Felix was selected to speak today in front of his school, kids and teachers and all the parents at the year 6-7 graduation about his leadership experience during this past year. On top of it, he also received the "Leadership award" AND "the Principal special award". Wow, we, parents, feel super proud.
So here is Felix's graduation speech:
1. Hi, my name is Felix Hall and I arrived here at New Farm in grade 4 and would never imagined myself talking to you today in a leadership role. It is a great honour for me to stand here and present my speech to you. I remember my first day at this school, I felt largely accepted by everyone and I am sure that this was also shared by many of our present students. This school embraces cultural diversity making it possible for everyone to achieve their goals.
2. When I arrived here I was unsure on how things would work and was overwhelmed by the number of kids running around as I was home schooled before. For the first six months I had to adapt. I kept on learning, always trying my best. Later on, I became more confident and got myself involved in new activities, this helped me to step up whenever I could. At the end of grade 5, I decided to try out for Binkenba House Captain, yet I did not get selected. Shortly after that I tried out for Media Captain and was very pleased with the positive results.
3. As you might all know, New Farm State School took part in a leadership project; this was our “Graduation tree” legacy project. In this project, a total of seven Captains were set the task and responsibilities to leave a positive legacy in our school, in which students in future years will also be able to, contribute and after that, cherish it themselves. I was very lucky to be part of this team and I'm sure that this will apply to all the other Captains. We are all very grateful of all those who helped us accomplish this legacy project. From the start our “Graduation tree” legacy, seemed impossible to accomplish, neverless, as Nelson Mandela's quote goes;
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” So, we persevered.
4. Now, if you have ever managed a project, you would know how hard and complicated it is to successfully complete a project. Well, myself and the whole 6/7 cohort felt that same feeling this year, as we attempted to make our dreams of leaving a positive legacy behind, come true. As you all know our attempt was a huge success. If it was not a success, we would still have all the wonderful memories and thoughts, in which we had and build up upon along our journey here. As we started off this amazing journey we all thought it would be straight forward with only a few milestones on the way... this proved to be an incorrect assumption. The behind the scenes of the making of "the graduation tree", is buried underneath months and months of hard work. So next time you have a quick glance at the tree, opposite the office entrance before you rush off somewhere, please remember the hard work we all put in, to this make unreal dream come true.
5. A leader that I highly respect, Nelson Mandela once said;
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
We, all the 6 and 7s have experienced this saying in several ways; from helping others around the school or house, learning new skills, to planning "the graduation tree" we have all climbed what seemed at the time a "steep hill". ....Today, we are at the top of a hill, of which we now like to call, primary school, and as we stare down in astonishment, we see that, what seemed like steep and slippery slopes at the time, now looks like climbable hills. As we stare down at every bump we see every moment you, the, parents, teachers, guardians ,caretakers, friends and siblings supported us in climbing it, from taking us to school to helping us with homework. So, we would like to thank you, for enabling us to climb that hill. Thank you, for giving us a helping hand to carry us over that hill in the difficult times. Before I leave, I would just like to describe you what the scenery looks like from up here. As we peel our big eyes off the far away ground and look up, we see an even bigger mountain, a mountain commonly named high school. so please understand that if we start stumbling again, please do as you, the; parents, teachers, guardians ,caretakers, friends and siblings, have always done for us in primary school, heave us up. You will not be disappointed.
