Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2011
BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL Spring 2011
A new aspiration and strategic design for 2012
grammar gazette SPRING 2011
Features
3 Scholarship: An old fashioned concept in a new fashioned world Dr Amanda Bell 5 Systematic curiosity in research and learning
7 Judicious and ethical engagement with the world Mr Alan Dale 8 Contemporary learning places Miss Felicity Williams
10 Life-wide learning Mrs Judith Tudball 12 A twenty-first century
educational renaissance? Mrs Marise McConaghy
Ms Samantha Bolton and Mr Trent Driver
There is a readiness, we believe, to rethink what it means to be a scholar Ernest L Boyer
From the Chair of the Board of Trustees
Scholarship: An old fashioned concept in a new fashioned world he word scholar is derived from the Latin schola meaning school, and refers to a student or a learned person. Often in an education context, the notion of being a scholar, pursuing scholarship or emphasising its value, is deemed only relevant to the academically gifted. This is far from the case. In fact to aspire to exceptional scholarship applies to every student— whether their talents lie in science, humanities, sport or the arts. Exceptional rather than the more cliché term excellent, implies a uniqueness, something singular and beyond the norm. It also connotes an understanding of difference and individuality in ideas and people, inspiring interesting ways of seeing and being. As individuals and as organisations, we should look for the exceptional in who we are and what we do—and build upon it—making the most of our talents, interests and assets. At times scholarship has been considered an old fashioned, almost elitist term conjuring mental images of wise, solitary, old men surrounded by ancient tomes and artefacts symbolic of learning — visually exemplified by the renaissance paintings of St Jerome by artists such as Dürer and Ghirlandaio.
Importantly the School’s strategic Intent remains intact and focused on our first priority—our girls: Proud of our Grammar tradition, we are a secondary school that establishes the educational foundation for young women to contribute to their world with wisdom, imagination and integrity. In this publication the senior academic staff, who have brought their expertise and experience to bear on the development of the Strategic Design, outline the key concepts and principles underpinning the new aspiration and strategy. In the coming years the hard work of successfully delivering this strategy can only be possible with the involvement of our extensive and supportive Grammar community. I trust and believe that together we will continue to achieve great things for this great school and the education of the young women in our care.
elcome to the Spring 2011 edition of the Grammar Gazette. Eighteen months ago the Board of Trustees set in motion the planning process for the School’s 2012–2015
Photography The Australian
Strategic Design. This followed thoughtful review of the findings from the stakeholder surveys commissioned in 2010. The surveys provided the School with a clear understanding of the expectations and perceptions of parents—current and future, alumni and staff as well as a quantitative measure of the extent to which the School had met the goals of its current strategic plan. This analysis combined with the work of our Scholar in Residence for 2010, education futurist Professor Erica McWilliam, provoked a palpable change in the way we thought about our commitment to education for young women and what teaching and learning might look like in the future. Our development of the next stage in our Strategic Design embraces all the very best current practices and our vision for the future: Brisbane Girls Grammar School aspires to be a leader in exceptional scholarship. This simultaneously concise but complex vision moves the Strategic Design into its next logical incarnation: a clear and, I hope, compelling statement of the role of the School in the education of future generations of Grammar girls.
However, there can be a catch in this rendition of the scholar if it only applies to ‘book learning’. In the early seventeenth century George Chapman wrote:
Let a scholar all Earth’s volumes carry, He will be but a walking dictionary.
While Google has perhaps taken hold of much of Earth’s volumes these days, Chapman’s words are a salient warning to educators and students today that fine scholarship is not about ‘knowing’ content, but rather about understanding how to think and apply knowledge with wisdom and integrity. Daniel Defoe was even more scathing in the eighteenth century when he also identified this important distinction between mere content toting and considered scholarship: We must distinguish between a man of polite learning and a mere scholar; the first is a gentleman and what a gentleman should be; the last is a mere bookcase, a bundle of letters, a head stuffed with jargon of languages, a man that understands everybody but is understood by no body. In other words, Defoe decries the arrogance of scholarly pride when it is not supported by refined ‘learning’ which
MS ELIZABETH JAMESON
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Designs, but will be our most challenging yet. Leading modernist architect, Mies van der Rohe, is often associated with the aphorism Less is More , and this eloquently summarises the structure of the School’s new strategy for 2012–2015: Aspiration Brisbane Girls Grammar School aspires to be a leader in exceptional scholarship. Intent Proud of our Grammar tradition, we are a secondary school that establishes the educational foundation for young women to contribute confidently to their world with wisdom, imagination and integrity. Initiatives in education will be further referenced by our Organising Principles Systematic curiosity in research and learning Judicious and ethical engagement with the world Contemporary learning places Life-wide learning Leading an educational agenda of exceptional scholarship will not be easy, and nor would we want it to be. This new School Design, for example, will guide our academic initiatives alongside the implementation of the Australian Curriculum; provide innovative programmes for staff research and development; further enhance concepts for the very best student-centred teaching and learning; and perhaps most specifically inform the planning and transition for our first cohort of Year 7 students commencing in 2015. For 136 years Girls Grammar has held assiduously to its motto and the next four years can be no different if we—the School, Board, staff and students—are to become leaders in exceptional scholarship: Nil sine labore.
