Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the importance of the shared history of the year group in a London school and its culmination on ‘the last day of school’. Through a focus on Dominic, and his emotional speech to the group, I highlight the irreversibility of action and the importance of forgiveness as part of this.

Paper long abstract:

The 'last day at school', during which pupils celebrated their last time together as a year group, culminated in an emotional speech from Dominic. The celebrations on the day represented the culmination of an important shared history, joining the school together at 11, these 15 and 16 year olds understood themselves as having grown up, and grown together over these last five years. Stories from the past were often retold as part of the cumulative actions that created a sense of sharedness and closeness. For all the funny stories, there were also stories of the pain they had inflicted on each other and of the brutally and force by which they sought to shape each other into particular kinds of persons. In these ways, Dominic had suffered amongst the most in the year. As I will argue in this paper, this shared history highlights the irreversibility of action (Arendt), but as Dominic's final speech exemplifies, the importance of forgiveness as part of this.