No matter where our paths may wind we'll remember always Graduation day (The Beach Boys)

Photo by Keith Luke on Unsplash

Post graduation day today.

Things went really well but those events are always a kind of out-of-body experience for me. 

I somehow watch myself performing and being super critical. My mind is going haywire as I speak - little micro decisions going on about words to accentuate, ad libs to avoid or ad libs made and immediately regretted and then the critical brain kicks in: move on, how is it going?, speed and pitch, calm down!, breathe!, focus! and so on ad nauseam until it's done and I'm sitting at home. But even then phrases I've used, verbal stumbles I've made - all tumble around in my head.

A colleague sent me a picture of me speaking at the lectern and it doesn't look like how I imagine myself. I look calm.

But pictures don't lie. Or do they?

Anyway, Graduation/Prize-giving: done for another year.

That's a relief!

Life goes on graduation day oh graduation day.(Chris Isaak)

Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash

Prizegiving and graduation speech making is almost upon me. A week to go, as I write this - less by the time this is posted.

Today's big goal was to complete my first draft. 

Nailed it, the draft, btw and within time (I have 5 minutes of alloted time to fill with inspirational WOW - Words of Warren).

Anyway, I was doing some research on my previous speeches when I came across three I wrote as Principal of Stratford High School over ten years ago.

The last one was for the 2009 ceremony. Sadly my father had passed away a short time before my speech so it was all pretty downbeat. It was a tough speech to make because I'd also made up my mind to leave the school and do some consultancy work in Qatar.

Coincidentally, it was when my youngest was in her final year at the school. I hadn't realised it was ten years ago. Crazy!

I wonder if anyone apart from me remembers all that, and ever glances back. Too much to think anyone remembers my speech too.

But yet, the ritual of the Principal's address goes on. 

Second draft and practices in front of the horses to come (also part of the ritual).

Celebrate good times, come on! (Kool and The Gang)

Photo by Rene Bernal on Unsplash

We've kicked off the awards season at school. The first of three celebrations was an awards assembly, to be followed by a regional prizegiving and then our local prizegiving.

For a while now, we've been having a debate at school around the content of these award shows.

On one hand we have staff who want every student to get an award, on the other, the less-is-more stance, that we reward only the most deserving.

I'll give you a nano-second to decide which stance I favour!

But being principal of a school isn't about me getting my own way. So a middle ground was reached and we all seem to be happy with that.

Having said all that, congratulations to all my students. Making it through the academic year is something to celebrate!

Jolly good, I see, and which prize do you have particular eyes on this evening? (Monty Python's Flying Circus)

And so to the Christmas holidays!

We (the present Mrs Purdzilla and yours truely) have ditched the weird NZ summer Christmas and high tailed it to London, where you find me now.

It's 3.50pm and darkness has descended! WAHOOO!!!! And it's raining! HOSANNA!!!!!!

Back in Nu Zild, the school year ended in the usual way - with a prize giving.

All NZ schools do this and that practice could, actually, be unique. 

It's not like the UK schools I taught at where prize giving was all a tad shambolic, and it's definitely not like a US style graduation ceremony with gowns and tassels and American showbiz razzmatazz.

NZ prize givings are formal and a big deal - like Britain in 1954. Academic gowns. Visiting speaker. Cups. Strict choreographing. Three cheers for the dux! Best behaviour.

Not that that's a bad thing - just a thing.

Come to think of it though: why do we do them like this? In 2015 especially - are they still a relevant way to end the year?

Well there's the celebrating success thing that is important, but we do that all year in assemblies, for all sorts of things.

So it's obviously for the students? Well not really. I'm pretty sure no one sits there thinking, "I'll show them - next year I'll get a prize!" The usual suspects appear to be the prize winners each year and in these December days the accent is squarely on NCEA internal success (the externals have just been sat so they don't figure) which generates it's own success.

It's for the staff then? Well - no. Teachers sit through prize givings and enjoy seeing some of the students getting public recognition but I don't think we sit there thinking, "This is why I became a teacher!"

The various august Boards? Nope (apart from a few, I guess, who like to be seen as the head cheeses).

It must be for the parents then, right? Oh, sure if their loved one is getting a prize, but otherwise... not really.

Why do we do it then? Why why why?

Two words. Public. Relations.

School's do prize giving because it says to the community (and prospective clients) - come on in! The water's fine. 

That's why. Right?

A ritual is an enactment of a myth (JosephCampbell)

Prize givings are a ritualistic part of life, and I love rituals.

Prize givings are at heart an initiation ceremony that moves students from childhood towards adult responsibilities.

As they include a graduating class, prize givings become an important rite of passage - that push out of the nest that is SO important.

Appropriately, parents, teachers, and friends watch on as the young throw off the old life and welcome in their new life. It's an exciting thing to witness and be part of.

For me, prize givings are woven into the fabric of each year, a hardy perennial if you will. By my reckoning Wednesday's formal ceremony at Woodford House was my 43rd all up. 

How come? Let me see -  

• Six as a student at Mt. Albert Grammar School,
• Two degree graduation ceremonies of my own (missed one by being overseas), 
• Five for my children's graduations (KW had two), and 
• Thirty* as a teacher (some schools have split junior and senior prize givings so that number is conservative).

[*I didn't include the myriad prize givings during taboor at Ali bin Abi Taleb school in Al Ain - they LOVED prize givings!!]

My favourite bits of prize givings tend to be the student speeches (adult guest speakers too often seem to struggle to get out of cliched, platitudinous mode). I'm not a fan of guest speakers: beyond Sir Robert Muldoon I can't think of many memorable ones down through the years.

Because they are shedding their school skin, students tend to speak from the heart and more often than not, they end up dissolving in tears (boys are certainly not exempt from being overwhelmed by the whole deal). And you can't fake that human emotional side of things.

This week's latest version went to script pretty much but given it was our Principal's farewell it also had added emotional heft. 

I've been lucky again: right place/right time as I stumbled upon the last two years of Jackie Barron's tenure. She's a gifted leader, a person of integrity, an ideas woman, a top notch communicator, and an all round good egg. I can think of no higher accolade!

But wait there's more: beyond all that she has allowed change to flourish - not an easy thing to do believe me. Managing change is one of the trickiest things to pull off. It includes placing trust in other people and allowing them freedom of thought. And that starts at the top. 

So- hats off to her!

I took a quick P.P.P. (post prize giving poll) - best moments: the dux announcement, the Head Girl's speech, and a really really REALLY extended gardening metaphor by the Principal were the most memorable aspects.

I'm always fascinated at the way prize givings contribute to the myth of the organisation. 


Woodford House ends its prize givings with the Principal giving a gift to the graduating class who then, on mass, run out of the prize giving ceremony - symbolically moving away from the old life with a whoop and a hollah. 

Last year Jackie handed out an artificial butterfly, this year it was an artificial flower. Apparently the previous Principal instigated this symbolic conclusion- it will be interesting to see whether Jackie's successor adopts it or changes it. That decision, and many others, will also add to the myth.

After the graduating class burst from the ceremony, the remainder of the school...um.. remains, until the Boards and staff leave. 

Parents, and students then leave together. Nice.

I finished the ceremony by remaining behind to help remove furniture and pick up rubbish from the floor. 

The symbolic nature of that last bit alludes me for the moment, but- through sacrifice, bliss.

I am now on holiday for the summer. The rituals of my day changes substantially now and my determination to post every day on my blogs will be tested.

We shall see, we shall see.