To the Year 12 Graduating Class!

At Cecil Hills High School, we demand high expectations in everything we do. You’ve not only met these expectations – you’ve exceeded them in so many ways. In years to come, you may not remember which poem you studied for English and you may forget the Maths formula that you once knew so well. But you will never forget the experience that is high school. You may not fully comprehend this yet, but, you will miss high school, you will miss your friends, you will miss your teachers and you may even the new health food from the school canteen!

On behalf of the school, I congratulate you on this fantastic achievement. Just twelve and a half years ago, you nervously started primary school, probably terrified and excited at the same time, wearing a Kindergarten uniform way too big for you. Fast forward through these twelve and a half years and whatever your journey, you’ve all arrived at the same destination, here, together, today.

Now, as excellent students of English, you know that any good speech should include a quote or two. Now, I could choose to quote historical figures, famous politicians or business leaders, but in reading the book with my eldest son, I’ve realised that everything you need to know in life can be learned from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

So my first helpful quote from Mr Willy Wonka, “time is a precious thing – never waste it”. As a generation that’s always been connected to the internet, you already see the world differently to others. Your generation will use driverless cars and go the moon for a holiday. Your generation will cure cancer and do amazing things. All of this requires focused learning, a high quality education and innovative thinking and your teachers have given you the tools to achieve all of this. It’s up to you to take what you’ve learned and think about the impact you can have on the world, but don’t waste time. Someone in your generation will cure cancer. Someone in your generation will develop the next app that will change the world. Someone will be the prime minister in thirty years time and it can be you.

As you know, the teachers at Cecil Hills High School have worked tirelessly for you and they genuinely value the connection they’ve developed with you and are committed to seeing you turn into tomorrow’s leaders. To quote Mr Wonka again, “you are the music makers and you are the dreamers of dreams”. All of your teachers have invested their heart and soul into your grade and their reward is seeing you here today. I want you to think about the special memories you’ll take away with you from high school and always remember these moments.

There’s a strange contradiction I’m sure you’re experiencing right now. As young people, you sometimes wish you could fast forward through high school and get to adulthood as quickly as possible. In chatting with you in the last few weeks, I know that you will truly miss this place. It’s been your home away from home for six years. You’ve created so many memories here, mostly good but many amazing memories.

You’ve taken the time to enjoy these last few weeks and I was super-impressed that almost all of you went to yesterday’s Year 12 picnic to make some final memories. There are many, many things things that you’ll miss when you leave Cecil Hills High School. Finally, at long last, you’ll get to live in a world without bells going off every seventy five minutes. When you leave this place, you’ll finally be allowed to have your mobile phone switched on and in full sight without fear that a strange man will enter your classroom in a stealth-like manner under the cover of darkness, watch you hide your phone in your jacket or under your desk, confiscate your phone and then threaten to sell it on eBay.

You can now celebrate the fact that you can legally chew gum without having to pretend that you were eating a mentos when busted. You can even arrive a couple of minutes late without having someone heckle you from across the pedestrian crossing and then hurry you up all the way up the street and around the corner, even as far as McDonald’s.

No more will you have someone scrutinise the precise colour of your school pants to make sure they are Cecil navy rather than plain blue, not to mention the longstanding debate over white socks vs black socks vs navy socks.

As silly as these things sound, this school has given you all a strong sense of discipline, self-responsibility and a moral compass to guide you through life. To quote my friend, in life there will be “little surprises around every corner but nothing dangerous, so don’t be alarmed”. As you leave Cecil Hills High School, know that we have prepared you well and the reputation of this school will follow you, benefit you, reward you and bring opportunities to you.

Since 2005, when you were in Kindergarten, so much has changed in the thirteen years you’ve been attending school.

When you were in kindergarten in 2005, in Australia, we strangely only had one prime minister that entire year, the ABC2 TV channel was launched for the first time and for parents in the audience, the last episode of The Price is Right went to air on Channel 9. Worldwide, the iPod shuffle was sold for the first time, the top TV show was CSI and in a great year for sequels, the top two films were Harry Potter #4 and Star Wars Episode III. And the iPhone didn’t even exist yet!

I’m very excited and a bit jealous considering the adventures that lie ahead of you.

To quote Mr Wonka yet again, in describing the Great Glass Elevator, he noted that it could travel sideways, slantways, longways, backways, frontways, squareways and any other ways you can think of and this is how you should approach the rest of your lives. Think outside the square. Seize every opportunity. Be a trailblazer, an individual and make your mark on the world.

I have some interesting statistics for you. In thirteen years of education, depending on your outlook, you’ve either enjoyed or endured:

2,600 days at school
30, 240, 000 seconds of classroom learning
118 hours of exams; and
50 assessment tasks in the last two years alone

It’s overwhelming and gives you a sense of the commitment you’ve demonstrated to be successful HSC students.

This is the start of a new chapter of your lives where you’ll discover yourselves, define your place in the world and forge your own path. Don’t tell our current students that I said this, but the world ‘out there’ doesn’t involve writing essays, memorising syllabus dot points, using NESA verbs or listening for a bell. You won’t need to get your name marked off at morning roll call, sit in a seating plan or be supervised by a teacher every minute of every day. You’ll have to unlearn many of the routines and processes of school to become creative, independent and innovative.

To quote Mr Wonka again, “invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation and 2% butterscotch ripple”. In other words, work incredibly hard, embrace your creativity and in the process, make the world a better place. As graduating high school students, you don’t know yet everything you need to know and this is a good thing. Your high school education is an extremely important foundation but it’s only the beginning.

When I first met your grade in July 2015, back when you were in Year 10, I instantly knew that your grade was destined for success because of two very special people, your amazing year advisers, Mr Wren and Ms Carter. You might remember that I tagged along to your Year 10 B Street Smart excursion so I could witness first hand the excellent behaviour of Cecil Hills High School students everyone was telling me about. Poor Mr Wren drew the short straw and had to sit next to me on the bus, not only there but back again. After our conversation, I knew that your grade was in excellent hands and I know you’ve all benefited from Mr Wren’s friendly nature, caring attitude and interest in you as not only students but as human beings. And now to Ms Carter. After seeing your first grade meeting with yourselves and Ms Carter, I knew within about ten seconds that you were such a fortunate grade.

Every teacher knows that it’s important to be positive with students and my initial view of Ms Carter when I saw her at that first grade meeting was that well, she’s having a good day, she seems like

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