Class of 2020- Closure
HIGH SCHOOL
Mr. David Miles - High School Principal
These ritual acts are part of bringing closure to an experience.
There is a red carpet, we all dress up, our Graduates wear their red gowns and their stoles and position the tassels on their graduation caps on the right hand side. We invite a guest speaker, give out a range of awards, and we confer upon them their diplomas, they move their tassels from right to left, toss their caps into the air, and they become graduates, ex-students, alumni.
This is a celebration of huge significance to many of our students, something they look forward to for many years. Some have only been with us at VIS for a couple of years, but some have been here for all 13 of their school years. And as I often remind them, there is no going back. School is one thing you don’t do again. You might continue studying for many years, you might return to school as a student, but just as you will never have your 13th birthday again, you will never be a school student again.
This event is a rite of passage, marking a transition from one status to another. And here at VIS, where our graduates have all spent the past two years grappling with the personal, academic, social, and emotional challenges of the IB Diploma - whether aiming for the VIS HS Diploma or as full IB Diploma candidates - this rite of passage, of having achieved something, is well earned and well deserved. Graduation is a night of great pride for everyone involved: from the graduates themselves; to the parents who have supported them; to the teachers who have invested so much time and energy over the years helping each student acquire skills which will enable them to achieve their full potential.
Because of the Covid-19 situation, we were unable this year to gather physically as a community to celebrate and bring closure to these years in the way we traditionally would. However, every challenge brings an opportunity, and ever since school closed on March 12th, we worked to ensure that our graduating class would have as close a “normal” experience as possible
Do you have habits that are important to you, certain routines that it feels a bit strange to miss out on? Perhaps you like a cup of tea before going to bed in the evening, and you find it hard to sleep without it? Maybe you always end a household visit from a guest by giving them a specific gift, and it feels wrong and uncomfortable if you are unable to do so? Do you have a particular activity you always do at the end of the summer, before returning to school?
These ritual acts are part of bringing closure to an experience. Sometimes they have a ceremonial aspect, though all have that character of signifying a stop, a change, that something is ending. Closure can have enormous significance, and the inability to bring closure to something important can be felt deeply.
Here at VIS, one of our most important acts of closure is our Grade 12 graduation. It always takes place on the Friday evening, one week after the IB Diploma examinations finish, usually at 7pm in the evening. We hold it in the Fort, on the stage we build every year, in front of the flags
Graduation 2020