150th Anniversary With A Twist

WOORI YALLOCK PRIMARY SCHOOL’S 150^TH ANNIVERSARY SPEECH

150th Celebration – Official Things (Running Sheet)

MC: Molly & Tyson (School Captains)

12pm Welcome - Aunty Joy & smoking ceremony

12.15pm - James Merlino - including official opening of the school, ribbon held by school captains and cut by Aunty Joy and curtain opening by James Merlino

12.25pm - Molly & Tyson – old building to the new building and how it’s changed in your time at the school.

12.30pm - Time capsule opening

12.40pm – Cindy McLeish

12.45pm - Kieran Cantwell (School Council President)

12.50pm - Danny

12.55pm - Oliver

1pm - Happy birthday and cake cutting – oldest living student (Marby) and Matilda Benson (youngest current student)

Location: The Courtyard

My speech:

Good afternoon everyone.

Thanks to the organisers of today’s celebration, it’s a real honour to be part of the 150^th anniversary of this great school.

First, I would like to pay tribute to Ivan & Joan Ferguson, icons of our community, who both sadly passed away in the last 15 months.

Both were in their 90s when they passed, and while they weren’t alive 150 years ago, they knew people who did live at this time.

Around 2007 and 2008 Ivan and I undertook a history project of sorts. I would interview Ivan and record the conversation on a Dictaphone. I then transcribed this into a word document which was then published into a book, which I believe can be accessed via the local historical society. Ivan had many stories, some contained characters such as Nate Burrows who would have been born in close proximity to the beginning of the school, which coincidentally was located on what became Ivan & Joan’s property in a tent.

When Ivan and I were having these conversations, I would never have predicted that a couple of years later I would become principal of the school.

The selection panel took a real punt on an untried secondary school teacher to be their next principal. Credit to Kate Russell who was School Council President and Kerry Waite the teacher representative on the panel to have the courage and foresight to trust in my vision for the school.

I took over after a period of instability for the school where enrolments were in a steep decline, getting as low as 166.

To arrest this slide, we invested heavily in teacher professional learning and development. The following quote by Dylan Wiliam is what we lived by:

“If we create a culture where every teacher believes they need to improve, not because they aren’t good enough, but because they can be even better, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.”

To this day this culture is what makes the school one of the strongest in the state.

It took a couple of years before the momentum changed. There isn’t one stand out moment when we knew the tide had turned, but schools, educators and the Department started sitting up and asking what are they doing at WYPS?

50+ prep enrolments, countless visits from other schools and educators, being acknowledged in the top 59 in the state and top 300 in the country for learning growth, presenting at international conferences, and the highlight – being nominated for awards at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards.

None of this transition was easy. The painful nature of change that staff at this time went through has created the reward that students, parents and staff continue to benefit from to this day.

While change was necessary there is one legacy piece that wasn’t touched – ‘Take Pride At All Times’ which still features. I couldn’t be prouder of how the school has sustained the excellence, and the terrific culture among staff to be the best they can possibly be.

Thanks again for including me in this special day.

I will now hand over to the man who has led the school and sustained the improvement over the last 8 years.

Thanks Ollie.

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Above is my speech verbatim that I read out.

Below is the twist.

When I returned to my seat the mother and daughter I was sitting next to (and had just met), Marby and Maree, were crying happy tears.

I put two and two together and asked if they knew Ivan and/or Joan.

Marby was in fact Ivan’s sister.

Her actual name is Marjorie, but Ivan could only say ‘Marby’ when they were little, and the name stuck.

It was a surprising, but lovely connection that was the highlight of a terrific day.

Aunty Joy Murphy (Wurundjeri Elder), Danny Hyndman (Principal 2011-2016), James Merlino (Deputy Premier & Minister for Education 2014 – 2022), Oliver Thockloth (Principal 2017 – current day).

Cindy McLeish (Member for Seymour 2010 -2014; Member for Eildon 2014 – current day), Danny Hyndman, James Merlino, Oliver Thockloth.