13/08/2020

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A final farewell




A final farewell
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Senior Year 13


On Thursday last week we celebrated the wonderful achievement of our Year 13 Leavers in our Striding Out Ceremony.

The girls received a Valedictory Report, with contributions from their teachers, form tutor, Mrs Lunnon and Dr Parsons. The report is an attempt to capture and record the impact each girl has made here and is testament to the vast chasm in our lives their departure will create. In turn, each girl came to the stage to receive her Valedictory Report whilst a statement was read by her tutor, summarising the report. A performance of 'For Good' from Wicked seemed to sum things up: Because I knew you, I have been changed for good. Dr Parsons used as his theme, lines from Sondheim's Merrily we Roll Along. Here is an extract from his address to the girls:

Here you are, on the edge of change, exams done, party dress hanging in the wardrobe for tonight, school almost entirely behind you and the vast exciting expanse of possibility ahead of you.

So often the composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, managed to capture something important in only a few lines, and seeing this year’s production of Merrily We Roll Along, I was struck by how some of his words resonated with the people in front of me today; you are his ‘movers and shapers, the names in tomorrow’s papers’. His eschewing of the more common expression ‘movers and shakers’ is, I think, not just so that ‘shapers’ rhymes more pithily with ‘papers’ (actually it’s rather clumsy), but rather it points towards a future that will be moulded and organically shaped by his young characters. To extend Sondheim’s metaphor, then, the shape of the future really will be moulded in your hands. And we’re in good hands.

And you are these ‘shapers’ because of an important ingredient; Wimbledonian spirit. And it is breath-taking. There are personal stories within this hall: of triumph over challenging circumstances, of grit and resilience, of real struggle. Sincerely, I have been blown away by your strength of character. You know who you are girls, and I pay tribute to you now. You will take these qualities with you throughout your lives. And I know I can speak on behalf of your tutors too, when I say that I am bursting with pride to see the young people you have become.  

On behalf of everyone at Wimbledon High, we wish Year 13 the best of luck on their new journey. 

 







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A final farewell