BGGS Annual Review 2024

‘We retain our very human ability to imagine different futures rather than having it all neatly figured out for us.’ —Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh

Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato. stanford.edu/archives/sum2023/entries/ capability-approach) Is this one of our deepest concerns, that AI might diminish our human capability? Atrophy our skills and independence? A ‘world in which,’ Harper says, ‘people feel that everyday social interactions …. require expert advice and algorithmic assistance’ accompanied by a pretty scary sales pitch, he says, ‘AI will teach you how to be human.’ These challenges of course, just sharpen our focus. Bring what we value, don’t want to relinquish, to the fore. Our School will explore and embrace the great possibilities and practical application of AI—we are already doing that right now. But we will, perhaps paradoxically, continue to draw on the strength of our foundations and eternal guiding purpose …. as we continue to redefine and protect, not just hand over, responsibility for developing our students’ essential human capabilities: conversation, musical composition, artistic expression and facilitating the need for human attachment and connection— COVID taught us that can’t be outsourced to a machine. Our School is a place where we understand the need for our students to be their authentically unique but flawed selves. There is a modern desire to smooth and perfect things, and the promise of AI feeds into that. We don’t want to lose all the struggle and messiness of life and understand The School’s role

that intellectual, social, emotional dramas enacted in safe spaces, develop our human capabilities, our resilience. We retain our very human ability to imagine different futures rather than having it all neatly figured out for us. This Year • we have begun the building of the Junior School, the arches are in place. We’ve enrolled our Year 5 & 6 students, alongside Year 7 for 2026, appointed our inaugural Head • we celebrated talent, athleticism and the drive to achieve excellence as we cheered on our very own Olympians in Paris—Gabi Palm (here today) and Abbey Andrews • laid the foundations for our 150 years celebrations in 2025, the return of the Main Building to its original colours, commissioned the writing of our School history • our first means-tested perpetual bursary was established, made possible by a woman committed to the life-changing power of education. She has made provision on into perpetuity, and her generosity will profoundly impact generations of future Grammar girls. This gift will provide access to a Girls Grammar education—through the Excellence in Academic Endeavours Bursary—for girls who would not otherwise have the means to attend. It has been made possible by a great friend of Girls Grammar—Ms Kay Bryan—who we acknowledge, honour and thank today. And the inaugural bursary has been awarded to a student who will commence in Year 7 2025, the School’s Sesquicentenary Year.

I thank … • the Trustees for their expert presence, wise counsel and their time as stewards of our School • Julie McKay—for her strong, effective and wise leadership, particularly this year, as our deeply respected Chair • our parents for their loyal support • our teachers and staff for their expertise and dedication • our students for reminding us, every day, there is every reason for us to be optimistic and confident about the future. The author David Brooks wrote recently, ‘Artificial intelligence is going to do many things for us in the decades ahead, and replace humans at many tasks, but one thing it will never be able to do is to create person to person connections. If you want to thrive in the age of AI, you better become exceptionally good at connecting with others’. As a School, we connect you to education, great minds and ideas but most importantly we connect you to other people, to one another. We develop those fundamental human abilities to empathise, to imagine, to create. I hope our Year 12 girls who are leaving us will connect to passionate endeavours, places and ideas and, most importantly, to people who are truly worthy. Although you say goodbye to us today, your connection with us continues long on into the ultimately unknowable but very exciting future. Thank You.

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Brisbane Girls Grammar School

Annual Review 2024