Kids Corner

In the final Kid’s Corner for the 2021 school year, I would like to share our School Captain’s speeches from their Year Graduation. Thank you Mihika and Jash for being outstanding captains and I trust everyone enjoys their speeches as much as the people who attended the evening did. 

School Captaincy Speech – Mihika 

7 years of primary school, gee that flew by just like that! 7 years ago, we walked into this school for the first time, I must say the ride has been a bit bumpy but that shaped us into who we are today. How to come back from setbacks, how to compromise, and most importantly, how to make the most of what you have.

Good evening, Mr Catalano, teachers, parents, family members and students. For those that don’t know me I’m Mihika, from 6C and I’m the 2021 school captain.

Our first day of prep, I’m sure we all vividly remember ours. I mean not too vividly considering it was 7 years ago. But I think there are some things that we can all remember properly, the backpacks with straps that are so long that the actual bag is trailing behind us, the hair perfectly combed into place, the baggy uniforms so big that they would probably last us the next two years, All very typical. But I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how we looked. 

Our wellbeing is about how we live and our perception of everything. Really, everything depends on our wellbeing. We have all been through tough times other than COVID and our teachers have supported us in many ways. From talking it out to going outside they have helped us so much. And I don’t think there is anything big enough that we can do to pay them back.

These past two years have been tough for all of us having to live through 6 horrible lockdowns. Like seriously who knew talking with our friends would be so hard. The things that an average person would hate, we missed so much. COVID has put us all in a tough situation. But the amount of support our wonderful teachers have given us through this time is unbelievable. Our teachers have tried to keep in contact with us and their ways are very unique. I know some teachers sent their class a letter. Some teachers played Minecraft education or other online games with their class. And we are very grateful for that, teachers’ whatever way you used to stay connected with your class, we really appreciate it.

Throughout our time at our wonderful school, we have been provided with many opportunities, for instance: 

Year 5 camp. We were lucky enough to go, I must say the ride there was eventful. And when we finally got there, after about 5 hours straight on a bus, with a short 15-minute break. We were all exceptionally tired. Our first night there. I might have gone to the bathroom with different friends around 20 times that night. We were all so excited we couldn’t sleep. Some of us were scared, in our room we had the lights on the entire night pretty much. And we might have gone to the teachers around 50 times that night for various different reasons. But the teachers somehow didn’t get mad regardless of the circumstances, instead they helped us and patiently listened to our problem, but not that we had any though. 

Sport – we have all been given opportunities to participate in lots of sport at school and also at district level. A highlight for me was playing different sports such as netball, learning different skills and the importance of sportsmanship.

Innovations programs – we are so lucky at our school to have such a huge variety of innovation programs. This means that we are fortunate enough to be given the extension that we need for our learning, and this is something that we are very grateful for. 

Specialist programs – wow, where do I begin! Once again, how lucky are we to have so many different Specialist programs. A personal story I would like to share was throughout one year in Music, I needed more of a challenge, and I am so grateful that Ms Wood gave me a challenge by allowing me to practice what I was learning out of school hours which provided me with the opportunity to further extend my capabilities. 

I will always be very grateful and never forget the amount of opportunities provided by our school and for me it was being able to become the school captain. Throughout this role I was able to attend and represent our students in school tours which provided the opportunity to deepen my understanding of the school’s foci and programs. I also attended both the Department of Education and CIS reviews, speak in assemblies and many more. They have all helped me as a person to strive in one way or another, speaking in assemblies, my public speaking skills have improved immensely. The reviews, I was able to articulate my thinking. Though this particular scenario doesn’t apply to us all this school has given us so many opportunities to not only learn but to become a better human being.

Throughout this speech you may have all realised where I’m getting at. Our teachers and this wonderful school. They all do so much for us, and we don’t really stop and say thank you, so I wanted to use this opportunity to thank them all. Before I conclude my speech, good luck to all of you in secondary school and I look forward to seeing everyone, when we have our alumni event in 2022. Thank you.

Year 6 Graduation Speech – Jash

It's my honour today to stand here and give this speech for this incredible student body.” “It is with immense pleasure I welcome students, families, and faculty to graduation day at Glen Waverley Primary School. Every one of you have made an impact on the graduates who sits here today. Good evening, Teachers Parents, and students my name is Jash Goodluck, and I am your 2021 school captain.

Have you ever asked a question to yourself on how you got where you are today? If you’re answer is just by yourself, then you are wrong. Whether you had put determination or your confidence into whatever it is we have been pushed to our limits by parents, teachers, principal or friends each of them has somehow helped us and can proudly take the title of “People who have helped me succeed”

I would like to share this platform to say thank you to my parents, teachers and friends for getting me to where I am today, without them I would not be standing here giving this speech and would not have made it this far.

I would like to mention a special thank you to our teachers for helping us through our tough times such as helping and providing us with the proper guidance, over past the years. Our teachers’, friends and family always have ways to cheer us up and make up for the fun stuff for the things that we may have missed.

The past 2 years have been rough, but we faced and overcome new challenges, whatever had come in our way as one team with our power of mateship. We had each other’s back, such as the countless group face times in breaks or playing afternoon games with our class we were there for each other no matter what.

We may have all looked at the negatives of these past years but that has now changed as we think more positive over negative. That’s because we have changed, our teachers helped us change, showed us to look at a positive side when we sulked and said “oh man I hate lockdowns” but our teachers held their head up high and shared positive thoughts throughout, finding the silver lining such as “look on the bright side you got to spend time with your family for longer than you had expected and build more healthy connections”.

Remembering my first years in school I was excited but nervous, shy but energetic and many other mixed emotions, I still laugh at myself as to how much I have grown, and this is the same with all of you I believe. During this journey, together we have made so many memories, friends who will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Being a School Captain has been a privilege and fun for me, so many experiences gained. It is hard saying goodbye to my friends and teachers, I don’t think of it as goodbye I think of as new beginning for all of us. Once again, I would like to whole heartedly thank all the teachers and parents on behalf of each student. 

I wish all students the very best for all of their High School years and the future.

So, let’s keeping on Dreaming, Believing, Achieving and Succeeding.