I am incredibly proud of all we have managed to achieve through this difficult year, and excited for such a prodigious year ahead.

Kia ora koutou. Talofa. Kia Orana. Malo e lelei. Bula. Fakaalofa atu. Namaste and Kumusta. Greetings to everyone at LCŌ and our wider Linwood College at Ōtākaro community.

And let’s start with it. It has been a very weird wind-up for the year. Was there ever a senior prizegiving like ours in all the previous 67 ceremonies? No families. No whānau. No aiga. How un-Linwood can you get?! The previous year at senior prizegiving I said that 2020 had been "a pig of a year." Well, guess what? As we know, so has 2021.

But ironically this downside is also what had made this year even more special. I mihi to every student, every whānau and every staff member who did what was required, made the best of those circumstances, so our students received the very best as to what was possible.

At the heart of everything is community: whanaungatanga and manaakitanga.

And this is why the eternal verities of character – kindness, empathy, courage, respect, grit, service, humility, generosity, adaptability, to name just a few – this is why in the unknowingness of the future, these eternal verities are and will remain eternal.

Adaptability. We acknowledged that this was our third and final senior prizegiving at Ōtākaro. And we think about all who have gone before us in education on this ground when it was Avonside Girls’ High School. It is wonderful to think that there has been education on this site for 102 years.

And we acknowledge the Yr 13s finishing their 52 terms of schooling as the final Yr 13 of Linwood College but ironically doing it off the Linwood site. You all have the final Linwood leavers’ hoodie. A designer collector’s piece!

Likewise our returning students, you will be our trail-blazing first seniors in Te Aratai College.

And I have to mention one more leaver, Ms Mora. Ms Helen Mora. Helen. You have been popping in and out working on the various projects dear to your heart and each time, and surprising no one, the students greet you with such warmth. We were delighted you joined us for the prizegiving ceremony and we honour you for your indomitable spirit, for your own, unique Helen-ness.

And repeating one of my favourite thoughts, often I find myself musing at our Senior Prizegivings, do we have here in our midst someone who will be part of the team that discovers the cure for cancer, or someone who will be in the team that designs a fairer economic system, or someone who finds a break-through in addressing global warming? Irrespective, the futures of our students are both out there for you all, and within you all, as step by step, action by action, you create a future for yourself and your whānau. And you do this as fine young people – open, thoughtful and questioning. We celebrate your hard work and the rewards. We – the Linwood College whānau – school, family, community – are proud of you. Truly you are diamond; truly you are pounamu.