Speech Day celebrates success and encourages growth

The achievements of pupils were celebrated today (Friday 18th May 2012) at the annual Ipswich School Speech Day.

A packed Corn Exchange saw 96 pupils receive prizes recognising their overall effort and achievement in subjects across the curriculum, both in and out of lessons.  These prizes, many of which are historic bequests from former pupils, were presented to pupils by the Mayor of Ipswich, Councillor Mary Blake.

There were speeches from Karl Daniels, Chairman of Governors, and Headmaster Nicholas Weaver, looking back over the last year, and celebrating some of the school’s many successful events and activities, including the Festival of Music, Spring Concert at Snape, drama productions, CCF biennial inspection and sports successes particularly in the national hockey championships, where Ipswich School teams appeared in seven finals.

Mr Weaver also spoke about the forthcoming year, when the focus of the school would be on ‘creating a growth mindset’.  He said: “It is lovely to celebrate the success of our pupils in many areas of school life each year in the public arena of the Corn Exchange. Speech Day recognises the hard work and achievements of pupils, and allows us to thank staff and parents for the support they show.” 

He added: “It also gives us the chance to look to the future.  We hope that encouraging the growth mindset of our pupils and our staff will enable them to look beyond their natural talent, their fixed abilities, and see that they can develop their full potential through effort, learning and practice, so that they are spurred on by any setbacks rather than threatened by them.”

Some of the planned changes to the school due to take place over the next year include the refurbishment of the Great School performance space, the development of the Academic Excellence programme, which aims to stretch the most able pupils, and a refocusing of homework to concentrate on preparation, stretch and consolidation, so that its purpose is more obvious to pupils and parents.

The guest speaker was actress Julia Marsen, a former sixth form pupil whose TV roles include Tracey Barlow’s defence solicitor in Coronation Street, Tanya Kane in The Bill and Anne Boleyn in David Starkey’s The Six Wives of Henry the VIII.  She delighted the audience with tales of her auditions and time on-set, and explained that things don’t always turn out as you imagine, encouraging the pupils in the audience to “be brave, be bold, be open to possibilities, be true to yourselves and be committed to everything that you do.”