is comprehensive, deep and self-effacing. In this vein, most true scholars would probably concur with the adage that the more they know the more they realise what they don’t know. Isaac Asimov summarised this in a short piece titled “What is intelligence, anyway?” in which he describes his early complacency about his intellectual capabilities based on academic test scores, but later realises that his intelligence is not absolute, but actually a function of the society in which he lives. So what do we, at Brisbane Girls Grammar School see as exceptional scholarship? Exceptional scholarship requires the activation of a personal systematic curiosity towards research and learning, and striving for judicious and ethical engagements with the world. These pivotal and necessary characteristics apply equally whether the student aspires to academic goals, achievement in co-curricular pursuits, classrooms, cafés and homes—it is perhaps even more vital for our young students to embrace the old-fashioned qualities inherent in scholarship. They need to be discerning about where they access information and understand how to verify its worth; they need to think profoundly and broadly in a life-wide sense, and not be lured by the quick-fix, superficiality of the first ten Google search results; and they need to work hard at their studies and interests. Similarly, the School as an organisation and its staff, need to role model the attributes we wish our students to assume. In the comprehensive strategic planning process which has occurred over the past twelve months, the senior staff and Board took the very best of our current School Design and looked to the future. There were many criteria assessed during this process, but perhaps the most salient early influencers were provocations by our then Futurist in Residence, Professor Erica McWilliam, and feedback from the School’s 2010 Stakeholder Surveys. Previous School Designs by necessity have been detailed and specific; our new Design notably and rightly builds upon previous or in personal development and growth. In our contemporary places of learning—virtual spaces,
Systematic curiosity in research and learning
triennial PISA survey seeks to answer the question whether current education systems are leaving students well placed to meet the challenges of their future, whether our systems and practices are leaving students with the curiosity they will need to maximise their engagement with the world. Too often the answers are ambivalent. The economist Thomas Friedman (2005) argues that to thrive tomorrow the students of today will have to be adaptable and able to acquire the new skills, knowledge, and expertise that will allow them to create value in contexts yet unimagined. With labour-oriented futurists forecasting that over sixty-five per cent of the work tasks to be completed by our current cohort will fall into this context (Heffernan, 2011) there exists a moral purpose for schools to build curricula grounded in curiosity. In a fluid global environment, schools cannot just prepare their graduates for lifetime employment, but rather have a responsibility to prepare them for lifetime employability. As Gentry and McGinnis (2008) argue, learning to learn (or be curious) is the most essential skill that they can acquire.
ystematic curiosity in research and learning is the cornerstone of the School’s aspiration to be a leader in exceptional scholarship. To appreciate the importance of this guiding principle it is essential to understand the concept of scholarship in this context. That is, to understand that scholarship refers to the application of a disciplined and rigorous approach to the quest for new ideas with an acknowledgement of the infinite nature of knowledge. To understand that scholarship involves a journey into a territory of deep and critical thinking based on a commitment to limitless learning. There are few who embody the essence of curiosity as evocatively as Lewis Carroll’s Alice. In a place where all around her seems out of place, she is lost. In her travels she meets the Cheshire Cat: ‘Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’ said the Cat. (Carroll 1999 p102) Poor Alice’s quandary is central to the role society should expect of curriculum in schools at this time. The OECD’s
DR AMANDA BELL, PRINCIPAL
REFERENCES Chapman, George. 1609, The Tears of Peace (line 530) Boyer, Ernest, L. 1990, Scholarship Reconsidered , http://www.hadinur.com/paper/BoyerScholarshipReconsidered.pdf retrieved 23 September 2011 Defoe, Daniel. 1728-9, The Complete English Gentleman (chapter 5) Asimov, Isaac. http://talentdevelop.com/articles/WIIA.html retrieved 5 August, 2011.
