From the Chaplain

The SCEGGS Podcast “Walk The Mile” Episode 37: Serving at the Frontline 

When you can make a career out of something you are passionate about it has the opportunity to provide countless rewards, many of them unexpected. Abby-Rose Schmidt, an Old Girl from the class of 2012, talks about why she loves nursing, her philosophy of the profession and what it was like to be an ICU nurse during a pandemic. It’s a great story of compassion and serving others in their time of struggle.

And a reminder that we are published on Spotify, Apple, Google Podcast and Deezer, so you can access it easier from your preferred device. I always welcome your feedback or any ideas you may have for further episodes. You will find each podcast as they are produced in this newsletter and on the other platforms as well as our website.

Rev. Garry Lee-Lindsay
Chaplain

Secondary School Sport

Years 7 – 12 Athletics Carnival – ES Marks – Tuesday June 6

We are very excited to prepare for our annual Inter-house Athletics Carnival! Please see some important information below to help you prepare for the day:

Roll Call
All students are to arrive at school as usual in their correct sports uniform in time for Roll Call in their Form room at 8.20am.

Travel Arrangements
Since the Carnival may be cancelled if there is likelihood of rain it is essential that all students make their way to school and travel by hired coaches. No student is permitted to make their own way to the Carnival. The School will leave ES Marks Athletics Field at approximately 2.30pm. All girls will be taken back to school on the buses.

Uniform
Girls must wear their correct school sports uniform which can include a T-shirt in their House colours. A school sports hat, sunscreen, and school jumper and/or school tracksuit should be brought to the Carnival. Students will be sitting in an exposed area which can get very cold.

Lunch
There are no canteen facilities. All girls must bring their own lunch and plenty of water to drink during the day. No girl will be allowed outside the area for any reason.

Behaviour
SCEGGS has been very fortunate to have the opportunity to use ES Marks. The staff at the venue have been very co-operative and helpful. Please return their hospitality by showing thoughtful behaviour and ensuring that all rubbish is placed in the appropriate bins.

Generally
There are to be no electronic devices, phones, laptops etc and no chewing gum. Just bring your House spirit and participate enthusiastically.

All girls must sit in their allocated areas when they arrive at the venue.

Sports Training/Rehearsals on Tuesday afternoon

• There will be limited Secondary team sports trainings on the day of the Carnival. Tennis, Strength & Conditioning will still go ahead.
• There will be NO Drama rehearsals on the day of the Carnival.
• Secondary Music co-curricular rehearsals WILL STILL GO AHEAD in the afternoon (Clarion Band & Contemporary).

Wet Weather
Be fully prepared for wet weather (umbrellas, raincoats, etc.). In the case of extremely inclement weather a decision will be made at 8.00am.

If WET WEATHER results in the cancellation of the Carnival, we will operate on the Day 2 Timetable. Girls should be as prepared as possible for the day, although we will understand if they are not able to have every single thing they need for the four lessons!

Student Information

Major and Minor Heats
There are two different types of heats for running races, Major and Minor heats. You may like to nominate for a Major Heat for the following reasons: to run your best against other competitive runners, to challenge yourself to get your best time, to be in the mix for IGSA selection and many more reasons. If you do not nominate for a Major Heat, you will be in a Minor Heat and will still can run and receive points for your house. All students should have already received a sign-up email from Ms Axford.

6 Lane Races (1 lane for each House)
All Major heats will be full of 8-10 athletes.

Minor heats will consist of six lanes (six athletes), one athlete from each House. This will mean that you will be running against five other athletes if you are in a Minor heat. This is a great opportunity to be competitive against the other houses and challenge yourself to get the maximum points for your heat.

800m Races Starting Early (only Major Heats)
For those wishing to compete in the 800m races, there will only be Major Heats. These will begin prior to the official start time of the carnival at approximately 8:15am. A bus will depart school at 7:30am.

