There are so many highlights to this particular annual Ormiston College tradition. Not only is it exciting for our young students from Prep through to Year 4, but also for our Year 12 students, as well as the many Staff members who were fortunate enough to have taught those senior students when they were just starting out on their educational journey.
Thursday 19 November was the very special event 'Back to where it all began'. Our Junior students were fully prepared for the celebration and eagerly awaited the visit from ‘the big girls and boys’. They knew that the Year 12 students would soon be leaving the College and were first coming to visit their classrooms to share memories and to say farewell. This was a very special time for all of our Prep to Year 4 children.
The Year 12 cohort were also very exhilarated as they eagerly made their way down to the Junior School. One could easily call it a trip down Memory Lane. So many of our Senior students commenced their schooling at Ormiston College and to return to that place, knowing that all those years had passed and that they were now young adults about to make a very dramatic step, was a very emotional experience. For those who commenced later in the Secondary School, it was also a tremendous feeling of sentiment and nostalgia as they realised that they were once that young and were now about to venture on.
The day allowed the staff to pause, reflect, and appreciate that their teaching and nurturing, plus their relationship with those students had assisted in making them the capable, knowledgeable and ever-inquiring young adults that they are today. It was indeed a recognition of successful outcomes for all concerned.
During the morning, the Year 12 students visited different classrooms in twenty-minute rotations, which was lots of fun. Morning tea was also a very special part of the event, when the Year 12 students were joined in the Junior School Courtyard, each receiving a popper and biscuit in a very special lunch bag that had been personally decorated by the Junior students. This was a proud moment for the little ones, knowing they had made the bags, it was also a very memorable experience for the Year 12 cohort, realising they were valued and respected by the younger members of their school.
Whilst this event is about students who are ‘leaving’ the school, it is also very much about ‘belonging’ to and being a part of the school as well.
Valerie Warwick