Our annual Celebration of Success is always a highlight of the school year; a joyous outpouring of congratulations, recognising all the hard work and effort of our Baxter students, and although gutted that we can’t celebrate face-to-face, that by no means diminishes our delight at your successes and neither must it diminish your sense of pride, achievement and excitement as you begin the next leg of your journey.

The forbearance and dignity you have shown in coping with the fallout of Covid-19 on your school life has largely been exemplary. There’s no denying it’s been tough – and it’s not over yet, and when it is there will be a need for catch up in many aspects of our lives. So much has been on hold, so much has been missed.

But I know how proud your teachers and support staff are of the way you have adapted to the changes imposed on you during the last 12 months and dealt with the disappointments of social and educational cancellations. You have been their shining light; you are what has kept them going. The resilience you have developed through this crisis will serve you well throughout your lives.

Alongside the negatives you’ve faced, there have been positives and it’s down to your generation to keep them alive and kicking; kindness, neighbourliness, taking pleasure in what at first sight are simple things – a walk in the fresh air, a tiny flower poking its way through the snow – but what actually are the stuff of life itself!

We’ve been a global planet for some time – but now every inch of Earth shares a thread of this pandemic, which must, as its legacy, tie us together. It must make us stronger and more determined to treat our home and all its inhabitants with respect and to find better ways of looking after our environments and each other.

Wherever your journey through life leads you, I hope you take from your time at Baxter, and especially from your recent experiences, the desire to always do the right thing, to serve and thereby to be served.