A farewell message to our Class of 2024 Sixth Form leavers

To our wonderful Class of 2024 Sixth Form leavers - a farewell message from Mr Parker 

Monday 24 June saw an emotional return to the School of our Upper Sixth, having been absent during their A level exams. They came back to us for just one more day so that we could all celebrate their wonderful contributions to KES over their time at the School. A morning of fun farewells – shirts and old uniforms brightly decorated and personalised – was followed by the more formal Upper Sixth Prize Giving and a lovely Leavers’ Dinner.

For teachers and staff, the Leavers’ Day is also emotional. We pour our professional lives, our every effort, into trying to help young people to thrive and succeed both in their learning and their wider lives. Many of the leavers came to us in Year 7, and we too have watched them grow into caring, bright, giving young adults. We share their parents’ pride in the fantastic people that they have become, and we are sad to see them leave.

But this week was also the induction day for the pupils who will join us in September, and their excitement and enthusiasm for the journey they are about to embark upon provided a lovely balance to the sadness of our departing senior students. It is the way of a School that there are always farewells, but always welcomes as well.

The Upper Sixth are also now welcomed into a new relationship with KES: moving from current students to Old Edwardians. We hope that they will return to their School often in the coming years and decades to enrich the lives of those who follow them at KES. They remain welcome: now and forever.

So ‘good luck’ and ‘bon voyage’ to our leavers, but we look forward to seeing you again soon! 

- Mr Parker, Head