Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2008

FROM THE SCHOOL LEADERS

Initiatives

Teaching: an expedition of self-discovery

Marking Progress

Semester 2 is proving to be an incredibly rewarding and eventful time. As Head Girls, one of the most challenging aspects has been keeping Year 12s motivated and in high spirits.The QCSTest and assessments occupied our minds inTerm III, and for some, sleep was in short supply and the end seemed just a little too far away. However, it has not only been academic pursuits that have kept Grammar girls busy this semester. Open Day was an outstanding success, made possible by the girls and their efforts. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the evening an extraordinary experience for the Grammar community. Our 2008 motto—Make your Mark—was inspired by the Olympic spirit and the athletes who give their all to achieve their best. As a celebration of the Beijing Olympics the Student Council created Grammar Olympics. Over three rounds girls went head to head in handball, apple-bobbing and trivia question competitions. It was very entertaining and provided a well-deserved break from our studies. Another hugely successful athletics day was held in August. Teachers and students, dressed in House colours, sprinted, threw and jumped to their hearts’ content.The stands were filled with hundreds of Grammar girls cheering on their House competitors—it really epitomised the Grammar spirit. To support and celebrate our rowing girls before the 2008 Head of the River, the Student Council held a Blue Day with a sausage sizzle and rousing war cry—it was an inspiring sight

In Agatha Christie’s classic detective story Cat Among the Pigeons the retiring headmistress asks an aspiring teacher what it is she enjoys about teaching and the young woman replies: ‘It’s the most fascinating thing in the world…it’s like fishing…You don’t know what catch you’re going to get…It’s the quality of the response. It’s so exciting when it comes’. This excitement, expectation and satisfaction of person to person interaction, of lighting the fire, of liberating the hidden potential, of crafting something fine, has always been the mark of the true teacher. Next to parents, teachers are the most important formative influence on the developing child and therefore, when it comes to teaching, only the best will do. Of all the professions, teaching is arguably the most diverse, frustrating, challenging and rewarding. Good teachers, like effective parents, are perforce among the most multi-skilled members of the community because both their raw material and their product is the incalculably complex, multi-dimensional human being. Teaching is about human formation and transformation and it is, at the same time, both highly personal and grounded in

community—both an intellectual and a spiritual project. Teachers don’t just teach subjects, they teach children. We live in a time when Alvin Toffler’s future shock predictions of the 1970s are no longer science fiction, and the school—perhaps more than any other institution—is being tossed about on the tsunami of ever accelerating, technology driven economic, social and political change. Increasingly the teaching profession is under pressure, not only to reinvent itself but also to provide solutions in a dysfunctional world where even the experts can not agree on the optimum use of technology, nor the nature and extent of its impact on the neurological and psychological development of the child. Despite such pressures, change and reform in educational institutions and teaching learning strategies needs to be balanced, considered and coherent if it is to result in genuine and sustained higher levels of student achievement.This means a new envisaging of teaching and learning as an ongoing and expanding praxis in which theory is not only applied but developed. Through shared reflection on practice the school becomes a powerful, collaborative

learning community where the professional life of its members is mobilised and enhanced by continuously deepening and broadening its multi-faceted knowledge base. And it is this challenge that the aims and ongoing programmes of the Brisbane Girls Grammar School Centre for Professional Practice are designed specifically to meet. As a result, its achievements and spin-off influences are succeeding far beyond what was originally envisioned or hoped—this unique initiative has created a powerful and pervasive momentum, both within the School and beyond. A subtle but unmistakable ethos of excitement, expectation, and sense of purpose is being engendered across faculties; a new and rising sense of personal growth, collective flourishing and collaborative ownership is emerging as members of staff are challenged to push the boundaries, move outside their comfort zones and discover a surprising array of hidden and unsuspected potentials, depths and abilities in themselves and in each other.

to see Grammar girls supporting each other with such verve and commitment. Following the success of last semester’s Grammar Goes Green initiative girls volunteered to plant trees for the Save Our Waterways Now (SOWN) campaign. It has been fantastic to see that the goals we set at the beginning of the year— commitment to environment, maximum involvement and community service—have been evident in every initiative undertaken by Grammar girls this year. Finally, as we approach the end of 2008, we hope when reflecting upon the year all girls feel they have indeed achieved their best. Cassandra Jeavons and Avi Kaye Head Girls

Women Leading Philanthropy —The Power of Giving

In April, the Brisbane Girls Grammar School community was represented by staff and students at the Mater Foundation Lunch to celebrate the opening of the new Mothers’ Hospital.This event was organised by ORATA, a group created to develop ‘inspired and profitable connections’ between Queensland professionals from a range of industries through both public and private events.This event was a special one for women; many of the women present had either been born or given birth at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital. The guest speaker, Wendy McCarthy, was especially inspirational to her audience—including our own Head Girls and Service Captains. Ms McCarthy, nominated in 2005 by The Sydney Morning Herald as one of Australia’s Top Public Intellectuals,

spoke about women, money, giving, and the power to effect change. A secondary school teacher at the beginning of her career, Ms McCarthy remains passionate about the power of education to make a difference. She outlined a landscape where the philanthropic frontiers for women are expanding rapidly. Women are committed to creating, and maintaining, better conditions for people. What is needed now is the confidence to continue to expand our spheres of influence and to become secure not only in effecting change in our micro worlds of family and immediate community, but in assuming responsibility in the wider domains of budget and audit committee boards.

Mr Alan Dale Dean of School

References: Christie, A. (1959). Cat Among the Pigeons. UK: Collins Crime Club.

The Centre for Professional Practice

From its inception in 2005, the Centre for Professional Practice has been closely aligned with the School’s Aspiration: ‘To be respected internationally as a leader in the education of young women and professional teaching practice’. This has placed Brisbane Girls Grammar School at the vanguard in providing quality teacher professional development on campus with a series of interlocking and developing programmes well ahead of recent government calls for professional standards and systemic improvements in teacher performance. The Centre’s unique model links pre-service, beginning and experienced teachers in a seamless professional and collaborative learning environment that has assumed a key role within the School community. At its heart is the belief in the centrality of quality teaching to excellence in educational outcomes for our students.

Mrs McConaghy and Ms WMcCarthy.

Ms McCarthy’s key words in promoting philanthropy as the ‘new black’ and urging the practice of giving are ones very familiar to women: connection and care. Mrs Marise McConaghy Deputy Principal

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grammar gazette spring 2008