Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2013

/ 05

EMBRACE THE NEW! LINK THE BLUE!

ARTICLE

ELIZABETH REDMOND & SOPHIE WEIR, HEAD GIRLS

AUTHOR

Girls Grammar will be the home we know as we keep the many important School traditions and events alive. However, the Council will do its best to be creative and innovative in 2013, making it a year for us to remember as we add our own initiatives in which everyone can become involved. The biggest change for us to embrace is the much- anticipated arrival of Ms Euler in Term II as our new Principal. No doubt Ms Euler will bring her own fresh perspective to the demanding role, and each member of the Senior cohort is her willing supporter as she enters our sphere of scholastic endeavour. Our other undertaking is to encourage every girl who wears the uniform to be a true part of the Girls Grammar spirit. Having everybody involved and happy to be a part of the School will make all the difference in maintaining momentum towards a successful 2013. Success, for us, would be to have each girl thinking that she goes to the greatest school and appreciating that it offers her the opportunity to achieve her goals. We know that each grade is unified, as is each House, but we would like to encourage closer ties between the various year levels, thus creating a truly unified environment which nurtures the sense of belonging. We have over eleven hundred potential ‘sisters’. It is an overwhelming concept to adopt, but acknowledging that we do belong to this School and each other is an empowering positive force. We hope this year that any girl wearing the Girls Grammar uniform or colours is never a stranger, and that we are linked and connected by our shared love for this School. It is with these two themes entwined that this year’s motto was created. Embrace the new! Link the Blue! Girls Grammar 2013 will be challenging. We encourage each girl to embrace the changes the year will bring, wearing the colour blue for this School with pride and with the knowledge that our sisters and friends are beside us, wearing the same colour.

ENTERING THIS, OUR SENIOR YEAR, girls feel as the ancient Roman god Janus: looking to the past and the future. A part of us is nostalgic for the comfort of being guided along a path by the support of parents and teachers, the other is feeling a sense of eagerness and trepidation of what this year and those that follow will bring as we become more independent. One common feeling for each of us, as we reposition ourselves in a grade higher, is that we are not alone. We are part of a special group and, like Aesop’s bundle of sticks, we are strong because we are many. We will face our new challenges together. The Year 12 Student Council has been busy making preparations for the year ahead. We feel we are a cohesive cohort, and from this strength will emerge our own personal goals, as well as this year’s goals for the whole School. All Council members have eagerly contributed many new and exciting ideas which have been condensed into two complementary themes. Firstly, whilst 2013 may not be a new decade, century or millennium, at Brisbane Girls Grammar, it is the start of a new era. Every year each girl is presented with new opportunities and responsibilities. Most have to face a change of class and, with that, new classmates. Often we have to confront and deal with new situations and challenges, such as joining a new sporting team or service group, or standing up in a room full of strangers and debating, singing, playing or performing our hearts out. Having to adjust to a new teacher, adapting to the ever-growing Moodle, or just accepting that last year’s well-positioned locker is no longer yours are all steps taken in the constantly changing School arena. Girls Grammar is constantly moving forward, and 2013 will be no different. — RANDY PAUSCH, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR (2008)

When we’re connected to others, we become better people.

REFERENCES

Pausch, R. (2008). The last lecture. New York: Hyperion.

AUTUMN ISSUE / 2013