Middle Years 

I would like to say thank you to our wonderful students, to College families and my colleagues. This is my final newsletter article, and I must admit I feel sentimental and sad to be retiring and leaving College. It’s been an amazing 30-year journey at College. I will miss students, working with parents and being with my colleagues. I am sure students will continue to thrive under the care of Mr Hawthorne, the Heads of Houses and Mentors, and I would like to wish everyone all the best for 2022. This is a special school, and I am incredibly proud of College and myPEC. I am proud of what we do here. I would like to pass on special thanks to the myPEC House Captains and the Middle Years Prefects. I have thoroughly enjoyed working closely with this leadership team. I would also like to thank the 2021 myPEC Mentors, who have been fully committed to their important role of supporting and advocating for each student. 

Year 12 Valedictory Dinner

During my speech I said:

My children taught me to let go, and to let them go.

I always hoped they would smoothly navigate their way through the university years.

I hoped they would make good level-headed decisions

I hoped they would be kind people.

I hope they approach life in a positive, optimistic, and enthusiastic way.

I hoped they would have strong friendships and be good communicators.

This is what I wish for all our students.

“Flourish” I have admired the writing of Martin Seligman for over a decade and his positive psychology ideas have shaped our current Positive Education programme. Each year we start the year with a service, and I would like to share a reading which resonates with me as a parent and educator called “Flourish”. 

“We want more for our children than healthy bodies. We want our children to have lives filled with friendship and love and high deeds. We want them to be eager to learn and be willing to confront challenges. We want our children to be grateful for what they receive from us, but proud of their own accomplishments. We want them to grow up with confidence in the future, a love of adventure, a sense of justice and courage to act on that sense of justice. We want them to be resilient in the face of setbacks and failures that growing up always brings. And when the time comes, we want them to be good parents. Our fondest hope is that the quality of their lives will be better than our own, and our inner most prayer is that our children will have all of our strengths and few of our weaknesses. All this we should be able to achieve.” 

Congratulations on finishing a mighty year. The pandemic has taught us a lot about not taking things for granted; it has made us examine our values and reassess many aspects of our lives. We need to search for the silver lining and look for the positives wherever possible.

Mrs Julia Winter Cooke

Head of Middle Years