Leavers assembly…
The final few minutes of twelve plus years in compulsory education.
In this past seventeen months [the time I have been at The Academy], this is what I have observed?
Here at The Wellington Academy, staff don’t want you to be just great students, staff want so much more than that, so much more for you. The Academy has presented you with excess of opportunity, and so many of you, to your credit, have taken those opportunities and found real purpose in your efforts. In some cases, we shone a light on your abilities, and you have developed them into talents. Some of you were given second chances, and we know that most, truly appreciated that, and your peers observed the power of a well-intentioned pardon and together, we moved forward. You were encouraged to reach for prizes you thought were beyond your grasp, and yet, so many of you now have that same prize clutched inside your hand. We challenged you, to build finer versions of yourselves… How fine you look this afternoon!
So, here it is. Here’s the thing that makes life so interesting. You see, the theory of evolution claims that only the strong shall survive. But the theory of competition says, just because they’re strong, doesn’t mean they can’t get their back-sides kicked once in a while. That’s right. See what every long-shot, come from behind underdog, no chancer, and little guy, hard-working, over achieving student will tell you, is this…
Life is not fair, or equal, or evenly matched. Exams do not represent the same challenge for everyone. The exam challenge may seem impassable and the odds maybe stacked against you, fair enough. You may feel you are the underdog, the little guy. BUT, what the odds don’t know – is that life, well life, life ain’t a test. It is not simply right or wrong. Succeeding at life, living life, making the most of what you have, is a completely different kind of test. You only have to reflect on Steve Sutton’s fine example to be reminded of that. Life, and exams, can be championed, championed with PERSEVERANCE, COOPERATION, DETERMINATION, KINDNESS and PASSION, perhaps most of all PASSION. You see, these personal qualities have an uncanny ability to triumph over logic, to trump the odds. The exams beast ain’t so tough.
So each time you step forward into the exam room and look up, the clock ticking, your heart rate accelerated. You need to know, under pressure, we rarely perform the way we would hope. Rather, we perform, the way we prepare. So prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Yet, and I mean yet… no matter what the stats may say, what the commentators may have predicted, each and every one of you, has the ability, to define your own success. To be your own success, what ever that may look like.
Given this exciting and pressured time, please remember, what lies behind you, and what lies before you, is of little consequence, when compared to, what lies within you.
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