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present well constructed cases with confidence and carefully and respectfully assess the cases put by others. Through a strong and well developed House system and a broad co-curriculum, students are required to work in teams, understand the needs and perspectives of others, and use leadership skills and qualities as part of their everyday life at the School. At the student level, this sense of active caring in community begins with the tailored integration of Year 8 students into school life in a way that is progressively reinforced by the House-based ethics programme that aims to focus them beyond the self to consider their proper place in the School, the community and the world. By exploring positive relationships which promote confidence and resilience of spirit, girls are directed into an integrated service programme and myriad associated charitable activities. Intellectual maturation is matched with the promotion of environmental awareness and responsibility while the co-curricular programme is designed to foster the best in sporting and cultural involvement with other schools as well as hands-on experience through overseas travel. Such judicious and ethical engagement focuses the School’s leadership mission as a collaborative and transformative educational entity, not only locally but also nationally and internationally. Staff too exemplify this spirit, through their professional growth and contribution beyond the School, while the invaluable involvement of the parent body is visible in all dimensions of School life. Integral to judicious and ethical engagement, is the involvement of students and staff as responsible members of the community and the School as a responsible corporate citizen, committed to the principles of service, tolerance and empathy. One of the School’s oldest and most prestigious annual awards is the Ida Woolcock Challenge Cup given for the demonstration of best spirit as a school girl. The cup bears the Latin motto ” Hoc habeo quodcunque dedi (Whatever I have given, I still possess) . The idea that privilege should elicit philanthropic mutuality and a ‘giving back’ for what has been received, has therefore long permeated our character building philosophy. It is a consistent challenge to all our students to engage with and contribute to the physical, emotional, intellectual and economic, development and welfare not only of the School but of society at large.
belief can translate into improved performance regardless of their previous efforts. Building these skills in students depends on a thinking curriculum which requires the verbalising of questions and emphasises that the search for answers is infinite. Academic rigour and the excitement of learning are not about the powers of recall or the reproduction of the exemplary. Scholarship then is not about knowing what is, but rather demands we aspire to a higher standard of understanding; it demands that we encourage ourselves and our students to ask what could be. Scholarship nurtures curiosity as the mechanism through which students, and indeed teachers, connect with the world and continue to learn. MS SAMANTHA BOLTON, DEAN OF STUDIES, AND MR TRENT DRIVER, DEAN OF ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT REFERENCES Achiron, Marilyn (2011, August 17), Education XX.0, EducationToday, OECD retrieved 18 August 2011 from https://community.oecd.org/community/educationtoday/ Blackwell, L., Trzesniewski, K.H. and Dweck, C.S. (2007). Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention. Child Development, v78 n1 p246-263 Jan-Feb 2007 Carroll, Lewis (1865/1999), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, (Oxenby, Helen (Illust.), London: Walker Books) Friedman, Thomas (2005), The World Is Flat , New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. Gentry, James W. and Lee Phillip McGinnis (2008), Thoughts on How to Motivate Students Experientially , Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, V35 2008 Heffernan, Virginia (2011, August 7), Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade , New York Times, retrieved 31 August 2011 from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes. com/2011/08/07/ http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/february7/ dweck-020707.html Retrieved 3 July 2008 Trei, L. (2007). New Study Yields Instructive Results on how Mindset affects learning . Stanford report.
For educators the focus must address how a school can be systematic in its promotion of intellectual curiosity. The approach must seek to establish academic versatility. In a generation of data-driven standardisation, prescriptive curricula and opaque public reporting measures it is essential that schools maintain their focus on the quality of the experiences a curriculum provides for students. A school that aspires to scholarship aspires to providing systems and structures that foster opportunities for students to explore, to develop their curiosity. That school asks how the education of each student is personalised to allow them to connect with their own intellectual passions, and how it prioritises authentic relationships between educators and learners. That school asks how it can best leverage the revolution in information technologies to promote higher order thinking and effective communication. In this environment building systematic curiosity must start with motivating students to learn. Successful motivation stems from students believing that they are able to learn and to make meaningful academic progress through persistent effort. Students will be more engaged with their learning if they understand its complexity. They need to see learning and scholarship as a process which involves failure and disappointments. That is, they need to have the academic resilience to use errors as a springboard for future learning. An understanding of the learning process facilitates student engagement and curiosity because it allows the development of a growth mindset. Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University, differentiates between the levels of success experienced by students who view intelligence as a quality “that can be developed and expanded” (Trei, 2007) compared to those who see it as a fixed trait. She argues that “people who believe in an expandable or growth theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first” (Trei, 2007). Dweck’s research reveals that “changing a key belief—a student’s self-theory about intelligence and motivation” alters their academic outcomes. Students who demonstrated high levels of resilience and (consequently) intrinsic motivation were those who “believed they could have an impact on their mind” (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck, 2007). As a school we need to nurture this self belief and ensure that a student is confident that self
Judicious and ethical engagement with the world
he ultimate and most important aim of our educational system is to equip our students with the skills to engage with the world, with confidence and purpose .