Invitation 100m and Staff v Students Relays
The Invitation 100m is the 10 fastest girls in the school across any age who will have the opportunity to race against one another. We also hoping to run a staff v prefects relay. These events will only go ahead if we have enough time at the end of the carnival.

Appropriate Athletics Attire
We want you to show your House colours and spirit however please ensure you are competing in appropriate clothing for athletics. The staff at all events will be asking you to remove any clothing that is not appropriate eg Onesies.

Please come and chat to me, Ms Axford, or the Athletics Captain Eleanor Lawson for more information.

1500m Time Trials

The SCEGGS 1500m events for the Athletics Carnival were held at ES Marks on Monday May 29. A big congratulations to Matilda Emanuel who broke the Secondary Intermediate record with a time of 4.43.82. She surpassed Claire Doyle’s record that has stood since 2006!

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Congratulations to:

• Luciana Kwok and Sofia Zhmurovsky (Kindergarten)
• Rose Ishak (Year 1)
• Mila Easton (Year 3)
• Eloise Switajewski (Year 4)
• Giselle Wharton (Year 5)
• Lily Hallgath-Jolly and Ilana Patkar (Year 11)
• Madison Liew (Year 12, not pictured)

for their participation at the annual Club PERO In-House Meet held on 20 May at SCEGGS Darlinghurst.

The gymnasts demonstrated new body, apparatus and dance skills to their parents with Madison, Ilana and Lily performing their levels 6, 8 and 9 routines to aspiring young gymnasts too!

“It was a lovely and exciting day, from seeing fellow gymnasts to watching new routines and seeing new little ones joining in and becoming a greater part of our Rhythmic Gymnastics community. It was so much fun!” – Madison Liew

IGSA Football

The SCEGGS IGSA 2023 Football season so far has not been one to miss! This term, we have a total of 110 girls playing over seven teams. The effort, persistence and morale of all players has been consistently high, with all footballers giving their best to all games and training sessions. The dedication and motivation within all teams is so good to see and promises for a fun and successful season ahead. It is so pleasing to see girls from all year groups participating, and we are so proud of the soccer community that has formed over the term. The senior players have been training on Tuesday afternoons in preparation for Saturday games. Between the inter-team friendly games and hard-core fitness drills, trainings have been a load of fun and a great opportunity to form the team cohesion present at all games. This weekend, the senior teams came away with a mixed bag of results with one loss, one draw, and one incredible win by the Senior 3rds of 10-0 against TARA. The Senior firsts travelled to chilly Mittagong at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, being greeted by 2-degree weather and a frost covered field, to come away with a yellow card and a draw after a nail-biting game. Regardless of the slightly anticlimactic result, the team had a blast, and all played exceptionally well, marking our frost-covered field with some SCEGGS school spirit (as seen above).

The junior and Year 7 teams have showcased outstanding skill and team growth throughout the Term 2 season, with the Junior 3rds winning four out of the five games played so far. On the weekend, the junior and Year 7 teams had two losses and two wins. A shoutout must go to the Junior 2nds for their determination and grit in their game against Abbotsleigh, coming away with a 5-0 win.

We are so proud of every footballer both experienced and new to the game, for giving SCEGGS football a go, it has been a pleasure to train and play alongside all girls! All teams have learnt so much allowing them to collectively grow over the course of the season, and we are so thrilled to see what the future holds in SCEGGS Football!

Chloe France and Lila Pollasky
Football Captains

IGSA Netball

The girls playing Term 2 Netball have hit the ground running, throwing themselves into training and games alike. This effort has led to great results so far! This year is the second time that netball has been run in Term 2, and it’s so exciting to see so many girls getting keen and involved in the sport for an extra term.

This weekend there were some tough games, seeing SCEGGS achieve a mix of wins and losses. However, the quality of play and cohesion within teams was encouraging, and all teams have been working hard in training and improving their skills.

