2005 School Magazine

English

Health & Physical Education

Take a breath for life

Paul Jennings

Health & Physical Education staff breathe easier each day knowing that students have gained knowledge and developed skills that could ‘Save a Life’ – their own or somebody else’s.

Meeting the Authors

The Core Course and QSA senior subject Lifesaving, Fitness, First Aid and Personal Safety units are all designed to improve quality of life and save lives. The capacity to save a life is one that can be cherished for a lifetime. Students from Years 8 to 12 receive awards from the Royal Lifesaving Society of Queensland. Brisbane Girls Grammar School has an outstanding history of excelling in Lifesaving

During the year, a range of successful and well-regarded authors presented a series of lively and informative sessions to students. These sessions enhanced student learning, both creatively and analytically, and gave students opportunities to engage with and question the authors. Year 8 students joined students from Brisbane Grammar School to meet with and listen to Paul Jennings who spoke of his sources of inspiration and the real-life events that inspired his novels, as well as the difficulties that he faced when his texts were transposed into the award- winning ABC Television series Around the Twist . Randa Abdel-Fattah, a lawyer and author of young adult fiction, captivated an audience of Year 8 and Year 9 students with her warm, moving and vibrant account of her teenage experiences growing up in Melbourne. Students availed themselves of the opportunity to question Randa about stereotypical myths and misconceptions associated with Australian Muslim women and demonstrated a keen interest in her witty, insightful observations which equipped them well for future reading and study of her novel Does My Head Look Big in This?

The St John Senior First Aid Certificate in Year 10 Core Physical Education is an excellent adjunct to the Bronze Star Lifesaving award that students achieve. The course develops in students the capacity, amongst other things, to care for victims of burns, those with circulatory problems and those in need of resuscitation. Fitness in Years 8, 9 and 10 and the study of Exercise Physiology in Years 11 and 12 are all designed to make those breaths we take count. Not only will they allow us to train more effectively to achieve athletic goals, but also to ensure a healthy quality of life and extended time with family and friends. With an increasing number of children suffering from obesity, the transfer of knowledge related to health and fitness will benefit generations of Brisbane Girls Grammar School families. Take care to enjoy life and maintain general health that will enable you to have energy through every part of the day. With guidance, the desire and ability to maintain good health will become as natural as drawing a breath. Ms G Johnston DIRECTOR

performances throughout Queensland and indeed, throughout Australia. This success has come about for two reasons. Firstly, the ongoing dedication and enthusiasm of our staff, who all recognise the vital importance of Lifesaving skills. In some cases, this recognition has come about through first-hand rescue experience. Success also comes from the girls. From them we see a realisation that the programme is relevant and useful. At the completion of Year 12, the girls can rightly lay claim to being confident in their ability to effect a rescue. Pleasingly, this confidence seems then to extend to other parts of their lives. The physical activity of Lifesaving studied through Years 8 to 12 sees the School held in high regard, as only a minority of schools maintain such a relevant focus – a focus that is so important in a country which holds its water-based lifestyle so very dear and wears its island continent status as a badge of nationhood.

Venero Armanno

All Year 11 students attended sessions on writing short fiction conducted by Dr Venero Armanno, author of award-winning adult novels and short stories, and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland. Dr Armanno’s lively and informative presentations provided students with invaluable practical advice designed both to stimulate and to assist their own literary endeavours in their creation of their own short stories with an Australian context and setting. Dr R Colwill DIRECTOR

Randa Abdel-Fattah

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Brisbane Girls Grammar School

School Magazine 2005