06 December 2016
Fahan School celebrated the end of the School year with 81st Annual Speech Night on Monday 5 December followed, the next morning, by the Final Assembly and “Tossing Out” Ceremony
Speech Night was attended by Middle and Senior School girls and their families, the Fahan School Chairman and Board, a number of staff and noteworthy dignitaries. Academic and special prizes were awarded during the evening and there were performances by the Senior Orchestra, Senior Choir and Senior Vocal Group, as well as a wonderful excerpt of songs from The Sound of Music.
The Gerdy Jevtic Medal, traditionally presented at Speech Night to an Alumni who has brought pride and honour to Fahan, was presented to Dr Francesca Haig. Francesca, who resides in London, is the author of The Fire Sermon series, published in more than 20 languages. Her first novel, The Fire Sermon, was published in 2015, followed by The Map of Bones, in 2016. The final book in the trilogy, The Forever Ship, will be published in 2017.
Francesca grew up in Tasmania and attended Fahan School in the 1990s. She gained her PhD from the University of Melbourne, and became a senior lecturer in English at the University of Chester. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and anthologies in both Australia and England, and her first collection of poetry, Bodies of Water, was published in 2006. In 2010 she was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship.
On Tuesday 6 December, continuing a tradition that dates back to the late 1930s, the Class of 2016 were ceremoniously “Tossed Out” on the Boarders’ Flat outside Nateby. Amid shrieks of laughter and excitement and in the presence of staff, family and friends, the Year 12 leavers were bounced along a line of linked hands formed by the Years 11 and 10 girls and “Tossed Out” of the School.
Congratulations go to all the prize winners at this year’s Speech Night and the Year 12 Leavers who have represented the School so admirably throughout their time at the School.
