June 25th, 2014

Principal’s Remarks:   June 25, 2014

Welcome WT Townshend families and friends, parents and guardians, and especially welcome Grade 6 Graduates.  As the class of 2014 you have made your mark on your school.  You will remember this day, these teachers, and all of us gathered here to mark another important passage of time.  I’m sure your parents are finding it hard to believe that you are actually finishing grade 6.  They are thinking, ‘it seems like yesterday when he started kindergarten”, or “she looks so much older in that dress ………where had the time gone!”

My theme of my address today is: Coming Into Your Own.  It is a phrase which usually means that one is growing in confidence toward the person they will become.  It is a positive acknowledgement of maturity.

As I look at you all here today, sitting before me, looking amazing I might add, I do reflect that you are coming into your own.  You are still on that journey, but I see young men who earlier in the year had trouble owning their behaviour who know how to step up and take responsibility.

I see young women who have grown into a greater sense of confidence about their own special beauty.  I see friendships which have developed based upon a sense of caring for each other, rather than a perception of who is cool.

I see a genuine and authentic desire to learn, and incredible young men and women taking the responsibility to participate in their learning community.  I see a shift in leadership where grade 6 students can be relied upon to be role models, and to give to their school without asking what’s in it for them.  I see a group of grade 6s where racism is becoming an obsolete and shameful demonstration.

So you have indeed come into your own.  Your confidence has grown, your maturity has grown.  Accept your own unique person.  I give you permission to love yourself!  You don’t all have to be the same – celebrate each other as diverse leaders of tomorrow.

And so it is time to say good-bye.  I have loved the laughs, the chats, and seeing you develop as students.   You have so much to offer to Queensmount, Westheights, and to the world.  You will be our teachers, and bosses, and politicians someday – our school council representatives, our ministers, our police.  And remember folks, they will be choosing our nursing homes!

Take our best wishes with you, our affection, and hopefully something of the lessons we have tried to impart to you.  Yes you have certainly come into your own.

Thank-you,

Ms. Brown