PRESENTATION ASSEMBLIES

It is the last full Friday morning of the school year.  As if by accident, the sun is shining; the staff have been banned from the car park to make room for visitors, and the Hall is brilliantly decorated with House banners and floral displays.  A huge pile of blue papers, accompanied by various trophies, stands on the table.

Soon the car park fills up.  Cheerful and courteous as ever, but with steely efficiency, prefects direct the traffic and dispatch an impressive crowd of parents to O.T.’s, where coffee and refreshments are on offer.  It’s immaculately clean, airy and spacious – an easy place to relax.  Sadly, coffee has to be left unfinished as the prefects return to lead the way to the Hall; parental attempts to smuggle the occasional mug out of the restaurant are politely intercepted.  It is quite a long walk, and there is much admiration of the near-complete building work and the effective fusion of structures old and new.

There are four separate assemblies today, one for each house.  Parents sit on the left, boys and girls on the right.  The Head of House presides on the stage, and a group of Governors lend extra dignity to the occasion.  This is the day when all the year’s problems, portentous and niggling alike, can be forgotten.  Today Flegg High celebrates the amazing variety of pupils’ efforts, achievements and successes.  A seemingly endless line of pupils steps singly up to the stage, where Mrs. Crowley greets each one with a handshake, a presentation and a few special words.  It’s a delightful blend of solemnity and informality.  (Head, aside to audience as she shakes one boy’s hand: “That’s how to wear a tie”.)  Clearly, no positive achievement has passed unnoticed: a good effort in French, sporting and musical successes, work for the community, looking after the rabbits, building a Bionic Bug.  Cameras appear on the parents’ side of the Hall, children smile as they walk carefully down the steps.  The organisation has been such that there is not an awkward moment, and the hour passes very quickly.

After the presentations there is just time for Mrs. Crowley to thank everyone – staff, pupils, parents, Governors – for the help and support given to the school during the year.  Although no-one says so, it is plain from conversations in the car park afterwards that many parents would like to thank the Head and her assistants for the positive and sympathetic leadership which has made Flegg High such a vibrant and friendly community.