The Academic Excellence Assembly for 2017 was held on Wednesday, 14 February, 2018. The assembly recognised and celebrated the academic achievements of the Year 12 cohort of 2017. The Deputy Head of Stanmore (Academic) Mr Trent Driver spoke about what made this group one of Newington’s most successful.

I will confess it is interesting looking at the 2017 Year 12 cohort from where I am standing now. It gives me a different perspective. As I look at them, there are no longer any black and white blazers and no ties are the same. I am not sure where the razors in several houses have disappeared to. These young men all look different to the last time they were here at Newington, preparing to wander across the stage.

Here in Centenary Hall, and at this school, we talk about diversity a lot, and I think rightly so. When you look around and ask who the typical Newington student is, it can be hard to put a finger on it.  We celebrate our differences in every context. Those contrasts are an important part of who we are as people, and as a school.

The differences between these boys are easy to point out.  Some did the Higher School Certificate, some the IB Diploma, and some walked away with VET qualifications to give them advanced standing beyond school. Between them, their final certificates will list more than 65 individual subjects, from Biology to Business, from Psychology to Sports Science. Some sat exams, some wrote research papers. Some designed furniture, others produced artwork or literature. Some did it in silence in the hall, some under observation in a workplace, or under lights on a stage.  Among this group of boys, it was a struggle to find more than a couple who studied the same pattern of courses in their final year.

But all of them have one important thing in common – their success.  Across a group of 232 boys who finished Year 12 in 2017, success does not come from luck or by accident.  It does not come from being in the right place at the right time.  It did not come from just being at this school, or just doing a particular subject or being in a specific class.

It did not come from these boys spending their time worrying about what other people were doing, or what results they were getting.  Constantly looking over their shoulders did not chart their way forward and bring them here today.

The things they did have in common were rarely in the public eye. The things they did to bring them here didn’t happen on a field on a Saturday morning or on a stage that evening in front of an audience. They were, more often than not, private. We didn’t see them struggle through things they didn’t understand or could not do until they were confident they’d mastered it.  We didn’t see them make mistakes and then try to work out why.  We didn’t see them put other things aside or on a back-burner so that over time they could accumulate all those little pieces that made up the efforts that brought them the success that brings them here today.

It is these things that we didn’t see that – irrespective of who the boys were and where they came from and what they achieved – they all have in common. That is what we celebrate today. 

The success they have achieved is not a solo tale.  To their parents and families, on behalf of the school I thank you for your support, your encouragement, your love and understanding for your sons over their final years of study.  You have underwritten their achievement and you deserve to be very proud in every possible way.

To the academic Heads of Department, and to each and every member of the Newington teaching staff who work with their classes with such enthusiasm and professionalism, I thank you.  Today we celebrate the fruits of your hard work.

Mr Trent Driver
Deputy Head of Stanmore (Academic)