Miss Cassie Dixon, Acting Principal
What a privilege it has been to celebrate you, our Graduating Class of 2026.
Some of you started here in Prep, 13 years ago, and many of you joined us along the way. However and whenever you came to be at Kuyper, you finish together — and that feels right, because together is how this group has always done things.
As a staff team, we have loved watching you grow, not just as students, but as people who have come to believe in yourselves and have grown to care so much about others.
There have been great times along the way — all of those games played out on the oval, all of the laughter you have shared, and all of the times we have seen you step up to help and encourage others.
For some of you, there was also the opportunity to share in our Vanuatu Service Learning Experience. You served with generosity and came home having learned more about the world and about yourselves.
There have been thousands of little moments that have woven together to form your experience of schooling, and it is impossible to sum them all up. But all of those moments matter. They are where joy was found, where friendships were made, and where each decision contributed to you becoming the people you are today.
When you look back, we hope you remember the joy and the laughter that you shared.
Of course, reflecting only on the highlights would not tell the whole story. These years have also held real challenges: late nights and deadlines, results that didn’t go the way you hoped, friendships that were tested, and, for some, griefs and burdens that no student should have to carry while also studying for the HSC.
It was not always easy, but you kept showing up — and you kept showing up for each other.
That says a great deal about who you are.
You often call yourselves a family, and we have seen that in the way you have cared for one another over many years. We have watched you celebrate each other’s wins as if they were your own. We have also watched you sit with one another in the hard times, without needing to be asked.
Families aren’t perfect, and neither are you, but you have shown a kind of loyalty to one another that is rare.
Please hold on to it. It really is a gift.
You have also been a gift to this community.
As leaders, you have set the tone for the whole School. You have set a wonderful example of leadership through the Representative Council for Growth and through leading House culture this year.
Our younger students have been watching you, and they have seen what it looks like to lead with kindness, humility and integrity.
That is your legacy here, and it will outlast any results you receive in December.
We hope and pray you will also take a legacy of faith from Kuyper.
For many of you, your relationship with Jesus has grown during your time here, and we pray it keeps growing. Life after school will get busy, and faith can quietly slip down the list. Keep choosing it. Find a church community, keep asking questions, and keep praying, even when it feels hard.
Paul wrote to the church in Philippi:
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6
God is not finished with you yet.
Trust Him, even when things are hard, that He will continue to make you more into the likeness of His Son, Jesus. No matter where life takes you, remember that God goes before, beside and behind you.
God is good, all the time.
For some of you, faith is still an open question. We would simply encourage you to keep that door open. Keep asking the big questions about meaning, purpose and hope, and don’t be afraid of where they lead.
God makes a promise in Jeremiah:
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
Our hope for each of you is that you will seek Him and find Him.
As we farewell you, it is also important to acknowledge that you didn’t get here on your own. It took a lot of love and support to make it through thirteen or fourteen years of schooling.
To your families: thank you for the time and energy you have invested in these young people, and for the ways you have helped shape them into the people they are today. You should be proud of them. They are blessed to have you in their corner, and we are so thankful that you allowed us to partner with you in educating them.
And to the Class of 2026:
We will all miss you deeply.
The School will feel different next term and next year without you. Please come back and visit, and tell us where life is taking you.
As you leave Kuyper, we share this prayer with you from the book of Ephesians:
[We] pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And [we] pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16–19
Congratulations, Class of 2026. We are so very proud of you.
