2023 Annual Review

I thank: • the Trustees for their expert presence and wise counsel as stewards of our School • Julie McKay, for her strong, effective and intuitive leadership as our greatly respected Chair • our parents for their loyal support … and your representative body, the Parents & Friends Association, for the P&F Association Bursary that has been awarded for the first time, to a bright and very happy future Grammar girl starting next year • our staff for their expertise and dedication • professional staff who understand their roles are of fundamental importance in this collective endeavour we all so proud to be a part of • teachers who best know what good learning looks like, and who shape our learning culture with constant vigilance. They balance the ‘hard’ systems and data driven decision-making with gentle attention to the nuanced daily experiences so essential in the very ‘human’ identity of a school • our girls for reminding us, every day, there is every reason for us to be optimistic and confident about the future. The poet Mary Oliver wrote, ‘Attention is the beginning of devotion’ (Oliver, as cited in Foer, 2019). As a School, we devote our attention and ourselves to our students, their education, and care for them as young people. I hope our Year 12 girls who are leaving us will devote their precious time, their attention to things and to people that are truly worthy of it. And know that what we bring our attention to, can powerfully shape our perspective, outlook on life and how we respond to it. There are great challenges, wrongdoings and injustice in our society but this does not invalidate all that is good, all who are good. If only we brought more of our attention to that. Thank you.

REFERENCES: Foer, F. (2019). ‘Attention Is the Beginning of Devotion’. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/ mary-olivers-poetry-captures-our-relationship-technology/589039/ Gaita, R. (2014). Why study humanities? The University of Melbourne. https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/news/4050-why-study humanities%3F Garber, M. (2023). On misdirection: Magic, mayhem, american politics. Zando. Garber, M. (2021). The Great Fracturing of American Attention. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/03/ americans-focus-attention-span-threat-democracy/626556/

BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNUAL REVIEW 2023

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