From the Head of Senior School

Glen Gerreyn, Director and CEO of The Hopefull Institute, is an annual visitor to our school. Glen travels the country instilling a sense of hope and positivity in young people and talks enthusiastically about the formula for hope. He talks of the formula created by Professor Snyder, the world’s leading expert on hope, as being Goals + Pathways + Self-Efficacy = Hop

Hope correlates positively with self-esteem, positive emotions, athletic performance, health and wellbeing and greater academic satisfaction. Whilst Glen’s article is aimed at senior high school students, I believe there’s plenty of insights for all students.

I’d encourage you to take a few moments to read through the article and open up the discussion with your daughters. As girls continue their journey here at School it’s imperative they know that there is ongoing support from home and at school. Girls are reminded to keep the communication lines open with their teachers, Luminaries, Heads of Department and Heads of Year. It’s vitally important for all girls to have a strong and trusted network to guide and support them through the ongoing challenges.

This week we celebrated International Women’s Day with a thought provoking and challenging panel discussion, chaired by School Captain Mikaela Nguyen and Deputy Principal Frances Booth. They were joined by panel members that included Newington students, MLC School students and special guest Justice Markovic. It was very well supported by students from Year 6 to Year 12.

Wednesday marked the launch of the ‘Do It In A Dress’ campaign, as initiated by our 2021 School Leaders. This is a charity organisation that raises much needed funds to support girls access to education in less fortunate parts of the world. I’m thrilled to report that this was enthusiastically supported by all members of the Senior School as they made a gold coin donation to watch a series of netball matches between MLC School and Newington leaders and a highly skilled staff team. All players participated with a great sense of fun, decked out in dresses as they actively supported the charity. It was a hugely successful day with $719 dollars raised. A huge vote of thanks must go to the boys from Newington who journeyed over to support the day and play alongside our School Captains. None of this would’ve been possible without the support of so many girls in the Senior School. It was a lovely display of school spirit, something we have really missed in the past 12 months as we have lacked the opportunities to meet together like this.

We hope this same spirit travels out to Penrith this Sunday as our rowing team do battle in the annual IGSSA Regatta. Our rowers are a very tight knit community, well supported by their families, and we wish them every success as they fly the MLC School flag. We know you’ve been working extremely hard this season and look forward to seeing you do your very best.

Before next week’s edition of the newsletter rolls out our Tennis team will take part in the Tildesley Tennis Championships. 2021 will see us take part with a very strong team of singles and doubles players and I know that Coach Ludo is quietly confident that MLC School will go extremely well. I take this opportunity to congratulate all girls who have been selected and wish you all the best for next week’s tournament.

– Neil Scotney
Head of Senior School