Another School Year Has Flashed By

Another school year has flashed by. The adage that time moves faster as you grow older has never been more true. Each year's end also brings the opportunity to reflect, and it is reflection that helps us make sense of things and set targets for improvement.

On Wednesday, we held a series of Awards' Assemblies. It is important to acknowledge excellence and this year each cohort was present in its entirety to celebrate the achievements of their peers. Some of the winners' results were simply outstanding. In some years, the Dux scooped a swag of subject awards as well as the top gong and in another year the Dux didn't win a single subject award. What these two examples show is that to be Dux you can be the best at many things, or just be near the best across the board. Consistency is a key attribute and applying oneself to all subjects and situations, even if they are not your favourite subjects, teaches a valuable life lesson.

As I write to you, just this week I have been informed that one of our Graduating Year 12s has won the illustrious John Curtin Scholarship, another has been offered a scholarship to an American College and several boys have had exit interviews as they prepare for much sought-after apprenticeships. All different pathways, but all available to our boys and all celebrated with equal joy and value and reflective of the broad range of opportunities that reflect the broad range of our community and the broad range of aspirations we all share for our boys.

My message to all the boys this week was this; if you have done your best, you are the equal of any award winner and you and your family should be as proud of you as possible, but never think your best is ever permanently achieved. Being the best you can be is a life-long goal and evolution and I hope a CBC education forms a great foundation to that development.

At Graduation, I spoke about the insidious nature of social media. In recent years, studies have started to show a causal link between teen social media use and reduced well-being or mood disorders, chiefly depression and anxiety. The concern, and the studies, come from statistics showing that social media use in teens ages 13 to 17 is now almost ubiquitous. Two-thirds of teens report using TikTok, and some 60 percent of teens report using Instagram or Snapchat, a 2022 survey found. (Only 30 percent said they used Facebook.) Another survey showed that girls, on average, allot roughly 3.4 hours per day to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, compared with roughly 2.1 hours among boys. At the same time, more teens are showing signs of depression than ever, especially girls. I'm not sure this is going away any time soon, but I think there is an antidote to some of the effects social media is having.

Our Year 7 Grandparents joined us for their Awards Assembly. During my speech to them I quoted one of my political heroes. When asked about the secret to his confidence he spoke of the importance of his early life, and its influence on him for later years, especially the role of his mother and grandmother who "invested a ton of love in me".

"If someone puts you on a pedestal – and the big pedestal builder first was my grandmother – something sticks with you all your life." He recently went to his grandmother's grave 'because I thought, there is the person who most believed in me'.

"You've got to go through life with someone thinking you're special. You know, when you've got to get the sword out for real combat, I think having the sort of love quotient working for you is very powerful."

This grandmotherly and motherly love "radiates for you and gives you that kind of inner confidence. It's almost like wearing that asbestos suit – you go through the fire but you're not going to be burned because someone loves you, you are complete, you are together."

I reflect on those comments often and know that much of my inadequacy is due to the fact I lost my mum early and this loss was compounded by the fact I didn't receive any 'grandmotherly' love. More than ever before, I think our young people, and in the context of our school, our boys, need that asbestos suit so that they are better equipped to traverse an adolescent world where envy is the main motivator. Social media is not telling your sons that they are whole, and beautiful, and loved unconditionally and complete, which makes it so critical that we, as his parents and his school and partners in his formation, tell him these things over and over and over.

My final word to the boys was this. Love is not a free ticket. Love means that developing adults will often hear a message that is counter to the message they want to hear, but they need to know the value of a message delivered by someone who loves them. Accountability is love and forming a moral compass and decision-making process where your family is at the centre will indeed bear fruit and rich rewards.

In closing 2024, I would like to thank all the parents and families of CBC, all the boys and all my colleagues for sustaining me during a personally difficult year. I could not do my job without your unwavering and steadfast support. I hope you have an uplifting break with your loved ones and all members of our community come back to us in 2025 safe, refreshed and full of the joys of life.

God Bless and much love,
Dom