All pupils, parents and staff came together for the first time in three years on the last day of term to enjoy Speech Day and Prize Giving. Whilst this was the end of the Headmaster's third academic year at the helm, this was his first 'normal' end of term, as was the case for many of our families. It really was a wonderful occasion to have everyone in the Prize Giving marquee on the Front Field.
In what has become somewhat of a tradition, however, the Headmaster was late for the third year running as he had been having tea with an important guest! Following his arrival, Mr Howe made reference to his guest's role in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and how one commentator said of the Queen that "whilst she takes her role seriously, throughout her long reign she has never taken herself too seriously". At the start of the academic year the Headmaster had said something similar to the staff, saying that "while what we take what we do immensely seriously, to the challenges of the previous year we owed it to ourselves and the pupils every opportunity to smile, to laugh, to enjoy each other's company and in short to put the fun back into school and into our lives. I hope there will be plenty of reasons to smile this morning and reflect on a tremendous year." In addition to mentioning a number of other highlights from the year Mr Howe referenced the performances of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and then welcomed members of the cast to the stage to perform I Dreamed A Dream.
The Chairman of Governors, Sir David Tanner CBE, addressed the audience before Mr Howe returned to the lectern whose speech included extracts from the recent ISI Inspection report and he then invited Shiplake's Poet Laurette, Matthew Perry, up to stage to read out the poem he had written on the College's ethos and themes as a welcome to the inspectors during their visit in May.
Deputy Head Academic, Mr Paul Jones, then read the names of all the prize winners who came on stage to shake the hands of the guest speaker, Jaco Van Gass, and the Headmaster before collecting their prizes. Head of Colleges Casey Green and Jai Angell then gave their individual addresses which were both emotional, inspiring and entertaining in equal measure. Joint Deputy Head of College Sophie Murray introduced Jaco Van Gass who was injured in Afghanistan when serving in the Parachute Regiment and has since trekked to the North Pole, attempted Everest, summited multiple mountains and run multiple marathons. He won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and is a three time world record holder in track cycling.
A powerful dramatisation of how Jaco was injured and his road to recovery, and what he has achieved since, was shown before Jaco spoke about his experience and how the message of 'Life will test you - it is how you react that will define you' is so important. You could hear a pin drop in the marquee as the audience listened intently. Joint Deputy Head of College Billy Fundell took to the stage to thank Jaco for sharing his story with us before Mr Howe closed the ceremony, congratulating the 35 rowers - 7% of the school population - for representing the College at this year's Henley Royal Regatta. This led to the premiere of the closing video, a paraody of the We Don't Talk About Bruno song from Disney's Encanto, showing how whilst we are really proud of how great we are at rowing, Shiplake does more than just row!
The whole Prize Giving ceremony can be watched below (apologies for the sound and visual not syncing at the start - this corrects itself at about 14:19).
