23 June, 2023

BSKL Class of 2023 honoured at Graduation ceremony

The BSKL community gathered Thursday evening to celebrate the graduation of the Class of 2023 with a formal ceremony for the cohort of Year 13 students.

Graduates, their parents, and guests heard from several key leaders congratulating them on their achievements and offering them advice as they take the next step in their educational journeys. Two Year 12 students, Hadi and Lizzy, served as emcees for the event.

Dr Mike O’Connor welcomed and thanked each graduate's family, as well as shared advice to the students.

“Be ambitious, take calculated risks, be kind to all you encounter, when things get tough demonstrate the resilience within you, act with integrity at all times, and strive to do things that make you and those around you happy”, he said to the Class of 2023.

In addition to recognising students’ achievements and university offers, he recognised two students who began their primary education at BSKL in 2010. Justin Yuen and Siddarth Ravindran completed their entire primary and secondary school careers at BSKL.

The Class of 2023’s four head students: Rishi Satish, Toby Ng, Eisa Faisal Iqbal, and Natania Lim each had a moment to address their peers. They reflected on their time together, thanked their parents and the school, reminded their peers about the closeness of the Year 13 community, and shared their hopes for the future.

Dr Nicola Brown gave the graduates charge. Her speech recounted the ways the Class of 2023 came together, celebrated success, faced adversity, and matured as a collective unit. Dr Bown’s advice, via author Ryan Holiday, reminded graduates that they “control how they play”.

“The way I use this phrase is to remind me that I can only do what I can. I rely on my values to make decisions and I try not to focus on controlling the outcome, or the other person. If I am consistent in using my values, I will always feel at ease with the choices I make. And this also prevents me from misremembering why I did certain things. I can trust my decisions and forgive myself if things go wrong. And self-compassion is incredibly valuable as a route to forgiving others”, Dr Brown explained.

Graduates, parents, and guests were treated to two musical performances. The secondary student clarinet quintet played the instrumental theme from Spirited Away and Manuella Y11 sang Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing.”

Twelve students received individual awards that recognised key characteristics present in the Class of 2023, including kindness, perseverance, integrity, resilience, athleticism, spirit, musical talent, and more.

Head of Sixth Form Kyle Milliner closed the event with a heartfelt speech directed straight to the graduates. He explained how the individual transformations of each graduate through Sixth Formmirrored the heroic journey present in classic literature and pop culture.

“Like heroes, you have built the mythology of what it means to be in Sixth Form. You have been role models and have set the bar of what we can achieve. Class of 2023, always recognise the small acts of heroism, of humanity around you. [And] Always recognise it in yourself”, he said.

The Class of 2023 received more than 150 university offers, including offers from 22 of the 24 prestigious Russell Group in the UK; the University of California Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Barnard College in the United States, as well as universities in Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and more.

Congratulations to all our graduates:

Form 13A

Rihito

Khalid

Nicholas

Eisa

Ekaterina

Riya

Ashley

Nitarn

Natania

Toby