In Praise of Year 12

Meeting with students is a privilege. Listening to and understanding more about their journey through school is a delight. Mainly joyful, sometimes funny, often heartfelt, occasionally sad, their stories exemplify the richness of opportunities and experiences that take place on the journey that is education.

After 100 conversations with Year 12 students, and with about 30 to go, I remain impressed by who Year 12 are, individually and collectively, and how they are approaching their final year of school. As the term draws to a close, they are now six months away from their graduation, and seven and a half months away from completing their HSC.

Practically, Year 12 have confirmed that they would like more student toilets and more bubblers/bottle filling stations. We have elevated these as priorities, even as we consider the bigger picture of the development of our next Masterplan. Hearing directly from students is a great way to get a picture of key themes and concerns of daily school life.

One of my questions to Year 12 is “any worries or struggles for this year?” to which one student responded, “just the classic”, shorthand for “I’d like to do well, and acknowledge that the workload is pretty big, but I am worried that I might not do as well as I would like or work as hard as I should”. What has impressed me repeatedly is that Year 12 know what they are facing, know what is expected of them, know where to get help, know how to support each other, and therefore feel okay about the worries or struggles that they face, which they face together.

I like that they have hopes for the year, hopes to grow as people, to grow in faith, to deepen friendships, to keep things in perspective, to keep doing the things they enjoy, to do well, to work hard, to achieve certain goals or to set themselves up for what comes next.

I now know that if you are in Year 12 at NBCS there is a good chance that pizza, pasta, sushi or steak and fries are likely to be your favourite food, and that the one food you don’t want to eat again includes fried crickets, snails, olives, oysters, and oddly enough, tomato.

Parents, you should be delighted to know that your taste in music has been transmitted to your children. The degree to which this was the case was a pleasant surprise to me.

And when asked the best thing about NBCS, the answer was consistently along the lines of the community, my friends, my teachers, the opportunities.

I want to commend Year 12 upon reaching the halfway mark of their final year of schooling. In doing so, they have also now completed half their assessments. The sky hasn’t fallen in; the load has been manageable because they have supported each other and in turn been supported by their teachers. Year 12 are, dare I say it, making the most of what Year 12 has to offer, including the chance to see just what they can do. They are leading from the front, and their peers across the school from Pre-K right though to Year 11, are following in their footsteps.