Congratulations Graduating Students

Last Thursday, all of our Year 6 students attended their Graduation Night–the Valedictory Dinner in our Pitman-Coffey Centre. It was a fantastic night! We saw our Year 6 students accept their graduation certificates that acknowledged their transition to secondary school for 2015.

The night began with Liam Sullivan, one of our Year 6 students being MC for the evening. He performed wonderfully! Well done, Liam.

 

The students and special guests enjoyed the beautiful meal that was catered for by Ken’s Catering.

After the meal, all parents and family members arrived for the presentation. We began with a very professional powerpoint display that summarised the students’ year and other parts of their lives. It was put together by Lochie Itter, one of our former school captains and valedictorians. Everybody enjoyed the powerpoint display. Thank you, Lochie. Sarah Marshall, also one of our former school captains, was our guest speaker and spoke to the students and wished them the very best for their future. Everybody enjoyed the speech. Thank you, Sarah.

 

The presentations soon began with each student presenting an acrostic poem for one of their peers as they were presented with their Graduation Certificates from their classroom teachers.

 

Many special awards were then presented to the worthy recipients.

  • ‘Striving for Excellence’ Award was presented to Josh Porter
  • ‘Outstanding Sportsperson of the Year’ award was presented to Ethan Neilson
  • ‘Mitchell Shire Citizenship’ award was presented to Mara Beveridge
  • 'Achievement’ award was presented to Isra Elsheikh
  • ‘Lion’s Club Community’ award was presented to Elaf Elsheikh.
  • ‘Encouragement’ award was presented to Alex Waugh.
  • ‘Quiet Achiever’ award is presented to Charli Berger
  • ‘Academic Excellence’ awards were presented to Josh Esqueria and Nic Franks
  • ‘Student Bursaries’ are awarded to Melanie Waszczuk, Marisa Zantey, Patrick Broughton and Ben Postill.
  • This year our Valedictorian was school captain, Ben Postill

The School Valedictorianis a person who is selected to best represent their peers to make a speech on behalf of them.  Below is a copy of Ben Postill's speech. 

 

Valedictory 2014

 

Good evening and welcome Principal Warne, teachers, parents, special guests and fellow students.

 

I’m Benjamin Postill, as School Captain, on behalf of my fellow students I would like to thank everyone here for joining us this evening.  I began my primary school experience at Puckapunyal Primary School in 2008 and have been lucky enough to spend my entire primary school experience here.

 

That hasn’t meant that it was easy making friends though, as they would come and then go with the posting cycles that defence families have to take. I have thoroughly enjoyed my seven years here. I feel very proud and honoured to have been selected, out of all the brilliant students here, to be your valedictorian for 2014. Thank you greatly.

 

I would like to start by congratulating all of my fellow year sixes on completing their primary school education. Well done to you all, it required a great amount of effort! Seven years in fact!

 

I would now like to go through some highlights of 2014: I would like to start by congratulating everyone who participated in the 3 day bike ride. It was a great feat for us to cover 172km in three days. An endurance event like this, serves as a terrific way to encourage young people such as our students, to test their limits and help them realise that they have a lot more potential and mental strength then they first thought. Thank you to the teachers and volunteers who helped make this excursion possible.

 

Puckapunyal Primary School has had some outstanding sports achievements over the year. I would like to acknowledge those students who have represented the school in the swimming, cross country and athletics carnivals. Thank you for doing our school proud. Also congratulations to those who participated in the recent triathlon event.

 

This year the students went to Philip Island for camp. We had the opportunity to try a huge swing, an electronic climbing wall, a flying fox and crate climbing. All these activities were fun and some required courage.  But the “red faces” competition required the most courage. I managed to avoid that however, examining the bottom of a bucket in our cabin.

 

We also had a visit from Questacon which was an informative and entertaining science show. The family fun day and the amazing art show. All of these events were great fun. But they don’t happen without some organization so thank you to the staff and volunteers who help to make these events a success.

