2016 School Magazine

HEAD GIRLS REPORT In 2016, our vision was to create unity within the School, a totally achievable aim through increased involvement, support, acknowledgement, spirit, and networking. The five objectives were to create unity between classmates, teammates and fellow musicians, within houses, years and the entire School. This desire for the School community to challenge themselves to achieve total unity led to the Student Council’s highly anticipated and successful motto: Blue unity is opportunity .

The annual BiGrammar series against Brisbane Grammar School continued with Elizabeth Perrin, Student Council member, producing spirit videos to challenge the boys. Our first video for BiGrammar touch set the scene. However, it was the second video for our netball game which sparked a major social media frenzy. Shared over 400 times, the video included messages from celebrities such as Osher from The Bachelor , television host Sonja Kruger, Olympic swimmer Mitch Larkin and Australian actor, Sam Neill. As important as it was for us to make our mark, it was also absolutely imperative to maintain the Girls Grammar spirit that we embraced along our high-school journey. To do this, we strove to preserve many special events unique to our magnificent School. A standout for us was the annual ANZAC and Christmas Creek memorial assembly. This year, we decided to create a wreath made of royal blue ribbons which beautifully commemorated ANZAC Day and the School’s personal tragedy at Christmas Creek. Each girl was asked to snip a small length of her hair ribbon and tie it to the wreath in a striking show of solidarity and respect. The wreath was then placed at the foot of the remembrance stone in the terrace garden where it has remained throughout the year. As the Year 12s experienced their ‘lasts’ at Girls Grammar, last lunchtimes with school friends, last exams, last Blue Day, last trainings, and last rehearsals, some of you are yet to experience your firsts. When the class of 2016, look back on our journey, we will not regret the things we did; rather, it would be the things we did not do. So we encourage you to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way. Finally, to our Year 12 sisters, we cannot thank you enough for entrusting us with the role and privilege of being your Head Girls, for believing in us, backing our decisions with enthusiasm, and celebrating our successes. We are beyond grateful for all the experiences and opportunities you have afforded us to create invaluable memories. We hope the past five years have been the best of your lives (so far) and ones that you will look back on with happiness. We know that every one of you will go on to do astonishing things and contribute to the world with wisdom, imagination, and integrity. And always, Blue Unity is Opportunity . LILI WACKWITZ (12H) AND SARAH MILLER (12E)

A unified House Group provides the opportunity for personal support. A unified house creates a greater chance of success and the opportunity to win an interhouse event. A united Year 12 cohort has the opportunity to excel, lead, and make the most of its final year. By embracing all these opportunities, we believed that every girl would have the opportunity for an enjoyable and successful year. While formulating our motto in January, the dynamic and ever- creative Student Council started playing with words. The result – blunity – was a combination of the words blue and unity, both terms integral to our style of Grammar girl. Blunity is symbolic of everything we stand for and has effectively spread throughout the School. The word is short, sharp, and catchy and, consequently, many war cries and posters were a by-product of this initiative, successfully enhancing our spirit and unity. Throughout the year we also sought to build a social media platform to increase spirit and connectivity throughout the School. We began with a simple hashtag, #blunity, which propagated far more widely than we ever expected. Over the year, #blunity was used on Instagram in excess of 1600 times, prompting many other schools to mimic and create their own (#stunity, #maroonity,). None gathered the same momentum. #blunity badges and laptop stickers became collectors’ items, selling out in eight minutes during lunchtime sales. It was also brilliant to have our unique hashtag on the 2016 seniors’ plaque and Year 12 jerseys. Our five underpinning objectives of involvement, support, acknowledgment, spirit, and networking were another tool that was used to inspire the unity within the School. Each girl was encouraged to become a Girls Grammar ISASN (pronounced assassin – acronym of the five objectives). Their increased involvement in sport, in the classroom, arts, service, and any of the theme days, created an increased level of support for every school member. Support is crucial to achieve unity. With the knowledge that someone ‘has your back’, students were able to take a step out of their comfort zones to try something new. We encouraged each ISASN to acknowledge not only the achievements of a friend, but also, the fact that someone tried something new or ‘had a go’. The combination of involvement, support, and acknowledgement created spirit and the Girls Grammar spirit is an integral part of the School culture. Finally, with increased involvement, acknowledgement, support, and spirit, each ISASN created a network of girls. A strong network = unity! Over the year, the School has taken part in many Student Council initiatives and events. We began the year’s themed days with Valentine’s Day. Every girl was encouraged to add reds and pinks to her uniform and the senior girls were encouraged to decorate their tables with prizes being awarded. The first ever Cupid’s love letter delivery service was introduced, raising over $1400. Our annual Blue Days have been a tremendous success, with the level of spirit from all year groups maintained throughout the year. All proceeds from these days went to supporting our 2016 School Charity, Kids Helpline.