Welcome everyone to this wonderful occasion, and thank you Headmaster for honoring me with your invitation. Every time I return to these hallowed grounds I get very emotional, because this was my home for seven years, two in the main hall and five in what used to be Halls House before your lot demolished it! I may indeed be standing no more than 20 yards from my old dorm! But I would certainly not feel at home had IHS not taken over Woolverstone Hall when my school closed. Nor indeed had the staff collectively since then not shown such astonishing generosity and inclusivity towards WHS. That they HAVE shown that may be partly because WHS and IHS had a long history of close collaboration - particularly in music - but I am sure it is also due to both the human quality of empathy plus the deep sense of history, tradition and connectivity felt by IHS. So thank you for that. It could have been so different - but it isn't! I was lucky to have had a wonderful education here. The setting and facilities were of course superlative - apart from our tiny gym and swimming-pool - but even more important were my teachers. Many were just wonderful human beings who went far beyond the call of duty in their devotion to our well-being and development. I have one big regret: I never thanked them adequately when I left school. One's frame of reference is obviously limited at a young age and I only came to really appreciate many of them some years later. I did meet some of them and did so, but for others it was too late. I am sure you have a similar experience with your teachers, so my advice is this: if you admire and appreciate someone, then TELL THEM. People are not mindreaders, and they will be happy to hear it directly from you. Of course, the same applies to romantic feelings for someone. Just tell them: they should know, and there is nothing to lose by honesty. Well, today is a beautiful day, and not just because the sun is shining (or 'even though the sun is not shining' depending on the weather!) It is beautiful because we are celebrating two of the most beautiful words in the English language. Before I reveal them, here's a test for you: how many words ARE there in our language? (Pause .......) Actually, nobody can say for sure because new ones appear almost daily and in any case it is actually not that easy to define exactly what a word is. For example, are 'phone' and 'telephone' ONE word or two? But we can safely say that there are over half a million words. Don't worry - I suspect nobody on the planet knows then all - or ever has done! But there are only a dozen or so that REALLY matter, and those are: love, morality, empathy, respect, tradition, honour, duty, justice, sacrifice and the two we are especially celebrating today, which are of course .... (pause) success and hard work. Alright, 'hard work' is two words, but one concept. Perhaps we should make it a single word! For me, hard work is the basis of our civilisation: everything we have and which is around us has been created through hard work: the skill and knowledge of your teachers, the beautiful buildings maintained and cared for by your staff, the quality of the catering, the grounds lovingly tended by Glen and his team, and most importantly - your mobile phone! And of course without your parents' hard work and sacrifice none of us would be here today! Hard work is essential for the survival and continuous improvement of our species. I am sure that even cavemen worked hard to improve their lot. We only have electricity thanks to the hard work of Michael Faraday and others. Hard work is a vital element of civilisation - and of the Human Spirit, that quality which makes our species so special. And the point is, those we honour today have worked hard to deserve their prize. Some might say: "Oh, X is so clever he or she doesn't have to work hard." Possible, but in my experience, such people often work harder than anyone as they recognize that they have been given a gift which honour demands they utilise in the service of Mankind. So congratulations to all prizewinners. Through your hard work you have honoured yourself, your parents, your teachers, your peers, your community and indeed your species. Well done. One last thought. We can't ALL win a prize, but what we CAN all do is our best. As a parent (and indeed a teacher for 50 or so years) that is ALL I can reasonably ask of my child or pupil. And your best may not be enough to win a prize, but it is still beautiful. Doing your best ALSO honours you and all those I mentioned above. I suspect your teachers have a pretty good idea who has done their best, but the best person who knows that is YOU! So IF you know deep down that you haven't done your best this year, you can fix this NEXT year - and who knows, even win a prize yourself. I believe all I have said to be true and honest, but it is a bit theoretic and even waffly, so I would like to leave you with a practical tip. I consider myself to be a jack-of-all-trades.That has its advantages, but there is no one thing that I am really, really good at. It is, however, a real ASSET to be really good at something. It may be something you can turn into a profession, or just something you can do for the rest of your life that gives you pleasure - and OTHERS pleasure too! There is no sin in impressing and entertaining people with a skill: a musical instrument of course, but we can't all be gifted in that area, or perhaps just a "party trick": juggling, miming, doing different accents, telling jokes or whatever. This school like mine before it is devoted to helping pupils to reach their full potential: in school work of course, but also in other activities - but they don't have time to do some of the things I mentioned - which are fun. I wish at your age I had chosen something like that to work really hard on. Who knows, had I done so I could have finished with a bit of a juggle today! With that I wish you all a future of the greatest possible success and happiness - and leave you with a thought from Anne Frank, a truly beautiful human: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." |