Although, it was only when I watched her and her classmates being congratulated with a handshake before walking off the stage a thought occurred to me.

The image reminded me of a herd of sheep, and maybe because I saw everyone in the traditional robe and cap, walking together one after the other, it started looking more like a cloning production line. So I wondered, what is it that's being produced?

It led me to return to my thoughts on the "no playground" debate that the Thomas Deacon Academy had initially introduced last year, and even though the idea has subsequently been clarified, I remember finding just the thought itself difficult, but nonetheless insightful of what is expected from young academics today.

It is all about ticking the boxes and numbers, which is the real shame, because more often than not, that is all we are being reduced to.

And the government would be the first to fund a procedure which would tick the most boxes or gets the most numbers.

I have been bullied and boisterous, but above all I learned to be ballsy through my experiences in the playground. It was unplanned, unstructured, but real life, and something which sitting in a classroom could have never taught me.

Except for one classroom perhaps, where, during my recent therapy training programme, the facilitators attempt to diminish any concept of structure, especially within a classroom setting, and it is amazing to watch the level of anxiety that it causes.

It is like watching a fish out of water, gasping to get back into the ocean. Similarly, I have seen many, myself included, gasping to have structure, someone to tell us what on earth we should be doing, but it is only when we are able to sit with the anxiety that something changes. You're able to learn about your own structure.

So I guess even though the production line of another successful group of students, who are now ready to be capitalised on, was being celebrated, I wondered whether my sister realised that actually the most important experiences were probably the ones she learned in the playground, when she was in her own element, learning about herself.

Even though you don't get a special robe to celebrate it, I hope she knows the value of it.