YEAR 12 GIFT

The Class of 2020 could never have anticipated how challenging their final year at school would prove to be. As the pandemic quickly brought their expectations of what 2020 would be like crumbling to the ground, the girls stood united in support of each other and the broader student body. Choosing to lead the School with unity and radiance, the girls became a living embodiment of these terms.

It is Ruyton tradition that every year the Year 12 group leave a gift to the School at graduation. The Class of 2020 wrote the following poem, which will be publicly displayed on school grounds for all to see. FINDING BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN

‘94 individual pieces sculpted, a unified whole so dear To be glazed and polished in the furnace of our final year. The bonds we had formed over the years seemed infrangible, As too did our vision of the perfect year that felt so tangible. Chipped, Cracked, Crushed. Like a vase chipped, cracked and crushed under the pressures of separation. Discarded, disjointed; a broken mould, And yet threaded together with shimmering gold Laced with a glimmer that was previously not there, Of beauty not broken, but tended to with care. Who knew friendship could smooth over the cracks of being apart? The unbreakable bonds always present in our heart, Ribbons of gold with a healing, recuperative magic, Tenderly bringing light to a year so tragic. Imagine kindness as an infinite gift, Not something one can steal or reduce to thrift. We all need kindness to show us the way Of how to piece together those fragments gone astray. People may be more fragile than they appear, Their façades crafted as a delicately glazed veneer. So it is best to weave kindness as a gift to bestow Offering a shimmer of gold wherever you go.’