Graduation! Wow, our cherubs are finishing primary school and getting ready to embark on the next phase of their educational journey, secondary school. But before that, we must get through graduation and the rollercoaster of a ride it can present to us as parents and as teachers. I am currently on this rollercoaster ride with other Grade Six parents and I think it’s worse because I have a girl! Give me strength now, please.

For many of you, like myself, we didn’t have a graduation as such to close the primary school chapter of our lives. We stood at a whole school assembly listening to our principal itching to get the black texta out to write on our school uniforms. We may have had a class party to celebrate the end but certainly not a graduation that seems to consume them from mid year!

When my daughter came home from school and said there was chit chat about graduation and what girls were doing it was interesting listening to this. Then came to who was getting a limousine! That’s when I realised, yes this does actually happen and I am about to jump on the graduation rollercoaster. I reminded my daughter what grade she was in and how old she was and although that sounds wonderful, it was unnecessary given that there will be plenty more opportunities for this type of experience later in her teenage years or adult life, like her wedding day! I was met with the standard eye roll closely followed up with the groan and wait for it, the door slam! Please don’t get me wrong, I am all for making my daughter feel special and wanting to give her a ‘treat’ but that doesn’t mean I have to give her an adult experience. I went through the special occasions that a limousine would be used and when in fact I had been in a limo. Naturally I had very good points and she retreated quietly to her room. I then realised that I could very easily get washed up in the parenting trap of parenting to the most popular opinion.

Let’s not even start on the dress and the fact that we changed it because my daughter had the same dress as someone else and was quietly told it best she change it! That’s a whole other situation and parenting challenge that was conquered.

I think our kids and us as parents can get caught up in the whole graduation thing and sometimes forget what we are celebrating and why. I know seeing a cohort of students from Prep venture through the school to become Grade Six graduates is fantastic. It is rewarding when you see students that you have taught, interacted with etc and you can say, I had an influence on that student. It is a time for students to thank the teachers and school for helping them get to where they are today.  As I always say, it takes a village to raise a child and there are plenty of people to thank. It is also a time for them to spend with their classmates and reflect on the memories they have made over the past seven years. Yes they all want to look their best, as we all do on these types of occasions, but let’s not lose sight of what we are celebrating, the end of one chapter and the beginning of another!

So on that note, I wish all the Grade Six students here at Berwick Lodge and every other primary school, all the very best for the next phase of their education.. Enjoy your night and the last few weeks of your primary school years.

Parents, may the force be with you! I’m sure there will be a few more tears, laughs and most of all great memories!

 

Fiona Froelich