We are so proud of progress made so far – the enthusiasm shown by all players this term predicts strong performance and an exciting season as the competition continues in Term 3 Netball.

Samara Foulds and Imogen Collins
Netball Captains

SCEGGS Training sessions before and after school plus Saturday Sport

Please check the @SCEGGSSport Twitter feed for the latest updates relating to cancellations and wet weather.

IGSA Fixtures, Results and Wet Weather

The IGSA website and platform for accessing wet weather, fixtures and team results can be found here.

Do you have any sporting news or photos to share in the Green Gate?

We love seeing our students being active and want to celebrate their passion and enjoyment amongst the SCEGGS community. Please send in any action shots from the weekend and any other interesting sporting highlights to alisongowan@sceggs.nsw.edu.au

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on 9052 2721 or 0418 491 521.

Alison Gowan
Director of Sport

Primary Sport

Primary Athletics Carnival

Please see here for all information regarding the Primary Athletics Carnival. 

1500m Races

Well done to the huge number of girls who got involved in the 1500m races on Monday at ES Marks. With almost 40 girls in the open ages event, it was a hotly contested race. Congratulations to all involved.

Further congratulations go to Beatrice Emanuel (10 Years) and Anna Slack (12 Years), who both broke the existing Primary 1500m record set last year by Annabelle Jessup (5:42.67). Anna (5:34.79) narrowly beat Beatrice (5:35.23) in a large field of competitors. Well done girls!

Years 5/6 AFL Carnival

Coming up on Wednesday, Week 8 of this term, we look forward to entering our first-ever team in The Paul Kelly Cup, the largest AFL Schools Carnival in NSW and ACT.

We are looking for 15 girls who are playing AFL next term, to participate in this fantastic competition. Our first official training session at Tuesday lunchtime for those girls selected.

Important Sports Dates

Friday Week 7: Primary Athletics Carnival at ES Marks

Primary Sport Achievements

Does your daughter compete in any sport outside of school (for example, at a representative level or a sport we do not currently offer)? If so, I would love to celebrate their achievements by recognising them in this newsletter!

Please email any information (and photos, if possible) to Tom Mitton. These will be included in newsletters throughout the year.

Tom Mitton
PDHPE and Sport Co-ordinator: Primary

Music Matters

Stage 2 Concert – Students from Years 3 and 4

Congratulations to all students from Years 3 and 4 who performed in last Thursday evening’s Stage 2 Musical concert.  In preparation for this, students participated in a series of workshops with Aboriginal dancer Tim Bishop and Violist Katie Yap.  Tim worked with the students to create the choreography for How the Birds Got Their Colours and Katie’s improvisation skills on the viola helped to enhance the musical elements of the program.

Thank you to the Art teachers, Ms Playfored and Ms Kaloksay, for their work creating the cockatoo head dresses and drawings on the screen.  Thank you also to Ms Goodfellow for the lighting and sound.

Special thank you to Mrs Cleworth for her concept for the concert and to Music staff: Miss Harrigan, Mrs Sweeney, Ms Jones and Ms Holmes for their musical support.

Well done to all performers.  It’s wonderful to see your newfound skills in choreography and musical improvisation!

Bugles ‘Fun Day’ Workshop – Sunday 28 May 10am to 1pm

Congratulation to all members of Bugles wind band who participated in a workshop on Sunday 28 May from 10am to 1pm.  This workshop is to help with the preparation of the band for the City of Sydney Eisteddfod on Tuesday 6 June.  The students had a wonderful time preparing for their upcoming competition and bonded not only over their love of music, but also with pizzas!   Parents were treated to a short performance to showcase the work from their rehearsal.

Thank you to Mr Michael Tierney for his organisation and direction of the day.  Best wishes to all students for your upcoming performance!

