1981 School Magazine

During the year the two head girls, Alison McAdam and Desley Ashtorr, have endeavoured to set very high standards and to encourage girls to take a pride in themselves and their school. After re-introduction olpreflects, they put much time and elfort into organising the new prefect body. This ellort has been appreciated by the many people closely associated rvith them. Likewise, Rachael Montague has worked tireless- ly rvith the S.R.C. and has helped to make it a positive lorce rvithin the school. The I'und raising conducted by this group contributed sorne $800 to the memorial fund. Thankyou Girls. Girls in all sections ol the school have continued to receive high honours for achievements that range from academic arvards to recognition in the lields olculture and sport. These arvards have again been recorded in the school magazine. Such achievements would not, however, be possible without the dedication ol not only the girls, but also the stafl responsi- ble lor their training. I would like to thank all the staflwho unsellishly give up much oltheir time to train girls in many diflerent areas. The school enrolment lor 1980 averaged 775 girls, represented by 695 day girls and 80 boarders. Thedemand for places rerraining high, the board of trustees has decided to in- crease the nuntber of boarders lrom 80 to 100 in 1981. and to upgrade the boarding lacilities. It is interesting to note the in- creased demand for places in our boarding school, compared rvith live or six years ago, and to examine the reasons why parents are choosing to send their children to us. In October, I attended the isolated children's parents' conf'erence at Charleville and was nrade aware of the very high expectations country parents have. They see boarding schools as the only alternative for their children once they cornplete primary cor- respondence and school ofthe air. Although the satellite that the Cornmonwealth Government proposes to launch and to have in operation by 1985, will have far reaching ellects on the outback, parents still consider that children lrom isolated areas must have access to cities through boarding schools. There is a swing ol0.il7o in Queensland to independent educa- tion and ol over 2olo in southern states. This means that in Australia there are now over 2lo/o of the school age popula- tion being educated in the independent sector. This swing, which began sonte lour years ago, is evident in our own school by our particularly long waiting lists, not only for next year, but l,rr ) cars t0 corne. So that we nright continue to nteet the needs olgirls entenng the school, we decided to conduct a full school evaluation in- volving all sections of the school community. This will not be conrpleted until .luly of next year, when we will be hosts to a

visiting committee which will look at and help in the valida- tion ollindings rnade by all sections of the school community. Findings will be distributed to participants in the project and the end result rvill be a master plan for the future. It has not been possible, however, to stand still until this evaluation is completed. As well as expansion olthe boarding house and hence the school, the board of trustees, having in- vestigated proposals for the purchase ol an outdoor educa- tion centre. have recently bought a property at Conondale. This rvas ntade possible by the generous donations of many people and groups of people to the memorial lund set up in 1979 alter the tragic accident at Christmas Creek. It will be the lirst major step in realising the dream of the late John Stamlord lor l'acilities in outdoor education. A small group of stal-l is already looking at a curriculum for the centre and in the year ahead rnany possibilities will exist for all sections of the school to make positive contributions to our new endeavour. I would like to take this opportunity to record my apprecia- tion and indeed the appreciation of all the school, of the valuable ground work carried out by the Fathers' group earlier this year when the board first discussed the possibility of such a centre. With all the expertise in this group and rvithin the staff. I am confident we will develop a model in outdoor education. Indeed, the help and co-operation we receive from all the voluntary organisations in the school is alivays greatly appreciated and this year has been no excep- tion. Facilities that have been added to the school have in- cluded a typewriter for the library costing over $2,000 that has a nremory allowing for rnultiple copies ol index cards to be made at the clne tinte, various musical instruments such as a tuba, oboe, tin.rpani. percussion and euphonium, stoves for the canteen area. There has been valuabie manual labour in the grounds, change rooms and tuckshop. Other parents have contributed by coaching girls in athletics, swimming, hockey and netball and taking groups in E.E,.A.

The Old Girls' Association held a most successlul reunion early in the year and I was pleased to welcome back many past nrembers olthe school. Later in the year the sixth lorm l'ronr 1 930 celebrated their 50th reunion in the school and in October, I had the pleasure alter attending the Grammar Schools' conf erence at Rockharnpton of meeting old girls in the area. Old girls again contributed actively to school day by successl-ully running their art show, opened by an old girl, Miss Marjorie Neil, the new Headmistress of St. Aidans. This year school day was organised on a House basis and resulted in sorne $7,000being raised lrom the efforts of stalf and girls. This money will be used in the year ahead to provide snrall itenrs not initially budgeted for.

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