2020-2021 School Year Closing & Graduation Day Speech by Head of School
Dear Students, Parents and Teachers,
Today is Graduation Day! It is a special occasion when we celebrate our Grade 5 Students moving from primary school to secondary school and our Grade 9 Students moving from middle school to high school. These are both important milestones in their education. At the same time, we celebrate the successful completion of another school year, only the second in VFIS history. Students, parents, teachers, TAs and supporting staff have worked hard to succeed during these difficult and unpredictable times.
We all wish that we could celebrate this day together, face to face, but we also appreciate the need for safety and the importance of following the directives of city authorities. During the past two years, all of us have had to adapt to the “new normal”. We’ve been lucky that for most of the school year we have been able to be on campus. I am proud to say that VFIS students have done an excellent job in learning how to learn via virtual classrooms.
Take a moment now to think back to your first day of school at VFIS. Some of you attended the Grand Opening Ceremony of VFIS in August 2019, some of you started last August, and some of you joined your class in the middle of the school year. Regardless of when you started at VFIS, I’m sure everyone was a little worried, a little nervous. New classmates, new teachers, new school building. For some of you, a new country and language. I hope you each recognise today what an achievement it is to have completed this year with flying colours!
At VFIS, we value vitality, flexibility, inclusion and sisu. When I look at our community, I see these values are not just words, but ideas we really bring to life. This past school year has required all of us to dig deep and exhibit these qualities. Ultimately, a school wants to prepare its students for whatever lies ahead, for making good choices that will carry you forward.
On this day, I want to share with you a poem that has been shared at countless graduations before this one. It’s called “The Road Not Taken” by the American poet Robert Frost. During your lives, you will find yourself having to make decisions, some small, some big. Education is what will help you to make an educated decision and that is why it is so important to pause and listen to yourself when faced with an important choice. Ask yourself, what do I want from life? Then choose the path that’s right for you, even though you cannot predict where it will lead.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I am happy about the choices I have made in my life. Even the not-so-good ones have led me in fascinating directions, so, dear students, do not fear to take the next step on your chosen path. You never know where it will lead you.
I’d also like to thank our teachers and teaching assistants for their open-minded and brave steps in joining the VFIS community. A new school is a challenge for anyone, even without the pandemic, but you have enthusiastically embraced new ways and new forms of collaboration and stepped out of your comfort zone. Thank you for sharing your expertise and for caring for your students and colleagues.
Finally, I’d like to thank you parents for supporting your children. You have trusted VFIS to offer your child something different, something not offered in Vietnam before. I hope you have seen positive change in your child during this past year or two. Parents are the primary educators of their child. It is from your guidance and example that your sons and daughters learn first and at school only second. Thank you for choosing VFIS!
It is sad beyond words to say farewell to VFIS as I return to my old school in Finland in August. However, I look forward to cooperation between VFIS and The English School. Let’s forget our tears and join our hearts and hands in celebrating our wonderful students today!
Seija Nyholm
Head of School
