Glen Head Annual Convocation Ceremony

Passing the Torch at Glen Head Elementary School

On September 21st, students, faculty and staff at Glen Head School gathered together for their annual Convocation Ceremony where a torch is passed from fifth graders to a new generation of kindergarteners. Traditionally, siblings form a line and pass the torch to their younger siblings. This signifies a custom of welcome at Glen Head School. 

At the morning assembly, Principal Lori Nimmo welcomed everybody to another exciting year and introduced all of her new teachers and kindergarten students to a warm round of applause by the entire student body.

Principal Nimmo read the children’s book, The Day You Begin, and spoke to her students about how “we are all different people.” She said, “We are all unique and wonderful in our own special ways. Let’s start the school year right, let’s embrace the person you want to be because at Glen Head School, you can be you in your own special way.”

Dressed in maroon and white (school colors), the “Sunshine Kids” and fellow fifth graders led the school in various well-known songs. Kindergarteners also had an opportunity to enter the gymnasium to a wonderful round-of-applause by everyone in attendance, and sang the “ABC” song. As with tradition, Glen Head teachers performed a song describing their favorite pastimes called “I Can Be Me!” Faculty members were dressed in clothing corresponding to their favorite activity!

Additionally, Mrs. Nimmo invited Lenore Skenazy, the originator of the Let Grow Project, to the event. She asked the GH students “what they had done this summer to help them grow up?” After listening to answers including “making lunch, walking the dog, going to sleep away camp, and babysitting…” Principal Nimmo challenged her K-5 students to “look at your differences, learn from each other, and try something that you have never done before.”

Article and photos by Shelly Newman