BGGS Annual Review 2024

This is what she said at Speech Day, 120 years ago, in 1904: Is it not a fact that there is an increasing need, as well as desire, on the part of women to earn their living? And this being granted, is it not fair to the girls that they, as well as the boys, should be fitted to fight the battle of life? A girl who enjoyed the benefits of a sound secondary education should be able to perform duties of any position to which she may be called. In Grammar School, her mind is, as far as possible, trained on all sides, and she should be able to devote the best of her powers to whatever the future may have in store for her. It is this higher general intelligence conferred by a liberal education, which is of value; facts in abundance may be known but the power to use them to any advantage depends upon the intelligence. A fundamental part of a liberal education, as you know, is the study of history. As a professional historian, of course I celebrate that, as well as the fact that the Grammar Schools system in Queensland is unique in Australia. The wonders of history, as a discipline, and as a formal subject at secondary school and in a tertiary environment, teach us skills of critical reading and analysis, of how to interrogate a research topic, write about the evidence and craft a story. Historical research also connects us directly to the past. The thrill of holding original documents and artefacts, the sense of discovery, of learning about the people who are central to the narrative, makes the world of history exciting. During and after World War Two, educators around the globe thought about how to create a new style of education that could improve world harmony. Humanities subjects such as History and Geography were critical to this, as were concepts such as student-run school life and, perhaps more radically than anything else, the abolition of end-of-year examinations. Teachers and principals met around Australia to consider all of these ideas. Eventually, only one state abolished examinations and introduced internal assessment. This new system, known as the Radford reforms, began in Queensland in 1972. No other states had the courage to try it, and the system remained in place here until 2019. Isn’t this a marvellous example of the circle of history?

Why is history so important, now more than ever? What is its value? If more people in our society were history literate, we would be better able to face the world’s challenges. The bitter global enmity, seen today in wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, have demanded our attention. Certainly, the issues are complex, but any historical literacy that we can master might just help to lift the quality of the discussions we have with each other. To learn and understand the world through the lens of history is to glimpse humanity’s complexity, to come to know and treasure its diverse people, their different political, religious and economic systems, and therefore to develop empathy with them in the present. I invite you to listen carefully to the voices of the past and bring what you learn across the imaginary bridge to the present. Perhaps consider doing at least one history subject all the way through to the end of secondary school and in your degree later. And perhaps also shift your thinking of history as merely a subject with a capital H that is learned in timetabled periods. Look for it actively in all of your subjects, in your lives outside the classroom and beyond. It is all around you. 2025 marks 150 years of Brisbane Girls Grammar School. The building blocks of local history, such as may be found in the history of your school, echoes that which is all around us every day in our schools, workplaces and communities. You are part of a wonderful historical continuum, and you will also create your own legacy while you are at school for the generations who follow. Understand that there is more that unites than divides us, and always has, throughout history. The study of history will strengthen us all. Draw strength and courage from that in all of your endeavours, seek to understand all that is new and sometimes confronting by asking the most essential history questions: ‘Who said or wrote that? When?’ And the most important question of all, ‘Why?’ This is the question that joins the dots between understanding the past and our place in the present. So let me conclude with a story about a young Grammar girl who later modelled immense courage and hard work—two of the defining historical characteristics of your school. She won several prizes on Speech Day in 1907 for Languages, Swimming, Gymnastics and Tennis. With no university then open in Queensland, she had to move to Sydney to complete

her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in French. She became a teacher, moving states again back to Queensland to teach at Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School. Later, from 1925 to 1952, she served as Head Mistress of Brisbane Girls Grammar School. All eyes were on her because this woman was Kathleen Lilley, niece of Sir Charles Lilley, founder of the School, former Chair of the Board of Trustees, former Premier of Queensland. Her time in charge coincided with the Great Depression of the 1930s, when there was very little money to do building repairs or buy new desks. Nevertheless, sufficient funding was found to build the School’s very first science laboratory in 1933—an important step in the progress of girls’ education. From 1939 to 1945, World War Two meant more restrictions, even less money, and wartime shortages of everything from science teachers to tennis balls. The School had to close for several weeks at the start of 1942 when the government decided that no-one should go to school because of the very real threat of the war. With no internet for online lessons, girls did their work by mail, sent back and forth to their teachers. Despite all of this, Kathleen Lilley determinedly worked on, employing the best possible teachers she could find who in turn encouraged academic excellence and hard work among their students. Kathleen Lilley’s legacy, as this School’s longest-serving Head Mistress, is especially important because of the time at which it occurred. She provided stable leadership through the economically straightened years of the 1930s and during the alarm of World War Two. Her regime of strict routine and her selection of several excellent teachers created the School’s culture of hard work and academic success. Given the shabby, crowded classrooms, and other buildings in which the School worked, it was a remarkable gift. And the culture of hard work and striving for academic excellence has endured. So you see, then, the value of history? Sometimes we can almost touch the past because of these stories and their direct relevance to our present. As American historian, Will Durant, said: ‘The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.’

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Annual Review 2024

Brisbane Girls Grammar School