Presentation ceremony salutes the captains

By Oscar Stow and Neo Davis, 6B, Malanda Primary School

MALANDA Primary School had its annual Leadership Badge Presentation Ceremony on February 22.

Several special guests were invited, including local Member of Parliament Shane Knuth, Tablelands councillor Anthony Ball and Malanda State High School principal Gary Toshach. They were joined by Malanda Primary School principal Mark Allen, and Year 6 teachers Russell Bransgrove and Melanie Radford to hand out the very important badges.

The ceremony commenced with a traditional “Welcome to Country” which was delivered by local high school student Le Lai Ketchell.

This was followed by the school choir under the direction of music teacher, Deanne Mossman, leading the parade with the National Anthem and a very catchy rendition of Absolutely Everybody which, according to our school captains, communicated the essence of leadership.

The leadership badges were then presented to the school captains and vice-captains, closely followed by the student councillors, sports captains and vice-captains.

Malanda Primary School captains Ashley Johnston and Morgan Solinas, and vicecaptains Kya Panizzutti and Blade Smith delivered a speech entitled “What is Leadership?”

It focused on five themes. These included the belief that leaders are confident, leaders get along with others, leaders are persistent, leaders are organised and leaders are resilient.

After the parade, all of the elected representatives celebrated with a leadership cake and photo opportunities which will preserve the experience for a lifetime.