S
peech Night 2016 was a really uplifting experience, with a packed Minster seeing over one hundred of our boys, and J6 girls receiving prizes for their positive attitude to learning and their academic excellence.
This year our guest speaker was Olympian Ben Pipes. Ben was Great Britain’s volleyball captain at the 2012 London Games.
He gave a terrific, inspirational speech about the journey he had undertaken in order to achieve his ambition of being a professional volleyball player and representing his country.
At first Ben thought he had realised his dreams because he had been lucky, he had met the right coaches at the right time, for example, but he now realises that so much of his journey was down to himself.
He took and made the most of the opportunities that came along, gathering up a whole host of experiences that he has been able to ‘draw upon’ in later life.
It was a message which all of the students who were present could readily understand and hopefully will take forwards with them.
In a fantastic footnote to the event Ben said that he would waive his fee, instead he wished it to go to the PE department so that it benefits our boys.
We are very grateful to Ben for this ge
sture and the PE department have already determined that they will use the funds in order to buy volleyball equipment as it is a sport that we currently do not regularly offer.