This year's Junior School Closing Ceremonies were unlike any other we've held before. But it remained of the utmost importance for us to come together as a community, virtually, to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer, and to recognize the Grade 5 students who are off to Middle School come September.
As part of our annual Closing Ceremonies, two Grade 5 students work with Rev. Keven Fletcher to write a closing prayer to reflect on the year and recognize what they are thankful for.
Below, read this year's closing prayer from Kieran and Elspeth. You can watch the entire Junior School Closing Ceremonies above.
Junior School Closing Prayer
Dear God, this has been a different sort of year, especially this last term. It’s been tough not seeing friends in person. At times we feel lonely and we realize how much we miss our regular routines.
When we think back, we realize how great it was trying to light fires in the rain at Goldstream Campground. Or seeing our parents around school, helping in the library and delivering pizza. Or how when we turn in attendance sheets at the office, we receive a big smile and a "How are you?" Or what it’s like having one particular teacher take his guitar off the wall at lunch break and sing weird songs about what we’re eating!
What we now appreciate more than ever is our teachers, who’ve found different ways to support us, not only in virtual classrooms but with lots of extra opportunities to get help quickly in everything from math to music. Keeping us busy and connected goes a long way to helping us take our minds off not being side-by-side with our friends.
God, we also know that there’s a lot of unrest in the world right now. It makes us think about how fortunate we are compared to students who can’t access well-supported schools like ours. There are places where young people don’t go to school at all. Here we get all the regular classes plus art, PE, music, and all the other specialist subjects.
It also makes us think about our own conflicts, the ones that happen during recess and lunch breaks. You’d think that with soccer nets and basketball hoops and all the green spaces, it wouldn’t be a problem, but we need to work on it like everyone else. In Kindergarten it’s “You’re it” or “I tagged you.” By Grade 5 it’s “I totally won” or “Someone pushed me.” When it happens, we need to find good, peaceful ways to figure it out, even when playing bump.
The good news is that aside from the occasional conflict, we do treat each other kindly. We’re also thankful that this is a welcoming place. New people are asked, “Want to play with us?” and the buddy system connects us across grades, so we have an idea of what everyone is doing. It’s a good place to be.
In other words, God, we are thankful for all the normal things of school life and for all the extraordinary ways that we’ve kept each other going these last months. For our teachers, our staff, our school, our parents, and all the other students, we are grateful.
So we pray. Amen.
