From the Principal
Start of Term 4, 2023
Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh
Principal
It has been a happy beginning to this special Term.
I hope that our families enjoyed a wonderful holiday period and that your daughters feel refreshed and ready to conclude the year well. Many will have travelled to places as far and wide as the Great Barrier Reef (for the Geography Tour), New Zealand (for the Junior Young Physicists Tournament) or, more locally, participated in the State Rowing Championships in Bundaberg. Others will have taken time to read ahead or simply read for pleasure and spent time with parents, siblings (and pets!).
We look forward to the culminating events of a Girls Grammar education through the experience of our Year 12 students, including Speech Day. The students’ external exams loom large but they have been well prepared and worked hard, and deserve to feel confident and ready. The reflections, farewells and closure that accompany this time in the School year remind our teachers, and all of our staff, of our purpose and how fortunate we have all been to contribute to the education and broader experience of these young women.
Major projects are unfolding with the Junior School planning well underway, the ‘greening of the CLC’ getting closer to becoming a reality, and all plans will be in place very soon for the celebration of 150 Years in 2025.
The foundations of the coming year begin to be laid in Term 4. Staffing is finalised—teachers appointed, leave approved, positions confirmed. Orientations are held, House afternoon teas for incoming students, a new Student Council takes shape, and plans are made for the induction of staff and Professional Learning Days in January. Some of the most demanding work for our teachers at this time is to ensure teaching and learning continues to be both rigorous and free, as the curriculum is continually refined to meet the demands of the new system.
Over the break, I attended the AHISA Conference with Heads of Independent Schools from around Australia, where two strong themes emerged—the challenge and opportunity of AI and the importance of strong and innovative leadership. I also enjoyed attending (with some of our English teachers) an author event with Anna Funder who spoke about her cleverly constructed new book ‘Wifedom’—which uncovers the hitherto ‘invisible’ life of Eileen O’Shaughnessy (wife of George Orwell) whose literary brilliance and selfless practical support were so fundamental to the author’s life and work.
It will be important to feel well rested and well prepared for the exciting Term 4 that lies ahead, and for our staff to find inspiration in their work and students in their studies.
Poet Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012), when delivering her speech in response to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in Krakow, December 1996 said of inspiration:
… inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and always will be, a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It’s made up of all those who’ve consciously chosen their calling and do their jobs with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners … their work becomes one of continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know”.
Curiosity and questioning are, of course, at the core of a Girls Grammar education. We look forward to a productive Term 4. I hope it is very good one for you and your daughters.