 

A school isn’t a school without teachers. So please allow me to acknowledge some past and present teachers that many of us have had the privilege of being taught by. Several of us here tonight were fortunate to be taught by the one and only Mrs Lyons-Vague.  She pushed you out of your comfort zone which helps you to grow. She was firm and wouldn’t have any nonsense. She was very loving and would never refuse to have a stroll down to the chickens and veggie patch and plant seeds to make our garden awesome.  All though all staff and students were in grief when they heard the extremely unfortunate news of her passing away. Mrs Lyons-Vague is still and will always be remembered by staff and students who were fortunate enough to work with her.

 

Next I would like to mention Ms Reed. She was a fantastic teacher! She would always come in to school with a smile on her face. Ms Reed was instrumental in the development of our veggie patch. She was very warm, kind and taught with gentle encouragement. She also had a great amount of gratitude, and always had a laugh with staff and students. Many people were sad to see her leave Puckapunyal Primary School. Few of us here this evening were lucky enough to have her as our first primary school teacher.

 

Now, Mr Harcourt. What is there not to say? Mr Harcourt was an awesome teacher; he had a good sense of humour and often cracked a joke. He was generous to his students, tossing some lolly snakes here and there. Mr Harcourt was also the original camp inspector.  Every camp he would go on room inspection was done with military precision, no dust bunnies allowed! And it was a very serious error to leave a toilet unflushed.  He was a very humorous.

 

I would now like to acknowledge our 5/6 teacher Mrs Philp. Mrs Philp has been teaching at Puckapunyal for quite some time, and I’m pretty sure for most of that time it was with the 5/6’s. I think all the 5/6 students loved having her as a teacher and for a good reason too; she is very funny and always laughs with the students. Also she encourages the students to get going and help them advance in their intelligence. And she can be extremely helpful and knows the answer to everything!

 

I will now mention our new 5/6 teacher Mr Humphrey. Mr Humphrey only arrived at our school in 2013 and taught the ¾’s, however this year he taught the 5/6’s and I’m sure everyone in his class thoroughly enjoyed him as a teacher.  I know I have. Mr Humphrey was a cool teacher who was very funny, he would always brighten your day with a funny joke or phrase that he would make up when things got dull. Somehow he managed to make a mean situation funny, thank you Mr Humphrey and Mrs Philp for making our last year at Puckapunyal Primary a great one to remember.

 

On behalf of my fellow students I would also like to acknowledge Mrs Ranger.  I know that she has provided much assistance to students and is of great benefit to the school. Her friendly face and kind manner provide reassurance and comfort. And she’s pretty funny too.

 

Also Miss Lewis has been here longer than any of the year 6’s here tonight.  She is a friendly familiar face and if Mrs Philp doesn’t know the answer, Miss Lewis will.

 

I’d also like to acknowledge Mrs Hall, our schools business manager. She is generally the first point of contact and as with those previously mentioned an integral part of the school. In the unlikely event that Mrs Philp or Miss Lewis don’t know the answer, Mrs Hall will. Thank you for looking after us so often in sick bay Mrs Hall.

 

Now for Mrs AW, you just had to see the amount of work and the variety of media that students had the privilege of experiencing, on display during the art show, to gain a deep appreciation for what she can achieve with her students over the year. Thank you for all of your creativity and cool ideas Mrs AW. And for some of us, we got to enjoy some tasty extracurricular activities doing cooking too. And thank you to Mrs Challis and Mrs AW for all the work in the library.

 

Last but definitely not least I would like to acknowledge our wonderful Principal Mr Warne. Mr Warne is a fantastic Principal who can take a joke and is also very funny. He is very approachable, encouraging and supportive. He would always come around to class rooms and say g’day to everyone there and I can always remember everyone cheering “Mr Warne” when he enters the class rooms. Children from the foundation year to year 6 are happy to see him and he always has time for them.

 

I wish all my fellow graduates well on their adventure through secondary school and beyond. No matter we you are remember the school motto “Striving for Excellence” and apply that to your studies, your career, your relationships and above all for yourself.

 

 I would like to conclude this with a quote by Andy Rooney- Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.

 

Fortunately all the teachers here will be remembered for all the right reasons.

 

Thank you for your time.