1984 School Magazine

ln conclusion lwould like to address a few remarks to the girls who are leaving today. You have had a very good year under the leadership of Elizabeth Lynch and Catherine Martin. These two girls have worked very hard during the year to set high standards for allto follow. The interest and enthusiasm that they showed in helping to organise school day resulted in one of the happiest on record and I believe it can be attributed to the example and co-operation displayed by all the Year 12 students and in particular the prefects, held girls and house captai ns. The courses that were offered, particularly in the senior school, are aimed to give you a f irm basis for your f uture life and to provide you with opportunities to explore the various options open to you. You are all going into a difficult world, one where unemployment is a reality and career prospects often limited by quota systems. It is also a world of very rapid technological change and skills that are relevant today may not necessarily be relevant tomorrow. We do hope, however, that in our programmes we have been able to alert you to pressures you may face. Secondary schooling is just the end of a short phase of your life that leads you on to a period in which you must make decisions for yourselves in the light of knowledge you have already gained. lam confident that you have the ability to take the challenge before you and to build on what your parents and past members of this school have helped to develop. May I wish you all a happy year and all the best for the future no matter what it might hold.

END OF YEAR ASSEMBLY 18.11.83 ADDRESS Mr. Chairman, Mrs. Hancock, parents and friends of the school, staff and students. I received a letter from Mrs. Hancock some time ago inviting me to address you this afternoon for no more than twelve minutes. I can't remember if the phrase "no more than 12 minutes" was underlined or not but the message was clear enough; as it usually is with Mrs. Hancock! I had an address written but threw it away as a result of a meeting of Deans of the U niversity I attended earlier this week - they are the people who administer bachelors and masters degrees in the university, ensuring that students are properly enrolled and confirming that they have completed their various courses so that they may be admitted to their different degrees. 'Ihey are very important people insofar as students are concerned and it is to them that students take many of their academic problems and it is by them that students may be summoned when the Deans are having concerns over the students'lack of progress. They are in a very good position to get to know students as students. I was surprised to hear some of them comment on students' lack of preparedness for university work, particularly in the Science and Maths areas. I was even more surprised to hear one of them say, that during interviews with students who had been doing badly despite T.E.S' of 980 to 990, he learned that they had not had to work very hard at school to get these scores and they had thought they would not have to work very hard at university either to pass their degree subjects. lf what these students were reported to have said was true, they point to something seriously amiss with the schools they attended.