confidence and pride.

I would like to share with you the final address of our School Captains for 2023. 

Graduation Final Address By the School Captains of 2023 

Good afternoon staff, distinguished guests, parents and carers, students of O’Connor Catholic College, and most importantly the graduating class of 2023. My name is Caleb Dubois-Bender and alongside me is my fellow captain Lily Moore. It is an honour to be speaking today as we gather to commemorate each of the remarkable achievements made by this fabulous group of people. Before we start, we’d like to ask how year 12 are feeling this afternoon (hopefully they all scream haha). This moment is something we’ve been waiting for these past 13 years, and although it may have felt like it would take forever, it has arrived so, so quickly. ‘Welcome to year 7’ became ‘Welcome to year 12’. ‘This is our first carnival’ suddenly became ‘this is our last’ and I think we speak for the whole cohort when we ask, where’d all the time go?

We started off walking through those big blue gates, extremely nervous, but excited and ready for what was to come. The only battle we were worried about was finding classrooms, which surprisingly after 6 years, can still be a problem! We needed lots and lots of guidance as we were stepping into unknown territory, but we were so lucky to have Miss Roache as our year leader. Of course, we definitely weren't the easiest bunch of kids to handle, some much worse than others, but she persisted with us and ensured that we felt a part of this ‘newfound’ community. We spent our first days migrating around the playground to different areas until we found ‘the’ spot, which for a lot of us, was in the quad playing handball every single recess and lunch. 

The handball continued into year 8 for a little while, but we eventually decided to take on the oval! This time, we had Mr Honnery by our side, ready to take on the rest of the school, however, our journey was definitely two steps forward, one step back, with year 8 being a challenging year for some. 

Mr Honnery stuck by us in year 9, however, the year was quickly thrown into a spin of uncertainty very early on, when what was initially supposed to be a one-week stay-at-home period, soon turned into a staggered on-and-off two years of lockdowns. The Covid pandemic disrupted numerous school activities, including our year 9 camp and our ability to spend time with each other. Despite these challenges, Mr Honnery never failed to keep us occupied and connected with his morning wake-up zoom calls and we greatly appreciate his perseverance in ensuring we were able to adapt to this new idea of independent, remote learning. He constantly reminded us to be the best version of ourselves during this time, always prompting us to ‘be better’.

The pandemic continued in year 10 when Mr Patricks and Mrs McFarland stepped in as our leaders. Whilst the same challenges continued, these two amazing leaders made sure we remembered we were a part of a bigger community by keeping us busy and maintaining our sanity with weekly challenges and daily Zoom calls. Year 10 was focused around building the sense of connectedness within our whole cohort, particularly as we exited the lockdown period at the end of the year.  I can vouch for year 10 English Zoom calls with Miss Trig definitely brightening up our days. 

This increasing sense of community persisted through to year 11, where we began to really grow as a whole cohort. We continued to receive much needed support from Mr Patricks, Mrs Mcfarland and the year 11 pac team, particularly as we were given our first lot of assessment tasks, and later our first ‘real’ set of exams. 

Before we knew it, our HSC year had begun. The year 12 retreat was a most memorable experience, particularly the amazing food at Collaroy! Round 2 for the bolognese will make my day. The time we spent away allowed us to grow as a year even further and prepare for the year ahead. 

Then came now… Our time at O'Connor Catholic College has flown by and the past 6 years at this school have shaped a massive part of who we are today. We have come to closely know each other and now have years of friendship under our belts. Our senior journey has been the most memorable experience, filled with both challenging bumps and special moments of camaraderie. The effort and enthusiasm we put into achieving great carnivals and events paid off, showing not only how well we work together as a year group, but how much we have grown as a community. This year was full of firsts and presented many challenges; however, with the everlasting help of our long-lasting leaders, Mrs Mcfarland and Mr Patricks, we tackled them with open hearts and minds. We wanted to leave a legacy of house spirit and a stronger O’Connor community and it feels so good to see everything coming together so much better than we imagined, and it is all thanks to you all here today!

To reflect on our own time here at O’Connor and our personal growth in leadership is crazy. From when Caleb and I introduced ourselves in the chapel during presentation day and accepted our roles to now, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today without certain people who have helped us immensely when navigating the roles of being a leader and how to manage the balance between leadership and school life. Thank you Mrs Bell, Mrs Healy, Mr Chapman, Mrs Smith, Mr Holstein, Mrs Roff and of course our amazing pac teachers, Miss Armfield and Miss Donnelly.

To Mrs Mcfarland, Lily and I would like to extend our thanks to you personally, as you have always dealt with our 2 am enquiries, confusing emails, frequent stressful breakdowns, and random crazy ideas. You have been an individual that we consider a major part in how we both have approached our leadership roles. You always reminded us to just “take a minute” or “pause planning and go to sleep”, and even if we never really listened, we appreciate you so much!

To Mr Patricks, the immense amount of care you have for our year is incredible. You’ve done so much more for us than we could have asked for. The wednesday BBQ's brightened everyone’s day instantly, and your weekly travels from Coffs really showed us that you did care. Please know that your time and effort is recognised. The school is going to be missing a major part of the team and you will be missed, not just by many staff but many, many students so thank you! We wish you all the best.

Furthermore, we would like to thank the people who have assisted in the guidance of our entire schooling journey: our teachers; the ones who have stuck by us, dealing with our lack of organisation, wrong uniforms, late assignments and the list that could forever go on. We may have been the cause of high levels of stress in your lives but we would like to take a moment to recognise your hard work and the care you have shown us. We appreciate your patience and the hours you spent working overtime marking our work and pushing us to be the best that we can be. Thank you for all that you have done for us during our time here at O’Connor, providing us with continuous support, never-ending guidance and knowledge that we will forever hold onto. Thank you for showing us how to serve others, and how to embrace the values embedded within this school. We want you to know that we appreciate you so much! 

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of one of our fellow classmates for their role in the school community. It has not been unnoticed.  This award is for a student who has displayed citizenship through their senior years. The award goes to Cody Greaves.

To the graduating class of 2023 - you have reached for the stars and have only completed a small chapter of your life. This is not the end of your story, simply just the beginning of your next one. This is not where you stop; graduating is simply a transition of learning, and learning never ends. Climb higher to succeed and achieve greatness because we know you can all do it. And never forget, your dreams work when you work. Hold onto these memories close to your heart and to finish, we leave you with a quote from one of the most inspirational men out there: Mr. Worldwide, “Everybody going through tough times, believe me, been there done that. But everyday above ground is a great day, remember that”.

Goodluck Graduates of 2023. May the future be kind. This is not goodbye, rather a see you later. We are your college captains of 2023, signing off. Thank you!

Warm regards,

Mellissa Bell

Assistant Principal - Wellbeing