LAST WEEK, Coolum State High School held its annual graduation ceremony, this year at the Coolum State School Hall. This was then followed up at school with the ‘guard of honour’ ceremony in which our graduating seniors walk through a guard of all students who have gathered to ‘clap-out’ the students for their final exit from the school.
It was an emotional, yet exuberant, time as 195 young men and women contemplated what 13 years of education, six of which were at high school, truly meant to them. The most tearful ones, though, of course, were the parents!
During the evening ceremony, school captains Chilli Lloyd and Bronte Strahan, and valedictorian, Savanah Mahony, made wonderful speeches thanking school staff, celebrating shared friendship and making sense of the meaning of leaving the major institutions that have shaped their lives. Students, Owen Troy and Starlee Cattanach, gave truly wonderful musical performances that perfectly captured the emotional and reflective mood of the evening. Subject awards were given to a group of extraordinarily talented students, many of whom had not lost a single grade prior to undertaking external exams. The school’s friends at Diggerman provided a scholarship equating to training that will shape one young man’s life forever. Wandama Award winner, Noah-Jay McArdle, won the subject prize for every subject he studies – a truly remarkable feat!
The ‘guard of honour’ ceremony is a little more relaxed than the evening graduation. At it, students are paid their last farewell by the students and staff who will need to front up again in 2025 – the ones who haven’t yet left school. We honour our graduating students’ legacy, acknowledge their achievements and remind them that they are forever part of the Coolum High family.
For those of us who have finished school, some of us a long time ago, it’s a reminder of the powerful role that our school played in shaping our lives. It reminds us of simpler times, of friendships and shared experiences, of things we learned that we’ve never forgotten, and of the fun things we did in between. It’s a truly emotional experience and one of the greatest transitions in our lives. I certainly hope that the graduates of Coolum State High School take the friendships, the learning and the experiences of their school years with them forever.