Last week, we farewelled the wonderful Class of 2023. This group of 98 students represents the biggest graduating class in Heathdale’s history. On Tuesday, the majority of those students sat the English exam and the three weeks of final written examinations have begun.
To farewell our Year 12s, we have a number of traditions including: the Final Roll Call, the Year 12 Breakfast, the Big Day Out and our Valedictory Dinner. All of these events enable our Year 12s and their families to mark the milestone and take some time to celebrate and reflect on their journey through school.
The Final Roll Call is an outdoor assembly of the whole school, and invited parents, during which the rolls for our Year 12 homerooms are called for the final time. Each student is honoured with claps and cheers as they descend the stairs to the Secondary courtyard.
A special part of the Final Roll Call is the gift exchange between each Year 12 and a Prep student. Our Prep students work hard to create a unique hand-decorated calendar for each graduating student, and our Year 12 students give a little gift of encouragement in return. For the Year 12s, many of whom remember being involved when they were Preps, it is a full-circle moment and a chance to pass the baton to the next the generation of students.
The next morning involves the Year 12 Breakfast, where our graduating students are invited into the staffroom for a sit-down breakfast, served to them by teachers as a gesture of our love and support for these young men and women. Once breakfast is completed, our students head off for The Big Day Out – a last chance to hang out together as a group and celebrate the journey they’ve made together. This year, our Year 12s enjoyed paintball, lunch at Highpoint, bowling and mini-golf.
The final big event for the week is the Valedictory Dinner, a formal event with parents and family members to mark this milestone. Our students were suddenly all grown up! It was joy to spend an evening together as a community and be entertained by amazing items from some of our Year 12 musicians, and then there was the food and the dancing!
Thank you especially to Mrs Tass and Mrs Mernone for leading the Year 12s through their final week. We wish all our students God’s richest blessings as they take their next steps into post-school lives. For those students who have exams still ahead of them, we pray for perseverance and courage, knowing that God has a plan for each one of you.