When to engage firmly, when to let things go. Who and what to trust. When to be cautious, when to take a risk. When to be skeptical and when to be optimistic. How to treat others fairly and honestly. The guiding principle of judicious and ethical engagement with the world, has shaped Brisbane Girls Grammar philosophy from its inception. Judicious engagement encompasses cultivated and ethical habits of mind which are balanced and thoughtful. It is grounded in wise and sound judgment that considers the wider interrelated issues and consequences of policies, procedures and actions. It is this holistic perspective that underpins the School’s current strategic planning and Strategic Design. Purposeful, considered and ethical involvement with the wider world is intrinsic to the School’s new Design. To foster empathy in all its dimensions, should, in fact, be the ultimate goal of all authentic initiatives in education. In order to engage judiciously and ethically with the world, students need to develop a complex and balanced set of skills that combine knowledge, well developed thought processes, research ability, leadership, empathy, eloquence, confidence and enough life experience to assess the worth and risks of any given encounter. To cultivate and develop this complex balance, Brisbane Girls Grammar School employs a number of strategies—our interactions between student and teacher are collaborative and students are encouraged to challenge concepts, develop hypotheses, research information, accept or reject data,
MR ALAN DALE, DEAN OF SCHOOL
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Contemporary learning places
As the School plans for its future in this veritable blitzkreig of communications technology, there is a refined appreciation of form and function in designing learning places that will enhance educational practice, as Fisher (2007) in his article, Pedagogy and Architecture , explained: In the knowledge-age era ─ where students are engaged through technology-rich and collaborative learning . …the classroom requires a rethinking of the egg-crate model that has been extant since the industrial revolution. Wireless and mobile computing devices have at last provided the means to liberate teachers from the constraints of the bounded classroom… On our Brisbane campus, the Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre completed in 2007 is a clear expression of the sort of architectural features that seek to: … promote individualised learning, create settings for innovative teaching, realise the potential that new technologies bring to learning, be environmentally sustainable … (Kosky, 2006) Similarly, the recent regeneration of the School’s Gehrmann Building incorporated more flexible classrooms, versatile furniture configurations, advanced technology and a serious consideration of aesthetics. The operation of both these structures encourages fluid movement of staff and students, collaborative teaching practice, trans-disciplinary investigations and comfortable intellectual and social spaces for the exchange of ideas, reflection and relaxation.
raditionally, schools have provided places for learning that have reflected a frugal and utilitarian approach in the design and fabric of their spaces and buildings. The mass elementary education that emerged in the late nineteenth century in Western Europe was served by buildings and furnishings similar in shape and scope to the contemporary factories with little natural light, crowded conditions and children placed in ordered rows. Memorisation and recitation, arithmetic and tables were the substance of teaching. Obedience, learning your place in the social hierarchy, diligence, punctuality, routine and conformity were demanded as these were the qualities fundamental to the new industrial economies. Across the twentieth century and especially after World War II, social and economic developments produced significant educational reforms that transformed curriculum. It is in the last two decades however that a significant change has occurred in our understanding of learning. This has occurred partially through an improved understanding of neuroscience and has been driven by the accessibility of dynamic information and communications technology. Educators must now consider the implications of the ways in which the production of knowledge has become more fluid and horizontal through the agency of ‘social media’. The reality of the digital revolution is that it demands more sophisticated teaching strategies and a fresh approach to learning places. In this School, our understanding of exceptional scholarship requires the cultivation of self-agency, imaginative and original thinking, research, reflection, project management, strategic problem solving and the ability to collaborate in teams—skills which will enable our students to thrive in the world as it exists today and to create their futures with unflagging curiosity and confidence.
Of course, contemporary learning places are not just about the clever design and use of buildings, they encompass the virtual world of information and communications technology—especially those flexible and powerful portable devices that provide immediate access to global repositories of information and data. With such powerful technology, places for learning are boundless—in homes, on trains, in cafés, shopping centres, local libraries—available anywhere, anytime, whenever an individual seeks information, or wishes to communicate or exchange ideas. As educational experiences seek to connect with the local and global community, schools are becoming permeable, innovative and exciting places of learning not isolated, static bastions reworking yesterday’s axioms. Overseas developments have, in fact, advocated ‘place-based’ learning: ...student-driven, project-based explorations of local environmental issues, social questions, cultural heritage or civic leadership. Students...apply their learning to solve ‘real’ problems, catalyse change... (Vital Venture, 2011)
This philosophy not only resonates with the concept of ‘authentic’ learning advocated by the Australian Curriculum but with educational practice in this School and our new Strategic Design. The rich possibilities of what may constitute contemporary learning places are central to our plans for the future ensuring our young women are positioned to engage optimally in their learning, with each other and the world. While buildings can enable and enhance the educational experience it is always the quality of the human interactions within the walls and spaces (real and virtual) that is most important. Schools will retain the traditional roles of custodial care, skills building and credentialing while strengthening the creative impulse and the ability to deal with the complexity and ambiguity of contemporary living.
MISS FELICITY WILLIAMS, DEPUTY PRINCIPAL EMERITA
REFERENCES Fisher, K. Pedagogy and Architecture in Architecture Australia , Sept/Oct 07, pp55.
Kosky, L (2006) in foreword to Building Futures: Caring for Your Child , Dept of Education and Training, Victoria http://vitalventure.gmri.org/in-the-classroom/instructional/methods/placed-based-learning/ Retrieved 30 August, 2011.