Upcoming Music Events

Term 2

Term 3

Pauline Chow
Head of Music

SPAN Event – Women in Health

Wednesday 14 June 2023
6.30pm – 8.30pm
RSVP by Friday 9 June 2023

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from Physiotherapist Marnie DOUGLAS (1997), Naturopath Kathleen McFarlane, Speech Pathologist Alexis PAPAROULAS (2008), Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician Katherine RAE (1989) ICU Nurse Abby-Rose SCHMIDT (2012) and former Nurse and Midwife Juliet Schmidt (SKIPPER 1982), while you connect with other like-minded peers!

If you are currently working or aspiring to work in Health or Allied Health this event is for you!

National Simultaneous Storytime

We are delighted to share the success of our school’s participation in the annual National Simultaneous Storytime (NSST) event held on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Organised by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), NSST aims to promote reading and literacy among children nationwide. With over 2 million participants expected at 60,000 locations, it was an extraordinary event.

Our students had the privilege of taking part in this enriching occasion, which showcased the power of storytelling. The chosen book for NSST 2023, ‘The Speedy Sloth’ by Rebecca Young & Heath McKenzie, delivered an inspiring message celebrating all winners, especially those who don’t come first.

Students engaged in various NSST activities. The 5P students collaborated with Kindergarten, exploring the electronic version of the story and participating in craft activities. In 1L, they conducted research on sloths in pairs, delving deeper into the world of sloths and expanding on the themes of ‘The Speedy Sloth.’ In 2J, the class shared the experience of reading the book together.

National Simultaneous Storytime serves as a powerful reminder of the significance of reading and literacy in our lives. We take pride in being part of this nationwide celebration and eagerly anticipate future events that promote the joy of reading, uniting our community.

Karen McBride
Primary Teacher Librarian

Science News

Crystal Growing Competition

Science Club students have been working hard over the last few weeks to grow beautiful “diamonds”.

Unfortunately, these “diamonds” are actually composed on potassium aluminium sulfate rather than carbon, but they look pretty close! These crystals will be entered into the NSW RACI Crystal Growing Competition.

The process is a slow one (though luckily not billions of years like real diamonds!), and it has taken much dedication and a number of sessions to grow our crystals to a good size and shape.

We started with very small seed crystals which we tied to thin fishing line and left in a saturated solution of potash alum. We let the solution evaporate (concentrating the solution further) and left the beakers undisturbed, in the hopes of growing very clear and sharp crystals. Each week we’ve reset the potash alum solution and the growing crystal, in hopes of increasing the crystal size. Students with the best crystal growth each week have won prizes. We’ve had some great results and lots of fun!

Mia Sharma
Science Teacher

Visual Arts

Year 11 Landscape Works

Last term Year 11 students mounted a very impressive exhibition based on the Australian Landscape. Each student created a body of work employing a range of media and techniques, and we are proud to exhibit a selection of these here.

The Annual Woollahra Gallery Youth Photographic Awards and Short Film Prize 2023  – Entries Now Open!

All students at SCEGGS are encouraged to put forward work for this exhibition.

Please send work to Ms Jackson via email as we submit together as a school.

Last year we entered for the first time and had 12 submissions from SCEGGS selected and Scarlett Gibson Williams (Class of 2022) won a category award for her work. 

Please note that:

• Student photographs can be processed and manipulated either in a dark room or digitally.
• Entries can be in colour or black and white.
• All photographs to be submitted in a digital format only.
• Digital format photographs must be a minimum of 2mb or 300dpi (The Art Department can help you with this if you need).

We encourage you to be as experimental and innovative as you like!

The exhibition will run from 8 to 26 November at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, 548 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028

Key Dates

• Entries open until 25 August
• Awards Night Wednesday 8 November
• Exhibition dates 8-26 November

This week’s banner is a work from Year 11 student Georgia William’s term 1 collection based on the Landscape.

Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts

School Photographs

A reminder that Photo Day 1B is held tomorrow Friday 2 June 2023, on this day there will be Primary photos, Sibling photos, some sport group photos and the students who are daughters, grand daughters or great grand daughters of Old Girls’.

