It is my absolute honour to be standing here before you upon the dawn of a new year, a new decade, a new era for BBC. But before we look too far ahead, I want you to come back on a journey with me. I want you to come back to 1993, Headingly, GPS Head of the River, and I want you to picture hundreds of young men, shoulder to shoulder, boater to boater, singing the war cry loud and proud as the First Eight crash through the finish line first. I want you to come back to 2019 and picture a wall of green white black cheering on as a school, a Year 7 cohort returning from the achievement of returning from a unknown and challenging transition into Middle School. I want you to come back to 2016, Track and Field, and picture hundreds of boys chanting and yelling their throats hoarse as Dom Walton lifts the first GPS Track and Field trophy in 74 years. It doesn’t get much better than that. But now I want you to cast your mind again to 2017, in the Lecture Theatre, GPS Debating, 80 boys yelling and supporting their brothers, arm in arm, in what ended up being a nail-biting loss. I want you to cast your mind back to our Robotics team, in China, the world stage, who put their win at risk in order to carry the BBC spirit to help their opponents in a time of desperate need. And finally, 2019, Miskin Oval, Old Boys’ Day, where hundreds and hundreds of students young and old, past and present yelled, chanted and sung with nothing but pride despite the heartbreaking loss.

Whether it was for a history making Premiership, or a tough to take loss, the boys never stopped singing until the final whistle was blown, the final serve was struck, the final argument put forth. Because I believe BBC has always been more than the event, always been more than the ‘what’. BBC has always prided itself on the ‘how’. The theme for 2020 is As One, which we believe encapsulates the best of BBC. Because the idea that we as a College are one, that we are bonded together by the green white black, isn’t tied to one event, it permeates through everything we do. Whether it’s helping a younger student who’s struggling with their timetable, helping your mate understand a question in class, or supporting your brothers at grand concert, everything we do must be as one.

Because the strength of this school has always been found in our diversity and no one person can lead this school because our strength has always been in how we come together and utilise each other’s unique backgrounds and skills. And that begins in the classroom, in the locker area, in the playground, in small insignificant conversations. Because if we can be a family that builds each other up when no one is watching, we will be a force to reckon with, a unit that supports and fights for each other when the whole world is watching.”

Our College Captain, Vice Captains and Prefects made a special visit to the Prep Centre where they presented our youngest Collegians with their 2020 ‘As One’ theme badge and taught them the College War Cry before all students in the Junior, Middle and Senior School received their badge. The badges are a visual reminder that the strength of the College is found in unity and brotherhood and that we will be stronger As One in 2020.