Today in church, we said "Goodbye" to our Y6 Leavers and wished them all the best for Y7 and beyond! Church was followed by a breakfast back at school for the parents of Y6 pupils and our Y6 pupils. In Church Ms lampard, Headteacher said to the Y6 cohort:

"Congratulations – you made it- whether you spent the last 7 years here or elsewhere, you made it through 266 PE and music lessons, 1330 English Lessons, Maths Lessons and lunchtimes… unless you were otherwise detained…  2660 Registrations. You made it through 3990 line ups and over 1300 Collective Worships. Congratulations – because you are still standing… and you are about to start one of the most exciting times of your life. Exciting because over the next 6-7 years you get to choose more and more of how your life’s going to turn out. You choose more and more of what subjects you’ll study, what sports you’ll pursue, what kind of friends you’ll have. You’ll choose, what you’ll do after you finish school for good this time, and what kind of person you want to be. And how do you make the most of those choices?

Make good smaller choices:

1. Choose to work hard. Whatever way you put those 2 words together, work hard, or hard work, the message is the same – nothing of value will come without it.

2. Choose to not give up easily. Resilience will get you everywhere. JK Rowling was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the draft of the Philosopher’s Stone, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. It was rejected over 20 times until finally a small London publisher, gave it a second chance, the rest is multi-million-pounds history.

3. Choose to listen. You have 2 ears and one mouth for a reason – use your ears twice as much as your mouth. You’ll be surprised at how much you learn.

4. And above all, choose to be kind. Kindness cost nothing –  it’s what people remember. Winston Churchill said “You can make a living from what you get, but you’ll make a life from what you give.

Choosing those four little choices will let you have choice in all the big decisions you have to make later on." Ms Lampard went on to say, "It has been our privilege and pleasure to watch you grow to see you change over the time you've been with us. You have been a super year group all the way through school, and you will all always have a space in the heart of CCofE school. As you go forward, remember 

life is a journey, not a destination, the trail riders of old would refer to life as a series of trails or paths-Sometimes the trail/the path is a happy one, Others times it's blue or sad or difficult. It's the way you ride the trail that counts. So always ride it with effort and ride it with kindness. If you can help someone out along the way, then do so.

And as we believe at school, “Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."  (Philippians 2:4)

As Shakespeare said, “a friend is someone that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." Always be that friend.

Breakfast was a lovely opportunity for final best wishes and photos.