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project saw students envisioning a ‘School for Year 2030’. One of the designs was based on the concept of an airport, with students ‘checking in and out’ through a series of ‘gates’, or different places of learning located both in the proposed school and beyond its walls. Harvard Ed.L.D. student Michele Shannon explained that “some of the gates lead out into the real-world because we actually want our kids, as they get older, to do a lot of learning offsite and have real world applied learning experiences” (Walsh, 2011). Students can make an immediate start on participating in these real world experiences to enhance their life-wide learning by becoming involved in the School’s numerous enrichment opportunities in either the curriculum or co-curriculum. With over one hundred opportunities on offer, there are many exciting avenues for students at Girls Grammar to become part of a connected community of learners who are able to access, edit and process information that comes from myriad sources. These experiences will allow them to contribute confidently to society and be prepared for whatever challenges come their way. The School looks forward—as an organisation devoted to the education of young women—to initiating and promoting new ways for our students to not just have an expectation of lifelong learning, but to be developed more deeply through life-wide learning.
Similarly, the many curriculum enrichment endeavours and study tour options available at Girls Grammar provide life-wide learning opportunities for our students, perhaps none so much as the Antipodeans Programme. This programme provides an opportunity for Year 12 leavers to participate in community service activities and a personal challenge in an international location that will push the boundaries of their comfort levels and past experiences, comparable to the opportunity available to Harvard undergraduates. A reflection from a participant on the 2010 Cambodia Antipodeans programme describes the impact of this experience “I think that I have come out of the trip with a greater self confidence and self awareness. I learnt invaluable people and leadership skills by travelling with a large group of people. I also discovered that I am a lot tougher and more adaptable to situations than I previously thought” (Amy Birchall, alumna 2010). All of the areas of the school’s co-curriculum—sport, music, drama, community service initiatives, special interest clubs and study tours – provide arenas in which students can learn beyond the classroom and gain experiences that teach them more about themselves and how they interact with the world, and how the world interacts with them. The concept of life-wide learning links elegantly with another organising principle in the School’s new strategic design – contemporary learning places. A ‘place’ is a ‘space’ with ‘people’ in it—collaborating, debating, working separately and together. Future successful and relevant learning places will encourage and enhance critical thinking, imaginative interactions and problem-solving across systems (Bell & McConaghy, 2011). A recent Harvard design
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. John Dewey
n 1972, UNESCO released the report Learning To Be —The world of education today and tomorrow, that outlined its vision for lifelong learning, a concept many of us are familiar with, and one that has been embraced by nations and educational institutions for the last four decades. Lifelong learning describes what an individual learns through the dimension of a lifetime—a linear and sequential view. However, life-wide learning represents the breadth of learning that also occurs in the present time frame in a range of environments and contexts, both formal and informal, real and virtual, and is not limited to learning through a regular academic curriculum. Barnett (2010) states “If lifelong learning is learning that occupies different spaces through the lifespan, ‘from cradle to grave’, life-wide learning is learning in different spaces simultaneously ”. In fact, the knowledge and understanding gained in the life-wide learning process can be acquired through work, social and family life, and may not necessarily be intentional learning, or even actually recognised as learning at the time. So how does this relate to Brisbane Girls Grammar School and our new Strategic Design? Our goal is to educate our staff, students and community to recognise the scale and Life-wide learning
diversity of learning opportunities and experiences available to them, and to not only be open to engaging with these opportunities and experiences, but to develop the capacity to reflect and learn from these experiences. In our young women we want to develop citizens who will be prepared to take informed and considered positions on issues and ideas and to then grow from these experiences. We are also looking to the future to prepare our students for careers that at present do not exist, using technologies that have yet to be invented. David Cutler, Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University, has initiated an international research experience for Harvard undergraduates in countries such as Botswana, Uganda and Bangladesh. Cutler states, “For many students, this is the single most transformative experience in their lives. It will change who they are as human beings and what they do in the world” (Powell, 2011).
MRS JUDITH TUDBALL, DEAN OF CO-CURRICULUM
REFERENCES Barnett, R. (2010), Life-wide education: a new and transformative concept for higher education? , retrieved 8 August 2011 from http://lifewidelearningdocumentsforsceptreportal.pbworks.com/f/e%20proceedings(2).pdf Bell, A., & McConaghy, M., (2011), Guiding Principles for Strategic Design II Dewey, J., Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself , retrieved 2 September 2011 from http://www.ntlf.com/ html/lib/quotes.htm Faure, E., Herrera, F., Kaddoura, A-R., Lopes, H., Petrovsky, A.V., Rahnema, M., Ward, F.C., (1972), Learning to be – The world of education today and tomorrow , retrieved 8 August 2011 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000018/001801e.pdf Powell, A., (2011), Expanding student learning abroad , Harvard Gazette, retrieved 22 July 2011 from http://news.harvard.edu/ gazette/story/2011/05/expanding-student-learning-abroad Walsh, C., (2011), Schools of the future , Harvard Gazette, retrieved 8 August 2011 from http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ story/2011/06/schools-of-the-future/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
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A twenty-first century educational renaissance?
