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Members of the Calrossy School Board, our special guest today Alice Arnott (Calrossy Graduate from 2015 and 2024 Olympic Hockeyroo), members of Staff, Family and Friends of the Graduating Year 12, Year 12 students of 2024, ladies and gentlemen and the men and women of Calrossy Anglican School.

Welcome to this morning’s Graduation Assembly in which we honour our graduating Year 12 students.

It is hard to believe that 13 years ago in 2012, you had just started school and were making the first steps of your formal education journey! Some parents may remember crying on that day as they commenced Kindy. (Maybe a few parents cheered as well!)

You have come such a long way, through infants and primary school, into Year 7 and six years to this long-anticipated day. A portion of you started Boarding, many in Year 7, leaving home and making Calrossy your home.  For most, it has simply flown by. It is lovely that several of our cohort started as three-year-olds at Calrossy Preschool, others turned four in Prep and Minnie Pearson I believe, finishes as the longest ever Calrossy student, having done two years of Preschool, a Year of Prep and 13 years of school, making 16 years in the one place for her education.

No doubt you are here with mixed feelings. There is the obvious joy and elation of the completion of thirteen long hard years. You won’t miss assessment tasks, bells ruling your life every hour, having to find clean school uniforms, or Yondr pouches. Not having to think is it Week A or Week B? You may never be told again that you must wear a dress hat, tuck your shirt in or do up your tie.

I remind you (again) that this moment is not the destination but a steppingstone towards the future. School is about and for your future. The measure of your success (and us as a school) will not be your ATAR or HSC achievements, but in how effectively you have been equipped for what lies ahead. That future is exciting but also somewhat unknown – however much you have planned.

This year our Calrossy theme has been “Courage” and it is a relevant one for school leavers. Our themes are not random but represent ideas that we believe will help you develop wonderful and flourishing young adults. They connect with our school vision of growing you to become creators of hope and change that matters.

Change is pertinent and today marks a significant one – you leave school routines which are predictable, and start to make you own way, taking on adult responsibility and move into the less predictable. There are no Mrs Yeos at University or at work and what you do will be up to you.

Times have changed in your lifetime. The iPhone was first introduced the year after you were born. Social media like Tik Tok and Snapchat didn’t exist. Google bought YouTube and the one billionth song was downloaded on iTunes when you were in nappies – The Speed of Sound by Coldplay. During your life-time technology has changed the way that we do things in the world and you have adapted with it. Some of you probably learned to swipe before you could talk. Communication, information and entertainment is all different. What you can be confident in, is that your life and schooling has prepared you for change and the world you are about to inherit.

At school you have also experienced change and shown courage in doing so – Calrossy is not the same as it has been in the past. We have a different campus structure, the uniform has changed, you have embraced new school Houses and your learning has evolved. You negotiated COVID in Year Eight and Nine and adapted so well to the disruption and uncertainty of home learning and cancelled camps. Not all change is good, but you were the first Year 9 together on the William Cowper Campus and then moved across to a coeducational Brisbane Street.

In speaking of courage and change, I suggest today that they go together. Courage comes from Latin and the old French – meaning “of the heart”

Some definitions include:
- The Ability to do something that frightens or is hard
- Strength in the face of hardship
- And facing or make change.

One of my heroes is William Wilberforce (movie Amazing Grace) who in the 1700’s had strong convictions about slavery and how wrong it was, based on his deep Christian conviction that every person had value and was precious. In England around the time Australia was first settled by Europeans, he made his life’s challenge to abolish the slave trade. To stop traders going to Africa and capturing slaves to sell in the UK (and around the world). He faced incredible opposition, hatred and claims that he would ruin the economy and the way of life, that it all would be a disaster. Traders hated him, the buyers and employees stood to lose their free labour.

As part of his struggle, William was elected to parliament and ultimately, he used his canniness and showed great courage to effect a change that altered the way that the world at that time operated.

One his famous quotes was as follows:
“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know” In 1789 he gave his abolitionist speech and 45 years later the anti-slavery law was passed in 1833.

Why do I mention this? Not many of you are going to be as influential as Wilberforce but courage is something you can take into life ahead. Being an adult is often hard and you will need courage to manage challenges you will face. Most things worth doing in life will require some courage and hope. A good question to ask is “Where do we get courage”?

It is a learned skill and doesn’t come naturally but our reading from Psalm 121 today gives us a hint.
“Where does my help come from?” and the answer is given “ My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth”.

The last day at school is not only significant for Year 12, but also to parents and families and it is a pleasure to have you here as our guests. You have nurtured, cajoled and encouraged (threatened) them to this point in their lives.  You must be very proud of these young men and women you have seen develop before your eyes.

You have entrusted these fine young men and women to our care for up to 13 years and on behalf of Calrossy, I thank you for doing so. Between parents and school, we have prepared for the next stage of their lives. I am hopeful that the students too will thank you for the privilege you have afforded them in an education at Calrossy.

What I have observed in this group has impressed me greatly and they have been wonderful holders of our culture, the spirit and ‘vibe’ of the school, despite change. Year 12 have made an indelible mark and they leave the culture of the school in a healthy place. It is special that whilst amongst the change, you have nurtured and guarded special traditions.

Thank you to the staff who have supported them, not just in the past year but throughout their education.  Their dedication and concern for the students is evident and staff have played a vital part in shaping, teaching and believing in these young men and women. I make special mention of Mrs Laura Yeo and Mr Bart Leach, who have shepherded these young women and men in a very personal and unique way as their Leaders of Wellbeing and Year Advisors over the last four years. Thank you both for your investment in their lives.

Shortly Year 12 are going to sit their HSC Exams and there is still 50% of their mark in each subject up for grabs. (Please don’t stop working now.) As I conclude I share a few stats of the Year 12 cohort:

You have each spent about a quarter of your waking hours since you were five years of age at school, not far off a million minutes. There are around 36,000 boys and 39,000 girls doing the HSC in 2024, making a total close to 75,000. Around two thirds come from Sydney and the other third from Regional NSW. The New England and North West has close to 1,500 students altogether of which we make up just under 100 students.

The HSC has 106 courses. English is compulsory, 70% are doing Maths, 37% take Biology and the next two most popular subjects are Business Studies and PDHPE.

The most popular first names of HSC students are Jack and James for boys and Chloe and Charlotte for girls. The most common Surname is Nugyen, then Smith followed by Lee.  Calrossy has the rare feat of having three sets of twins, the Manion’s, Duggan’s and Bicton’s from around 200 sets in NSW.

Statistics are one thing, but they don’t reveal the colour, character and the depth of the students in front of us today. You are not a number for us but real people, individuals, key to our Christian philosophy and what motivated Wilberforce is the idea that every individual is known and valued by God and that should give us all courage.

It is our hope that the time you have spent at Calrossy thinking about our world, your place in it and the loving kindness of a God who knows and loves us enough to send his son to die, allowing us to enjoy a relationship with him, might be something that sustains you in your life ahead and gives it purpose and direction.

As our reading today finished:
"He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore".
Be of good courage Year 12 as you leave this place. May God bless you.

David Smith
Principal Calrossy Anglican School