2020 School Magazine

T he Future Tech Challenge (FTC) is a worldwide competition designed to provide secondary school students the opportunity to broaden their technological skills in design, engineering and programming. Teams of up to 15 students work on creating a robot that can complete the annual design challenge. This is the first year that an all BGGS team, comprising students from Years 9 and 10, competed in the FTC competition. This year’s competition, Ultimate Goal, saw teams tasked with designing robots capable of launching rings at specific targets. In the lead up to the competition we spent a day with coaches and students from many teams in Queensland at the Captains and Coaches Day held at Grace Lutheran College. This allowed us to further understand this year’s Ultimate Goal challenge and to share ideas with students from other schools. FTC is a highly interactive and stimulating experience. We have all enjoyed partaking in this new opportunity and would recommend it to future students. Johanna Conomos (10W) FUTURE OF TECH ROBOTICS CLUB

THE LIBELLUM SOCIETY

T his year has been an enjoyable one for Libellum. To welcome the Year 7s, Libellum hosted a Scavenger Hunt, where new students had to search the School grounds for literary locations. At every point, a Libellum member dressed as a fictional character rewarded the girls with a sweet treat. It was so much fun that the Student Council and some older girls also got involved in the hunt. Our weekly meetings relocated to Level 4 of the Elizabeth Jameson Research Learning Centre, where members made use of the catering kitchen. The girls were now able to enjoy a delicious hot drink while perusing the latest fiction purchased for the library. Ms Christopherson mixed up the meetings with literary quizzes and book illustration challenges. Holiday challenges extended to exploring the wonderful street libraries and secondhand bookstores in our suburbs. In Term 2, our meetings were moved online during the remote learning period. Our senior members, Darcy Cooke (12W) and Victoria Rex (12H), along with Ms Christopherson, hosted the meetings, via Zoom. The BOOKS2DEVOUR competition morphed into a Libellum challenge where members baked literary-themed cupcakes at home and displayed them in our online meetings. Some notable creations were Elsie Butler’s (8B) Paddington Bear cupcakes and Neve McNab’s (7B) Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief cakes. It was great to return to our beloved library space in Semester 2 and we were delighted to be able to host Book Week in October. The Book Week theme, ‘Curious Creatures! Wild Minds! ’ was a great foundation for a creative week of celebrations. We created a ‘Jungle’ in the library foyer complete with wild animals and themed fiction. Each lunch time, members dressed in character and read creature-themed illustrated books to the girls. Afternoons featured film viewing in the jungle where we enjoyed Jumanji, The Jungle Book, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them . Mid-week, the Society sold delicious wild treats to raise money for our charity, The Indigenous Literacy Foundation. It was a terrific week, and a great way to farewell our longest serving member, Victoria Rex (12H). Thanks to Director of Information Services, Mrs Cooke, and the other wonderful Library staff, and of course Libellum Coordinator, Ms Christopherson, for her energy and optimism, thus making this year memorable and fun. Camille Bloomfield (8G) and Dorothy Rae (8G) LIBELLUM CAPTAINS

T he Gwen Hardwood Society is a creative writing club that meets fortnightly to improve our creative writing skills. Named after prestigious poet and Grammar woman, Gwen Hardwood, the society cultivates an environment of expression and imagination, allowing us to explore writing in different ways than the English Curriculum. This year, the Gwen Hardwood Society has helped girls become more confident in sharing their work and ideas. It has also encouraged us to just do what we love and write, regardless of how we feel about the quality of our first drafts. While we have historically been a small club, recent attendance has increased phenomenally. Next year, we would love to see the Gwen Hardwood Society become more active in the School community so that more people can discover a love of creative writing and the enjoyment it brings. But regardless of how our club grows, the most important thing is that we grow—as writers, poets and as people. Liv Evans (8O) GWEN HARWOOD SOCIETY

104 | BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2020