From the Principal

On Friday night the Arlington children played a key role in the annual Year 12 Valedictory Dinner in Kevin Borland Hall. The decorations and table settings are all symbols of the love and respect the school has for our oldest students as they celebrate the end of their school days.

It is a lovely occasion which brings home the special connection between the Primary and the Secondary Schools. The Year 12 students seem so very grown up and we know that for so many of them they are torn between feeling sad to leave the school they have come to think of as ‘home’ and their impatience to get on with the exciting next stages of their lives.

The Valedictory Dinner offers a further insight into the feelings of these sophisticated young men and women when we watch them open the beautiful gifts that have been made for each one of them by a child from the 10s and 11s. These gifts are handcrafted and represent much thought in deciding on a suitable object and then great effort in producing them. I watched the looks of genuine wonder and pleasure as the Year 12 students contemplated these precious farewell gifts.

The tradition of rehanging the stage curtains that these students created when they themselves were in the 11s also offers them an opportunity for nostalgic reflection on their own Primary School years. For the 10 and 11 year olds they have the opportunity for a glimpse of their own future rites of passage which, for parents and teachers, passes so very quickly.

Holding the dinner at Arlington is a lovely tradition and so different from the glossy, rather soulless events so many schools seem obliged to host in reception rooms and auditoriums. These events focus on prize winners and formal speeches by guest speakers and school leaders. Our dinner offers every student an informal opportunity to reflect on their own journey and to share this with their peers and teachers in an atmosphere of warmth and acceptance.

Andrew McMeekin, Chair of the Preshil School Council, chose a highly appropriate message for his brief farewell words, as appropriate for the children of Arlington, for the teachers and for our departing valedictorians when he offered the wisdom of Winnie the Pooh – “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”

Marilyn Smith

Principal