Senior Years
News

2021 Year 11 & 12 Deb Balls

Recently we were able to finally hold our Maffra Secondary College Debutante Ball over 2 nights which enabled the students from this year and also the cohort who missed out last year to finally complete their Deb.

Debutante Balls have been a long-standing tradition for our College and while many schools like ours value this tradition, there are a growing number of schools that shy away from the event. While the old fashion sentiment of a young girl being presented to society may no longer be relevant in our modern era, the event in itself is a significant milestone in our young people’s lives. We hear students anywhere from about Year 8 and 9, and certainly by year 10, start talking about their debutante ball, and how much it will mean to them. For us as teachers though, we look at it in a few ways. We believe there’s a lot to be learned from the experience. We believe it teaches commitment, from committing to a partner, to committing to dance lessons, to commit to us as a school about how they’ll approach the event. There’s the challenge of balancing life commitments such as sports, part time work and other activities, and of course study over the past semester with most of our students currently doing their VCE or VCAL certificates. It gets them out of their comfort zone in learning to dance, and allows them to engage with a range of students in their year level they may otherwise not. We believe this contributes to building a strong sense of community, which is one of our core values. And in line with our value of community, the event itself provides a great opportunity to bring our broader community to come together to celebrate our students, from parents, extended families and broader community members, although smaller this year than we hoped.

We are really fortunate to have a passionate Parents and Friends Association. It is the biggest fundraiser on their calendar and they have continued to offer support since the cancellation of last year’s Deb Ball due to the pandemic. Thank you to all of them for their continued support of this event.

The Debutante Balls would not have gone ahead if it wasn’t for the persistence, resilience and dedication from our very own staff member, Ms Carol Caffrey. Countless hours planning, organising, coordinating training sessions, adapting everything to the government guidelines, answering endless questions and even finding partners so those that wanted to do their Deb could still do it after all the challenges and delays that have occurred. She dedicates her time to make sure everything comes together so that everyone involved will create a lasting memory that will stay with them forever.

I would also like to thank Ms. Fiona Ray for MC’ing the evenings and to all the staff that helped out over the year and on the two nights.

Year 11 Deb