1983 School Magazine

Despite an increased workload, staff have still found time to attend professional development workshops and conferences associated with their areas of interest, bringing back to the school the latest knowledge that can be incorporated into work programmes. Students have continued to excel in all areas and during the year a new publication, The B.G.G'S. News, which appears every Thursday, has kept Farents and Girls informed of these achievements. In addition, the School Magazine has again recorded the names of girls receiving special awards, not only in academic fields, but also in sport and cultural pursuits. Students completing their senior last year achieved some excellent results, with 80Vo going on to Universities and Colleges of Advanced Education. This year Amanda Rooney won the National Japanese Speaking Contest and Elizabeth Jameson, one of our head girls, was national winner of the Youth Speaks for Australia Award. Deidre Mahoney, in Year 11, visited Canberra for a national seminar run by the Queen Elizabeth iI Silver Jubilee Trust for Young Australians. It was designed to bring together 100 students from around the nation and to give them an insight into the processes of western democracy.

Year 12 students of Speech and Drama were asked to prepare tapes which could be used for the Isolated Childrens' Special Education Unit, a part of the Queensland Department of Education. Three of these tapes have been selected and are now in their library and two of the students have been asked to read additionai material. Through such activities, courses taught in the school become more realistic and relevant to students, and help to teach the girls that it is often better to give than to receive. Other activities which have encouraged students to put others before self have included the visit of the tr-Xirayama Gakuen Girls' F{igh School in July/August, when the Japanese Cultural Group organised for the visiting students to be billeted in homes. ,A greater understanding of the culture of Japan was realised and next year we plan a return visit. Mrs. Thornquist took several girls to F'rance, giving those students first-hand knowledge and experience of European culture. Mrs. Lewis took three girls to Fiji for the Open Mental Abilities Tournament and they were again very successful in this activity.

In music, enthusiasm ran high and a music committee was set up under the chairmanship of Mr. Ian Curtis. We were pleased to see how well each section of school music performed in competitions in and around tsrisbane. Four girls were selected to play, with five students from Brisbane Grammar School, at the official opening of the Cultural Centre by Her Majesty the Queen. This was a great honour for the school and is indicative of the high standards developed in this area. In sport, high standards have been set and sound results achieved. As sports and training becomes more complex, greater amounts of time are required, time which the girls give willingly; this effort in sacrifice is evidenced by the increasing number of students gaining representative positions in teams and we thank the parents in the support so readily given to their girls each year. A tradition appears to be developing where a selected group of Grammar sportswomen travel either inter or intra-state. The policy we have developed is that each year a different sporting group is given this privilege. This year a selection of winter fixture teams visited Townsville Grammar School in September, and we hosted 40 gymnasts from the Methodist Ladies' College and Strathcona Baptist Girls' School in Melbourne. Two representatives from the school ran in the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay in the final stages before the baton was presented to H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh.

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