In times of radical change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves perfectly equipped for a world that no longer exists. Eric Hoffer
intellectual breadth and the agility to navigate disciplines and connect ideas are 21st century necessities, We aspire to marry inquiring minds to individual responsibility; we do not wish them simply to critique society but instead to imaginatively and wisely constitute it. In fact, we propose a 21st century Renaissance in learning where exceptional scholarship, imagination, wisdom and integrity pervade teaching and learning. Finally, to be humanistic—to live humanism—in an educational context means that we must assert anew the importance of the teacher. Not as a seat of all wisdom but as guarantor of balance in learning, protector of diversity and research, and guardian of the importance of yearning for truth and beauty—in all their manifestations. Our 21st century ‘renaissance’ girls will apply systematic curiosity in contemporary learning places with judicious engagement and a commitment to life-wide learning. The young women of our school will benefit hugely by having transferable talents that enable them to navigate complex issues and problems , write and speak with clarity, and think deeply.
What an amazing time to re-design educational experiences for our young Grammar women! As our world vectors towards a new enlightenment, how do we respond, how do we prepare to inhabit this world and grow, rather than shrink, as human beings? At this School there has always been a humanistic underpinning to education─the sort of ideas which Don Markwell identifies as ‘a large and liberal education’— ideas which act as a constant reminder of who we are and the commonalities that bind us. Now, as the School works towards its new aspiration to lead in exceptional scholarship, we believe that this humanist approach to education is required more than ever. Humanism provides a basis for our girls to change with technological advances rather than be changed by them. The discipline of the humanities must truly be a discipline again: a way to be fully committed to the pursuit of higher order thinking, diverse concepts and truth—all the while cognisant of truth’s myriad complexities. This philosophy is applicable and necessary across the curriculum and challenges a falsely demarcated world. In fact, a transdisciplinary approach to learning is one of the principles which will drive our educational Design at Brisbane Girls Grammar School because we know that
just the wider accessibility of ideas contained in ancient texts but argued in The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), that technology is not simply an invention but a revolution unto itself which exerts “a gravitational effect on cognition which in turn affects social organisation and perceptual habits”. Today’s exemplar of a comparable revolutionary phenomenon is, undoubtedly, the Internet. This digital Gutenberg has rendered access to voluminous information and global communications instantly—and has done so with more democratic universality than the original. It has had the impact of tectonically shifting history’s trajectory; the result is a world of possibilities, hitherto unimagined realities, breakthroughs in perception that offer possibilities both good and bad. This is the modern day Renaissance.
he School’s new Strategic Design underpins the next phase of our educational delivery at a time of radical change in the accessibility of information not dissimilar to that of that of a much earlier era, the Renaissance. As we know, the technological marvel that drove the first Renaissance was the invention of the mechanised Gutenberg printing press. Books became available to those beyond the literate elite; copies of the Bible and Latin and Greek classics reached a wider audience who could draw personal, rather than officially mediated, messages from these texts. Marshall McLuhan, the renowned essayist of culture and “prophet of the electronic age”, had much to say on the impact of mass media long before the reality of a World Wide Web or social media. He believed the key development that led to the Renaissance was not
MRS MARISE MCCONAGHY, DEPUTY PRINCIPAL
REFERENCES Hoffer, E. (1973). BrainyQuote.com . Retrieved 8 September 2011, from BrainyQuote.com http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ quotes/e/erichoffer109153.html Markwell, D. (2010). Remarks for a forum on The end of liberal education , Otonabee College, Trent University, Ontario, Tuesday 9 February. McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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Contents
16 Never give up
21 Opportunities for original music making
24 IT Needs Girls
Angelique Sweep and Lucinda Tonge, Head Girls
Mrs Maggie Golawska-Loye, Technology Studies Faculty
Mr Andrew Pennay, Head of Music
30 Our Rhodes Scholars
17 Fostering creative capacity
22 Infowhelm
Mrs Pauline Harvey-Short, Assistant Dean
Mrs Lorraine Thornquest, Director of Creative Arts
Ms Kate Kildey, Teacher Librarian
moment and I found Lorraine Thornquist’s article to be most helpful and insightful. I can see that I need to follow your work and that of your colleagues more closely in the future. Professor Brian J. Caldwell Managing Director, Educational Transformations Pty Ltd With my BGGS days almost 20 years behind me now, Jim Seaha’s article “Career Integrity is in the journey” really struck a chord with me. It’s great to hear that this is the message being conveyed to today’s senior students. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Seaha’s important message—that career integrity often requires open-minded and thoughtful changes in direction; that life is long, and the most enjoyable path through it is often neither straight nor predictable. Ms Ingrid (Hadgraft) Viitanen (alumna 1992)
I just wanted to send a quick thank you to BGGS for a wonderful open evening on Friday. The displays for the various subjects were fantastic and we were very impressed with the tour of the school by two very lovely Year 10 girls. Our daughter’s only complaint is she has to wait another four and a half years to go there! Mr Malcolm and Mrs Tammy Robinson (enrolment parents) Thank you for sending me a copy of Insights 2010 . This is a remarkable publication which I spent a fair bit of time reading after opening the envelope. What astonishing intellectual capital you have among your senior staff. I was wondering how you managed to draw on it in to create such a readable high quality publication. Each contribution is a gem. Given my general interests in leadership I was particularly impressed with your own article. We are doing a lot of work in the arts at the
Belatedly I wish to register our thanks Dr Bell, at the time you set aside to meet with us prior to our daughter’s commencement at BGGS in Year 8. We were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with you in person and we certainly appreciated and benefited from our own interview. I thought it good form for you to highlight to our daughter that she will need to work hard at BGGS. It is definitely worth them getting their own head space right in regards to this! However we are also keen for her to have as much responsible fun as possible at the same time. You reassured me that fun is also on the cards. We spent several hours at Open Day and came away feeling excited about the coming association between the School and our family. Congratulations again on the incredible Creative Learning Centre.
