Wisbech Grammar School celebrates pupils with senior speech day

“There’s a secret 60% in all of us. What will you do with yours?” was the key message at the senior school speech day at Wisbech Grammar School.

For the first time since 2019 the event was back to normal as staff, pupils, parents and special guests came together for a celebration of achievement.

The school was also joined by guest of honour, Vicki Anstey, one of the UK’s leading fitness experts and entrepreneur turned adventurer.

Vicki talked passionately about the challenges she has faced, and overcome, in her life so far, reflecting on key decisions she had to make despite her own fears.

Embracing those fears allowed her to reach the final stages of TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins; Row the Pacific with two other women unaided in a World Record time; a five day race covering 235km in the Arctic and her next challenge - to cycle 3,000 miles in America across 17 States in just seven days.

Her final inspirational message for the pupils was to embrace their fears and to “Never question your potential, you always have more than you think. There’s a secret 60% in all of us. What will you do with yours?”

Headmaster Chris Staley, in his final address to the school as headmaster, delivered a thought provoking and inspirational message, initially posing the question “Why did you choose WGS?”

Answering the question about his own time at the school he said: “Seeing how far we have come as a community in such a short period of time is very special. The Pride Fayre, the work that has been put into societal issues, the strength of the pupil voice, plus the sport, music, drama and last but by no means least the academic output is why I chose WGS.

"It has a unique blend and flavour and I think strikes the right balance between all these aspects which when mixed together, make up our fabulously supportive community.

“Here at WGS I think we now prepare pupils with an openness of mind to see beyond that social media superficiality. There is a plasticity of mind, a willingness to ‘give it a go’, to face your fears, and also an understanding that pupils here are unlikely to be sheep.”

The final piece of advice to our wonderful Upper 6th form leavers?

He said: “This current crop of U6th Grammarians are not easily cajoled or taken in by meaningless hyperbole. Put another way, your journeys have been about trying to prepare you to be leaders and not bosses.

“I very much believe that you choose to be a leader, a leader can be anyone in an organisation. Leaders are people who value others. Leadership is about service and what you can do for others to empower them and to ensure they have a voice.

“Leaders require vision and so leaders also need to have a little bit of clairvoyance, the ability to look and predict the future and therefore take calculated risks.

“Remarkable things can be accomplished when outstanding leadership exists throughout the entire organisation- at every level....so one of my messages to our pupil body today but, in particular, our U6th leavers is...

“Be a leader, not a boss”