School photographs are taken and managed by Advanced Life Photography. The Photo Order Envelopes were distributed to students by their Form Teachers a few weeks ago. The envelope has instructions on how to order school photography packages on their website at www.advancedlife.com.au and in the flyer attached here. Please place your order now, if you have not done so. Also, please note that we do not collect any returned envelopes.

Eastern Suburbs School Leaders for Youth event After the Bell

Eastern Suburbs School Leaders for Youth (ESSLY),is a network of educational leaders from schools in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney who have joined forces to create a stronger and more supportive community for our children. Within the network, schools collaborate, share ideas and resources to benefit all students and their parents about critical social issues affecting teenagers. The aim is to foster a community that supports not only the academic development of young people but also their personal growth and resilience. The focus is to work together to support parents by offering knowledge and strategies to navigate the challenges of raising teenagers in today’s world.

The “After the Bell” event will take place on Thursday 15 June, at Cranbrook. This initiative focuses on safe student partying in the Eastern Suburbs, addressing an important aspect of teenage life. The event will provide valuable insights and practical strategies for parents to navigate this aspect of their children’s lives. This invitation is extended to our SCEGGS families and is an opportunity for parents, educators, and community members to come together and share experiences, ideas, and concerns. During the event, former students will share advice they would give their 17-year-old selves and the valuable guidance they received from their parents. A panel of deputies and other leaders will also discuss how schools can effectively support parents and students. Yasmin London, Director of Education & Wellbeing, ANZ at Linewize ANZ, will present at the event.

Carol Bloomfield
Head of Student Wellbeing Programs

Parents’ and Friends’ Association

Special Events

Class Parent Events

Year 3 Our Big Kitchen: Cooking for those in need	Date: Sunday 4 June, 9-11am Venue: Our Big Kitchen, 36 Flood Street Bondi NSW 2026 Cost: $33 per person – Need to purchase a ticket for you and your child RSVP: Wednesday 24 May Please join us for a SCEGGS tradition of making meals with our girls for those in need. Please wear closed-in shoes, no thongs, sandals. Tickets here.
Year 9 Mums Dinner	Date: Wednesday 7 June (Rescheduled from May 4). Time: 6.30pm – 11.00pm Venue: Dead Ringer, 413 Bourke Street Surry Hills Cost: $90 per person including 3 courses and one drink To confirm attendance, payment can be made here. Looking forward to seeing you!
SCEGGS Year 8 – End of Term Drinks	Date: 22  June Time: 6.30pm Venue: Woolly Bay Hotel – Level 1, 2 Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo Cost: $60 per person. Includes three canapes & three substantial bites + drink on arrival Book tickets here by 12 June.

Debating

Congratulations to our Year 10 Eastside team who put on a terrific performance at the Eastside Grand Final last Friday evening. The team consisted of Gabrielle Cheung, Katherine Conaglen, Bianca Hardge, and Georgia Tsangaris. The team were the runners-up in the Year 10 division after a 2-1 split decision. They debated on the topic: “That we support the development and use of moral enhancement drugs”.

Congratulations also to the 7B, 8A, Year 9, Year 10, and Senior teams who won their Archdale debates on Tuesday night. Next Tuesday, Round 4 of Archdale debating will be held at SCEGGS, when we will be against Tangara on the topic area of Law and Justice.

Next week we will also be running our Senior Inter-house Debating competition. Rounds 1 and 2 will take place on Monday afternoon, and the Finals will take place at lunchtime on Thursday and Friday. Instead of training for Years 7-9 on Monday afternoon, debaters should support their house in the prepared Round 1 debates, which will take place from 3.15pm-4.15pm. They are also welcome to watch the Round 2 debate, which will take place from 4.45pm-5.45pm. The Finals matchups will be announced on Monday evening, and those debates at lunch should be an opportunity for everyone to watch an enjoyable debate and support their house.

Imogen Harper
Debating Co-ordinator