The Headmaster’s Girls Big Breakfast Speech

Posted November 29, 2019 in School News By Community Relations

Wesley College Headmaster, Mr Ross Barron, delivered a wonderful tribute to the daring girls of Wesley when he spoke at the Girls Big Breakfast on 28 November 2019. We have great pleasure in presenting that speech to you here.

Today is a day of celebration. A day when we enjoy a chance to shine a light on the creative, inquisitive, and daring girls of Wesley.

One of my many favourite things about you all is that you have so much spirit. You’re polite and well-mannered, as all Wesleyans should be, but you’re also bold, loud, rough and tumble, and enthusiastic.

Wesley women do not step quietly into the world. They make their ideas bold and strive to achieve them. Wesley women are strong women – and you embody that.

So what makes for a strong woman?

Well, as a man, perhaps I’m not best placed to know. But, while searching for a suitable female perspective, I stumbled across the following. It reads:

‘A strong woman works hard, she chases what she believes in, and she does it all for herself. No one else. She loves endlessly and shows appreciation to those around her. Most importantly, she isn’t selfish, and once she makes it, she reaches back to help others.’

I love that last line, ‘she reaches back to help others’…

I have had the great pleasure of being surrounded by strong women my whole life. Their influence upon me has been immense.

My mother spent many years raising me single-handedly after my father died. She had the inner strength to go to work, to keep me on the straight and narrow when at times I wasn’t on track and to love me with a depth I could always rely on. To this day, her love remains a rock I can anchor myself to in the most difficult of moments.

My wife, Narelle, was a state basketball player when we met, doing incredible things in what was traditionally a man’s sport. But she’s no traditionalist. I knew immediately that her strong desire and inner strength to walk her own path was a trait I could love forever.

That love led to our daughter Abbey, our first child. Abbey taught me so much about how you have to give up a little control to watch someone grow. It was Abbey who taught me there’s no one way to do things – just different ways.

I am proud that all three women in my life could be here today to share in your breakfast.

As you grow, you’ll find your strength. You’ll find a path through life that’s right for you because inside each of you there’s a fire, a fire that burns bright with your passions.

Embrace it, draw strength from it and use it to illuminate your way. Because, by daring and by doing, you young women have the strength to change the world.

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