Year 11

Year 11

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of accompanying six Year 11 students to the Student-Led Wellbeing Conference 2026, hosted by Knox Grammar and Ravenswood. Thank you to Year 11 students Harriet Hatton, Lucy Fickler, Gurnaaz Kahlon, Isabel Warusavitarne, Carina Chu and Anika Gupta for representing MLC School and our year group so well.

Two key messages from the day resonated strongly:

  • Celebrate progress. Success is not only about final outcomes or results, but about the growth and progress made along the way. In what is a significant and often demanding year, we need to keep encouraging our students to recognise and celebrate their progress.
  • Wellbeing involves challenge. Supporting young people’s wellbeing does not mean removing every obstacle. Rather, it involves allowing students to experience challenge and occasional disappointment, while knowing they are supported. It was powerful to hear students articulate this themselves.

You can read more about the conference in this article.

As always, our Year 11 cohort continues to shine across many areas. A special congratulations to Madison Chantler (Year 11), who competed at the 2026 Australian Swimming Trials in Sydney, qualifying for and racing in the Women’s 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly. Well done Maddie this is an outstanding achievement.

I would also like to acknowledge the many students leading our fundraising efforts for the 2026 Sony Camp. As a year group, we are currently the top fundraisers, thanks to the initiative and commitment of several key students. While there is still some way to go to reach our $80,000 goal, I have every confidence that as a group Year 11 will rise to the challenge. One focus this week has been encouraging broader Senior School involvement, if each student contributes $60, we will meet our target.

With just two weeks remaining in Term 2, there are several exciting events ahead, including Illuminate (Thursday 18 June), the 140 Year Sydney Town Hall Concert (Wednesday 24 June), and the Colour Run (Friday 26 June). I look forward to continuing to support and celebrate all that our Year 11 students contribute to MLC School and seeing many of you at these events.

– Penny Hewett
Head of Year 11