The Alumni and Art event hosted in London on 16 July last was thoroughly enjoyable, thank you, and it was a great pleasure to meet you (Dr Bell) and the other ‘old girls’. Evidently the old school remains fresh in all our memories, and it was such fun to exchange anecdotes about teachers several of us recalled and even had in common. I last visited the school around four years ago and noticed and admired the great many changes. You must be very proud to have steered the school so admirably as the campus became one. In my day the word campus was more commonly used for extensive American universities, but BGGS most certainly deserves
the label today Ms Di Hammet (alumna 1965)
Ms Elizabeth Boden (Year 8 2012 parent)
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Fostering creative capacity MRS LORRAINE THORNQUIST, DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE ARTS
“Never give up. Never, never give up! We shall go on to the end.” Winston Churchill
Photography The Courier Mail
Never give up Winston Churchill’s words are most apt for the Year 12s with Term III really testing the “sisterhood”.
At Brisbane Girls Grammar School, the Creative Arts are not proposed as a luxury item in the education framework.
The Creative Arts Faculty is about fostering creative capacity which is everybody’s business. Not all students develop into artists but the artistry and design capacities that are nurtured in our students provide pathways to exceptional scholarship. Not all students become exceptional scholars in their academic ratings but all are nourished in the context of exceptional scholarship to grow as exceptional scholars in their learning. The creative imagination and process is part of our contribution to the exceptional scholarship that is the aspiration of the School. In a liberal education, the arts have historically been a fundamental way of learning and educating. In spite of the discrete nature of each of the arts represented in the Faculty—Classroom Music, Drama and Visual Art—there is a coherence and integrity of perspectives and intellectual experiences. The artistry and design dispositions, the critical and abstract thinking and challenge resolutions that are implicit and explicit in the arts are skills and disciplines that this Faculty seeks to nurture and grow in our students. There is a development of a language to enable students to imagine outside the paradigm. The conventions of the classroom and curriculum serve as points of departure for experimental and experiential learning for our students in the arts who interact and intermingle across the learning precincts with each other
and the professional practitioners who make up the teaching staff in the Faculty. These are not simply geographical precincts of learning but precincts of the mind and spirit where thought and mindfulness are understood to be part of the space and practices. These are precincts not bound by walls or desks but include collaborative teaching and learning practices, conferencing, seminars, tutorials as well as traditional teacher driven delivery of knowledge, process and application. Gesture and movement, physicality and co-ordination of a thinking mind and an attuned body, communication interplays, are central to participation and learning in those learning spaces of the arts. Transforming the ideas born in imagination into practice and performance is a journey of disciplined process of investigation, questioning, experimentation, editing and finally resolving the outcome into a product of substance and ready to communicate with an audience. Guiding and supporting students with the uncertainty and slippery nature of grappling with the seed of an idea and taking it through to a final communicative form, coaching them on letting it go, provides the pathway for exceptional scholarship. Self responsibility within a closely guided teacher-student framework means that the focus is on individual or small groups of students.
The specific and specialised skills that are the focus of our arts education include a wider brief to create an ethical context for students and to inculcate a sense of moral engagement with the world. The world of employment in the 21st century is more than discrete professional education. It is a world of ideas and is open to those who can think clearly and with inspiration and integrity. Magical but not magic. This is how Charles Limb (surgeon and musician) talks about creativity and the arts. Having the word “creative” in the title of our Creative Arts Faculty brings both the freedom to explore and transform ways of learning as well as the responsibility of what it means to develop and give full reign to the creative and the magical in an educational setting. The Faculty aspires to be a creative learning movement, a learning community with shared learning precincts where constructs of curriculum, roles and responsibilities organise the learning principles and practices and the desired outcomes. The many events and celebrations of the Faculty are windows into the business of the Faculty—building the architecture for all learning and awakening the creative imagination that underpins who and how we are in the world.
