Karratha’s class of 2020 say an emotional farewell

The class of 2020 was farewelled last week at an emotional ceremony that celebrated their schooling achievements.

Karratha Senior High School hosted its presentation evening last Wednesday at the Red Earth Arts Precinct.

The night recognised the graduating class’ high achievers and celebrated the completion of secondary education for 123 students.

It involved congratulatory speeches, award presentations, a teary Year 12 review by wellbeing co-ordinator Nicole Banks as well as a valedictory speech by school captains Katelyn Arnold and Jaxon Gordon.

It was held in a slightly different format this year because of COVID-19 restrictions, with families being rotated through in three separate groups.

KSHS principal Mario Tufilli said the students were exceptionally resilient this year having experienced a severe cyclone and global pandemic whilst completing year 12.

“Having to deal with 2020 with tropical cyclone Damien and then COVID they have just been amazing,” he said.

“They are all on positive pathways to where they want to go, which is fantastic.

“From our point of view, our ultimate goal is to give them those opportunities to be successful.

“It will be amazing to see where their future direction lies.

“Some of them will be looking at university, others will be looking at apprenticeship and traineeships.

“It will be fantastic to see where they eventuate and how will they continue to grow and develop.”

Abbey Watkin was awarded dux for her outstanding academic achievements.

She hopes to study international relations and Korean studies at UWA before going onto foreign diplomacy.

She said her favourite school subjects were history and geography.

“I love both those subjects and I think they are so relevant. It frustrates me how people can’t see it, but I just love them so much,” she said.

“This year was so rough. I was hoping our exams would just be cancelled and we could be done with it, but no I’m really glad it’s all gone ahead and we’ve only got a couple of weeks to go until our final exams.”

Joel Bulla was crowned runner up dux, while Aiden Janssen was awarded vocational education and training dux.