As most of us would believe, the last time we would be seeing each other and celebrating finishing the year would be at the final general assembly in December. This is, however, not the case this year as Ms Mathieson and Mr Cheung have decided, without the approval of the teachers, to not hold an assembly and instead to email us our final VCE and VCAL certificates and only hold an awards night for students who get dux.

This end of year assembly is a celebration for all of us, it congratulates us all individually on the hard work and efforts that each and every person put in when completing year 12 whether it be VCAL or VCE. If this event does not occur there will be no acknowledgment for each and every student and we will only receive an email congratulating us. All year it has been said how hard we have had it over the last couple of years specifically mentioned by Mr Cheung, however, we get little to no recognition for the efforts we have put in. This is again shown with the lack of effort seen by all of us as we will not be able to shake our principal's hand as a sentimental moment but instead receive an email as a certificate. An email of our certificate is not a way to celebrate our hard work.

As mentioned by those in charge of this event, we are getting a valedictory and that is enough of a celebration for completing year 12. Yes, we may be having a valedictory, however, by this point in time we will not have our scores so how are we supposed to celebrate everyone’s achievements when we don’t know how we have done? How is it fair and “enough of a celebration” that we don’t even deserve to be handed a certificate and only deserve an email?

The school values are aspiration, kindness, resilience, and community. Throughout this year we have specifically demonstrated resilience, this was shown when we bounced back from teachers being absent from school due to covid, students having to quarantine and students also getting sick and having to take long periods of time off of school. We have also demonstrated the other values in many various ways, specifically community, as we have all come together as one and completed this challenging year together. I believe as well as others that one of our values, community, is not being recognised when making the decision of not upholding the tradition of our end of year assembly. We as a cohort do not feel as if this decision has validated our opinions and our sense of community. Throughout this year we have all assumed that this day was occurring and knew we would be able to celebrate each other for one last time knowing our scores. But this decision has been made unbeknown to all of us, regardless we would all like this event to continue as it traditionally has been run. 

Not only are we disheartened by this decision that was made for us without our input, so are our families and other school members who had wished to witness our success and celebrate with us. From the time I was in year 7 all the way till year 11 I remember watching all the year 12 students go up in front of the school to be congratulated by the principal, to now knowing that this year we are not going to experience this wonderful celebration. Our friends, parents and siblings will not get to see us graduate and receive our certificates by our principal.

Instead of the assembly being run, high achieving students, recognised students and those who dux a subject are invited to a night where they are able to celebrate their awards together. Although I'm sure many are not opposed to this event happening, this separates us as a year level. It only focuses on those who are high achieving as well as individuals who get recognised by teachers despite those who may work just as hard but don't get the recognition for it. It does not show those who are not as high achieving or do not get recognised that they are worthy of receiving a physical certificate from the principal. Most students I'm sure would not mind if this night was to still occur for those students however, we believe that we should all receive a special moment in which we are individually recognised and granted our year 12 certificates. Furthermore, I personally know many students who are high achieving and who would want to not only share their scores with other high achieving students but in front of the entire school as well as parents and teachers. They too also want to celebrate with their friends despite their friends possibly not achieving as high scores to be able to be invited to the separate event. Individuals who do receive a high atar score also deserve to get their name and score read out in front of the entire school to acknowledge all the hard work they have put in throughout the year.  

As a result of the lack of acknowledgement of year 12s and the hard work we have all put into this year, we would appreciate an assembly to celebrate all of our achievements no matter what score is given out. In the event that this assembly cannot take place, we still would appreciate some recognition at valedictory at least. Hand out certificates and congratulate us then so that our parents and friends can celebrate with us rather than not recognising us at all and receiving an email for finishing high school.

Please consider giving us something so we don’t go unrecognised.

Thank you