This year we have been emphasising the importance of school spirit, in the form of the Grammar-Force or G-Force, which each girl has in common. Examination time is a particularly “testing” one and a time for ‘embracing the sisterhood’. It is important for the girls to be empathetic at this time and offer support to their friends, because a healthy and happy cohort is a strong cohort. While we have been encouraging this sisterhood throughout the whole school, it is perhaps most important to the Year 12s at the moment, running head long into the last days of our schooling lives. This was particularly true for the Queensland Core Skills (QCS) tests held on August 30th and 31st. No matter how nervous we were, our preparation put us well and truly in good stead. We drew strength from the knowledge that from our first day in the School, we have been prepared by the standard of excellence expected, and the skills we have learned, combining common sense, social skills, logical reasoning and critical analysis. This pervasive philosophy was enhanced by the Year 12s spending over forty hours learning, practising
and being tested on the techniques and core skills that would arise in the QCS papers. Our teachers, equally driven by the G Force, have ensured we have developed a mindset for approaching the questions and responding to them in the most efficient way. We would like to acknowledge the effort and time they have invested in our success, especially our QCS co-ordinator, Ms Bolton. All in all we could not have been more ready and there is no doubt that it will show in our results. We believe that QCS is a true test of Grammar teamwork and sisterhood as each and every Year 12 girl contributes to the overall result and our efforts will reward not only the individual but also everyone in the year. The traditional war cry, before entering the McCrae Grassie Centre to begin the tests, both increases the morale of the cohort and reiterates the sense of a “team sport”. We encouraged the girls to give their all in the four papers knowing, as they walked away, they had done their best and their sisters had done the same! They certainly made us proud and we congratulate them on their perseverance and
tenacity throughout the QSC experience and stand down week. What has the Term III experience taught us? Persevere, prepare, draw on past experiences and knowledge, learn from all aspects of life, and face challenges as a united force. These make for a more powerful outcome. As the girls, throughout all year levels, approach the final term of 2011, we reflect on Churchill’s determined words. Give it your all, whether in the sporting field, final examinations, musical performances or any of the countless roles that Grammar girls play. We hope that if a sister is losing confidence in the term to come, the G-Force will be there to strengthen her. As our time here as Year 12s draws to a close, we seek to make the most of our last few weeks behind the white picket fence and to carry the lessons we learnt with us as we leave. However, all the School can share “the ride” with the Year 12s and finish strongly. Never give up, never, never give up! We shall go on to the end. ANGELIQUE SWEEP AND LUCINDA TONGE, HEAD GIRLS
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Moving Opera
During the last week of Term I eighteen students from Girls Grammar and nine from Brisbane Grammar participated in the Moving Opera program. Moving Opera is an initiative of Opera Queensland, offering workshops to schools and students usually over a period of five days. Students attending learn more about voice technique and stage craft in an operatic context and are privileged to be tutored by performing artists, the singing coach and stage director from Opera Queensland. The artists train students in areas critical to stage performance such as memory and cueing through games which also quickly establishes a bond within the group, preparing them to learn to sing as an opera chorus. Two to three choruses from opera covering a range of voice types are then taught and rehearsed with staging gradually incorporated to create a fine presentation of these choruses as they would be seen and heard in an opera performance. The workshops are very intense but the students also have a lot of fun in meeting the challenges and sharing the journey in a group.
On the last night of the term and the final day of the workshop, a short concert performance was held for parents and friends to see the achievements of the students after the twenty hours of workshop across the three day program we chose for our students. The workshop and concert were a great success and an invaluable experience for the students involved.
A winning experience
During the Easter holidays, twenty girls, along with Ms McKean and Mr Pincott spent nine days painting and drawing their way across the landscape of Central Australia. Travelling by bus from their base in Alice Springs, students set off each day with art kits and packed lunches, to highlight destinations such Ellery Creek Big Hole in the West MacDonnell Ranges, the majestic Ormiston Gorge and Standley Chasm. The students created watercolour works, lino prints and drawings. A visit to Uluru and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) with a walk in the Valley of the Winds provided more spectacular inspiration for the student art and an awareness and appreciation for the Aboriginal culture as well as the power of the landscape in all its detail of plant and animal life. Desert Colours
The 2010 recipient of the Friends of Girls Grammar Bursary was Georgia Hahn. Georgia chose to use her funding on intensive, individual voice lessons with a vocal specialist, Flloyd Kennedy. As well as being a professional singer and vocal coach, Flloyd Kennedy is also widely known as an actor, director and writer, so Georgia was privileged to have both a musical and a theatrical experience! In the eight
one hour lessons that Georgia attended, she studied many areas such as jazz and classical vocal techniques, speech and elocution, and the body’s role when singing. According to Georgia “The precious time I spent with Flloyd was truly an amazing experience—so amazing, I continue to have regular lessons with her.”
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