Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2008

QGSSSA CENTENARY

Milisent, what were you thinking? ... A cricket pitch, no less!

‘It is sometimes said that women in their ventures into life do not display the qualities which men possess: self restraint, good fellowship when pursuing a common aim, ability to take defeat in good part, esprit de corps, qualities which men first gain as boys, from their games. If this be so, there is all the more reason why girls should be given, equally with boys, the chance to receive such beneficial effects and no longer be debarred from the education of the playground.’

Thus wrote Headmistress, Miss Milisent Wilkinson, in the 1908 Brisbane Girls Grammar School Annual Report. 1908 was also the foundation year of the Queensland Girls Secondary Schools Sport Association (QGSSSA), of which Milisent Wilkinson was one of the three founding principals. It was this progressive view of the leaders of Girls Grammar, St Margaret’s and Somerville House that created a sporting association that predated both GPS and state school sporting organisations. Milisent Wilkinson inherited a school where physical activity was viewed as an integral element of the curriculum, a view she endorsed and embraced. The Grammar culture has always been one in which every girl is encouraged to achieve her best, whether in the laboratory, on a canvas or on the sports field. It was therefore a natural step for the School to seek the opportunity for healthy physical activity and competition through a formal sporting association.

6 grammar gazette autumn 2008