GRADUATION 2017
One more Graduation, one more thrilling night for the School.
We share our Principal´s speech and the photos or a marvelous evening. We are proud of our graduates!
Graduation Speech 2017: Wednesday 22nd November 2017
Good Evening. Good evening and welcome to:
Members of the Board of Governors, Parents of the graduating generation of 2017, Members of staff of The British Schools, family friends and, finally and by no means least students who graduate from The British Schools in 2017.
We meet this evening to celebrate a rite of passage. A ritual event that marks a person's transition from one status to another. Baptism, Marriage, Parenthood, Divorce, and Retirement are the normally cited status changing events in most people’s lives.
Today, the particular rite, or change of direction, which we celebrate is the graduation from school; leaving the nest after 13 or even 14 years of “British” education.
The processes of both the International Baccalaureate and the National Baccalaureate means that the respective Diplomas will not be available to students or school until after the 2017 academic year is over. These Diplomas will be presented in a separate ceremony next year.
More importantly, tonight is the last occasion that this entire group of people will be together at The British Schools. And particularly, the last time they will be together in school uniform.
Not only are students graduating tonight but so are many school families. For 44 families tonight the youngest child will graduate from The British Schools. The commitment to the school has often been for a very long time period - in nine cases over 20 years – and must often have seemed eternal and all-embracing. What does parental graduation mean?
All those years of worrying about school – how are the grades? What is the report like? Is she happy in school? Why does he hate Química? What does this message from the school mean? Making sure the uniform is correct, and the homework is done, and the lunch is provided, and that everyone gets up in time in the morning, and, and, and.
It’s all over and the biggest thanks possible to all of the parents for making The British Schools possible, and particularly for shepherding this group of young people towards this evening.
Another thing that is over, of course, is the many years of paying the school each month. Not a minor consideration!
TBS prides itself on being a “traditional” school – immersed in its history and community – tracing its roots to the British Community of over 100 years ago. For the most part students embrace school traditions – English, School Uniform, Hockey, Rugby, Sports Days and “God Save the Queen” are all borne with admirable stoicism. The churlish would note that school uniform is not usually associated with moustache and beard…..and, fair enough, we have failed to contain facial hair in the face of a global fashion emergency.
The challenge for a “traditional” school is to maintain the type of education offered in the global vanguard – to ensure that the skills and competencies inculcated are relevant in a changing world where no-one knows what the world will look like in 10 years - that alone over the course of the next 40 years which embraces the working lives of our graduating students.
Three complementary areas of previously unheralded skills have emerged as essential facets for the graduate student:
Firstly, for all the “modern” skills associated with technology – searching, interpreting, analysing data etc. we are paradoxically also being increasingly drawn back to a much| older set of skills and competencies to make sense of our world. Where all information is instantly available – without apparent cost – access to knowledge has been democratised. Everyone is equal in terms of access to information.
What to do with all of this information is the new frontier. Rhetoric, Public Speaking, Presentation and Debate are the new old skills - mostly familiar to the Ancient Greeks – that have emerged as essential learning skills. All of these elements are enjoying a revival throughout The British Schools. Indeed, these old skills are very apparent in class rooms, in The Model United Nations activity and during the recent first ever PYP Exhibition.
Second is the ability to reflect on what you are doing and why. TOK – rarely a Diploma student’s favourite subject – has long demanded that students examine the way they are learning, understanding and interpreting in all traditional “subject areas”. This requirement now stretches into all learning – and is even a specifically required aspect of the PYP for the very youngest learners.
Finally, and not unrelated, is the set of competencies associated with “Emotional Intelligence”. A well know quote has it that
“As more and more artificial intelligence is entering into the world, more and more emotional intelligence must enter into leadership.”
Emotional intelligence – that is, the ability to recognise, understand and manage our own emotions, and to recognise, understand and influence the emotions of others is a vital part of the learning process. In a confusing world of poor behaviour, “alternative truth”, “fake news” it beholds us more than ever to remain true to the precepts of understanding, civility, honesty and honour that are so much a part of fabric of The British Schools. Old skills – debating, presenting, reflecting and understanding are the way students will excel in a world of limitless knowledge.
This graduating year is a very special group of people. Good at most things – but certainly never boring. We hope and feel that they have been well prepared for the next several stages in life.
My step son – Tomas, was a part of this group for 4 years, and he would dearly have loved to have been here with you tonight. What this has meant is that my wife and I have had the privilege of getting to know many students and parents in a context other than the formal school.
I also share graduation with 6YL in the sense that I too will leave The British Schools at the end of 2018. I will go on wearing “school uniform” for a few more days – but basically the principle is the same.
I will have left The British Schools twice – with more than 30 years between the two occasions. In both instances I leave with only good memories – of The British Schools, of Uruguay and of Uruguayans. Thank you, for my part, and on behalf of my family.
As Principal – soon to be ex- Principal - I would offer the following reflection on The British Schools. This is not a perfect school – how awful that would be - but it is a truly excellent school, well worth the phenomenal effort that so many people put into maintaining and developing the institution.
Leaving students, parents and colleagues – be forever proud of your school. It is well worth it.
