2017 School Magazine

DEBATING This year has been an exciting and busy year for Girls Grammar Debating. Fifty-one teams competed in seven competitions, some of which began as early as February while others finished in late October. Along the way we co-hosted the National Schools Debating Championship, the Queensland Debating Union (QDU) Women’s Championship Day, the UQ Schools Day and the semester-long Brisbane Girls Debating Competition. But debating is really all about our highly successful and argumentative students. Twenty-four teams entered the premier QDU competition, with sixteen of these teams being invited into the finals series for six knockout debates to reach the grand final. The 12.1 team were victorious, winning the 2017 Year 12 Trophy from more than one hundred other teams. As well, in June, our Senior A team successfully defended the Brisbane Girls Debating championship trophy. However, the big news of the year was that Debating Captain, Isabel Nolan (12B) was not only named as a member of the Queensland Schools Debating team, but was appointed Captain of this team which went on to be runners-up in the week-long National Championship. Coach of the 2017 Queensland team was Grammar Woman, Sadie Macdonald (2014) who also coaches the 11.1 team. Isabel was then named as a member of the Australian team which competed in the World Schools Championship in Bali. She returned, keen to use her experience to assist and mentor the finals’ teams. Isabel is excited at the prospect of returning in 2018 to join with other past Girls Grammar debaters to coach teams.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB

Throughout 2017, the Digital Photography Club provided support for the majority of the whole-school events as well exploring project avenues during lunchtime meetings. The swimming carnival again proved challenging to photograph with the non-ideal artificial lighting inside Chandler. However, club members embraced these challenges to develop new skills and produced exciting and dynamic photographs of the School’s spirit and athleticism. The event was an overall success for both the club and the athletes competing. We also contributed to the celebrations for the hundredth anniversary of the Athletics Day by photographing the various events throughout the day, as well as spirited war cries and girls cheering in the stands. As a club, we also continued our tradition of collaborating with Anime Club in an after-school photoshoot. This year, the exciting new technique explored was the production of cinemagraphs, which are still photographs that include one or more moving element. After the photoshoot in Term III, a workshop was held to turn video footage into beautiful cinemagraphs under the tutelage of Mrs Loye. Additionally, a new initiative between the library and Digital Photography Club helped to create a display documenting the history of photography at the school as a museum exhibit. It was very inspiring to be able to see many works of current and past students displayed in the library. In Term IV, activities exploring motion blur and macro photography using the school grounds as a subject, allowed the club to experiment with these new techniques with the aim to further contribute to the exhibit. JENNIFER ZHANG (12M)

Jeniffer Zhang (12M)

As well this year, the School hosted the finals of the Australian Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship in September. More than one hundred enthusiastic speakers from around Australia attended to join with our Girls Grammar team to compete over three days, and, along the way provide inspiration for the forty debating volunteers who assisted with hosting. We would like to thank Mrs Anne Byrne, our Debating Coordinator (and named 2017 QDU Coordinator of the Year) for her support, encouragement and enthusiasm all through the year. It has indeed been a busy year and we expect 2018 will be even busier! BRIDGET BUTLER(12H) AND ISABEL NOLAN (12B), CAPTAINS

Gemma Nyssen (12E)

100 | CO-CURRICULUM | BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2017