Senior Speech Night 2016

On the penultimate day of term, former students flocked back to BRGS to be presented with their A Level certificates by guest speaker Kayleigh Mills.

Kayleigh left BRGS Sixth Form in 2004 before moving to Ecuador to volunteer with underprivileged children and then returned to the UK to study Spanish at the University of St. Andrews, where sh received a first-class Masters degree with Honours.

Since graduating, Kayleigh moved to Spain where she taught English as a foreign language and ran her own successful Language Academy.  Kayleigh has since returned to live in the UK, where she transitioned into a career in television production and has worked on various programmes, both in the UK and in locations around the world, including The Island with Bear Grylls, Hunted, Dragons' Den, Mastermind and Old School with the Hairy Bikers.

One of Kayleigh's key messages was to reassure ex-students that it is absolutely fine to not know what you want to do with your life.  She said:  "I think it is one of the biggest myths that you are supposed to know what you want to do with the rest of your life at 18. I mean, if you are one of the lucky few to have had a passion since day dot and know with absolute certainty that that is your calling in life, then that is great. However, you shouldn’t feel worried or anxious if you don’t know yet."  She also said that taking the trickier and less straight-forward route is sometimes the best way saying:  "taking the long and winding road has served me much more than everything falling neatly into place would have."  Overall, she left the audience with the message that "the key is determination and not giving up...the things you look back on in 12 years' time will be the things that didn't come easily to you, the things you had to graft for, and they will be what define you as a person and what you will become the proudest of."

Thank you to former students and parents for joining us for the evening to celebrate your success.