Welcome, one and all, to the end of year assembly 2022-23. 

Tuesday June 27th. If you are anything like me, you’ll be feeling a little breathless. Only yesterday, it seems, it was the month of May, and only the day before that we were returning from the Easter holidays. Now, suddenly, in the blink of an eye, here we are. Time’s up.  

The last couple of weeks, especially, have rushed by in a blur. How busy we have been - and how delighted - to stage a series of events, mothballed since 2019, which, finally, we were able to host on campus once more. 

First, we held the two-day Celebration of Learning, when your families were invited to visit school to hear about some of the ideas and activities you’ve engaged with throughout the year. 

Next, we presented Lost At Sea, with an audience of nearly 300 mums and dads and other folks from home joining us over three nights of performance, to be wowed and amazed not by a school play, but by an evening of theatre. 

And, finally, just last Friday, the incredibly hard-working and dedicated SRC resurrected Wet’N’Wild, pulling out the stops to put on an afternoon of water-based madness to usher in the holidays. 

Really, it’s been nonstop. Exhausting. Why do we put ourselves through it?

Seriously. Why? Why do we put ourselves through it? Why don’t we opt for an easy life? Why don’t we operate “business as usual” during these last few weeks of term, when we’re already tired after a long school year - why not just coast into the holidays with as little fuss as possible? 

To help me answer this question, I’m going to need to tell a story - it’s the story of you, each and every one of you. Now, how do all good stories begin …

Once upon a time, between 11 and 17 years ago, you were all newborn arrivals on planet Earth. You were fresh and innocent and hadn’t really got a clue what to expect or how to proceed. You were a bit like this - plain, unadorned, and ready to be complicated a little:

How did that happen - that complication? Well, perhaps a month after your arrival, or perhaps six months after, or perhaps a year, you did something momentous. Something really very important and highly significant. Something that would help set the tone for everything that came afterwards. 

You picked up a habit. 

There it is, that purple mark. That’s your first habit. The first little pattern of action or thought that you repeated again and again, because, you discovered, it seemed to suit your purpose. It doesn’t matter what the habit was, it doesn’t matter exactly how old you were when you formed it - the point is that it was the first, and it offered a model that, going forward, you would follow, time after time. Over the weeks and months and years, you’d pick up more and more habits. 

Before you knew it, you didn’t have just one, you had half a dozen …

And then a dozen more …

Soon, in fact, you were a bundle of habits, a tangle of habits, a boatload of habits … because, by and large, that is how humans tend to meet the challenges of life. We form habits, we rehearse scripts, we establish routines, we practise rituals, learn tricks, play games … 

So, as time went by, you’d gathered yourself a bundle - and then, you came to secondary school. 

And at secondary school, being no longer the primary school child you’d been previously, you began to pick up some new habits - let’s call them ‘secondary school habits’ - and, all being well, you began to lose some old ones, too - some out-moded ‘primary school habits’ that didn’t serve you anymore. That began to seem unhelpful. 

You still had a boatload of habits, of course, but the habits were - or are - a’changing. 

Year 10s - and even more so, Year 12s - this is where you are at now. 

Firstly, let’s note, you remain, quite naturally, a tangle of habits. Secondly, not all the habits you learned in primary school have been lost. Some central and important ones have remained - you can see them, there at the heart of the gingerbread person - ripened now into deeply rooted, newly extended habits … still exerting their influence, still conjuring their power. 

Now for me, as the Head of a school, faced with this vision, this character, this habit-ridden person, a vital question arises: is this a healthy and happy senior-school gingerbread person? Is this a gingerbread person set up for a rewarding and enjoyable life? Would I want to work alongside this gingerbread person? Would I want to work for them?

Well, that depends, of course, in large part on all those habits. Where did the gingerbread person pick them up? Doing what? With whom? With what aims in mind? How deep do they go? How readily are they drawn upon? What is their quality? What thoughts and actions do they promote?

In answering those questions, I believe I answer, too, the question that started this little story of the gingerbread person. 

Why does ICHK end the term in a flurry of activity? Why do we run ourselves ragged? Why do we choose to finish the year at full pelt? Because, quite simply, despite the amazing year we’ve already had, we don’t want to take our foot off the gas. We don't want to waste a moment, not when there is still time, still opportunity, to squeeze in some more of the events and activities that help forge the best possible habits, the kind of habits that build success and that last a lifetime. 

Why run the Celebration of Learning? Because it encourages confidence, an enquiring mind, curiosity, persuasiveness and charisma. And those qualities can become a habit.

Why stage the school production? Because it fosters self-assurance, teamwork, poise, trust, stamina, discipline, a passion for self-expression. And those attributes can become a habit.

Why hold Wet’N’Wild? Because it promotes empathy, a sense of humour, a sense of fun, self-regulation, generosity of spirit, optimism, fellowship, and balance. And those characteristics can become a habit. 

How does one pick up good habits? By participating in these activities, by giving them your all, by playing your parts with conviction, by engaging with commitment - there’s no secret, that is how. 

In conclusion, then, this speech is dedicated to all those who presented at Celebration of Learning, all those who performed in or designed the sets for Lost at Sea, all those who organised or who took part in Wet’N’Wild. Well, lo and behold, it turns out that this speech is dedicated to all of you - because every one of you took steps, be they large or small, tentative or confident, towards building the habits that build better people.

Give yourselves a well-deserved round of applause.