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Transcript of Address to Year 11 Leavers at the Celebration Mass and Presentation Evening on 12th May 2010 - by Chair of Governors, Mr. John Sankey.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I speak to you this evening as a former pupil of St Mary’s, as your Chair of Governors and as a retired Headmaster. I address my remarks to the most important people in the Hall this evening – the students of Year 11, the year of 2010. The rest of us, Governors, parents and teachers are your Supporters’ Club. On behalf of your Supporters’ Club I want to express our good wishes to you all in this examination season. I would also like to take this opportunity, on a personal note, to express my gratitude to St Mary’s for the way, many, many years ago, it guided me through public examinations both at 16+ and later through A Levels and then on to Balliol College, Oxford.
You, the class of 2010, are now at the start of building up your academic portfolio and I don’t need to tell you how important this is for your future lives. Employers and University tutors will scrutinise your academic record carefully but they will also be looking for evidence of a well-rounded education. At St Mary’s there is an impressive range of extra-curricular activities which help you in broadening your experience and I urge you to continue your participation in these opportunities as you go forward to Sixth Form. Now some of you will be keen to enter the world of work after your GCSE’s and I believe you will be able to present yourselves as young people who have had an education based on sound moral principles and a concern for other people. The very name “St Mary’s College” on your CV will stand you in good stead..
When you return home this evening I would like you all to take a few moments to look at the school badge which you wear on your blazers. On the top of that badge you will see two stars. Now the star was also featured on the badge of the school where I was Headmaster, De La Salle College in the Channel Islands. The Founder of that School, wrote about the symbolism of the star. This is what he wrote:
“Every student, present and past of this School is expected to be a star in their own sphere; not a ‘shooting star’ that will shine only for short time, say when they are at school, but a ‘constant star’ ever steady in the fulfilment of their various duties, always fair in sport, constantly keen and honest in business, evenly exemplary in behaviour”
You see, symbols are important but only if we reflect on them, internalise them and make them part of our very being. You are all stars because each one of you has a gift, a unique and sacred gift which you must develop to its full potential. There is nothing worse in education than unfulfilled potential where the beautiful gift which each one of you has is left hidden because of apathy, laziness or lack of encouragement. I am reminded of the words of the poet Thomas Gray:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathomed depths of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its fragrance on the desert air
And so I urge you in the coming weeks to approach your examinations with confidence and without anxiety. Nervous you will be and this is a good thing. Every sportsperson will tell you about this nervousness before a big event. But they transform it into an energising force which enhances performance and makes them eager to succeed.
You and I belong to a great school which has its values right. On this question of values I want to share with you an article I read in 1992 by an educationalist, Richard Pring. He wrote:
Three years ago I visited a high school in Boston in the United States. The headteacher was reading poems she had written when, at the age of eleven (in Nazi Germany), she had been separated from her mother and twin sister. The students listened attentively to her description of what it felt like to be parted, in most terrible circumstances from those she loved.
With many new teachers each year, this headteacher undertook to inform the new teachers of what the main driving force behind the school should be. To each one she wrote the following letter:
“Dear Teacher,
I am the victim of a concentration camp.
My eyes saw what no-one should witness:
gas chambers built by learned engineers;
children poisoned by educated physicians;
infants killed by trained nurses;
women and children shot and burned
by high school and college graduates.
So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is:
help your students become human.
your efforts must never produce
learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing and arithmetic are important
but only if they serve to make our children more human.”
There is something odd about proclaiming the virtues of an education which simply makes those who succeed within it more efficient at that which is evil, or more able to exploit their fellow citizens, or more adept at pursuing their own interest at the expense of others.
The most important argument for the preservation of church schools is that they have a distinct and defensible answer to the question:
What makes children more human?
As you, Year 11, the Class of 2010, set sail on your academic journey, in the words of T S Eliot, I say to you
Not Farewell, but Fare Forward, voyagers! |
