Cabinteely Community School 50th anniversary celebration

A very happy & special day as Chair of the Board of Cabinteely Community School, attending the school's 50th anniversary celebration, which was truly a wonderful event, and took me a few days to digest.

We had a "full house" with huge turnout of past students, staff & board members, and it was lovely to see classmates reuniting, laughing and taking photos in the spots they used to hang back then (keeping the details confidential...)

The main speakers were past students from every decade, who spoke from the heart and shared personal memories & stories (a good mix of emotional & funny ones), demonstrating the lasting impact the school had on their lives, with sentences like "I still remember Mr/Ms X / they always cared about me no matter what I did / I graduated only because of them / I never thought I would stand here one day speaking to all of you", and many more.

It reminded me that when I was in school (in a different country) there was a famous saying: "A good teacher is a teacher for life".

I've always had huge appreciation and even admiration for teachers, as what they do is so hard & important, and something I honestly could never do.

This is especially true for principals, the leaders of the school, who are tasked with an almost impossible role, with huge responsibility and incredible amount of endless (and often thankless) work.

So it was great to show our respect & gratitude to the past principals, all the way back to the legendary first principal of the school as a community school, Liam Ryder, who received so much respect from everyone, including a touching standing ovation.

I felt honoured to have a small part in the school's story, and feel the connection to its history & legacy.

To top it all up, the school's choir sang beautifully and left many teary eyes (probably the only time I enjoyed "You never walk alone" despite not being a Liverpool fan!).

As Chair of the Board there aren't too many moments of pure celebration & joy, so it's important to enjoy them when they come, and this was surely one of them.

Link to the post on LinkedIn