From Ms Allum – COVID Update

There continue to be a handful of new positive COVID cases reported to us each day, as well as students who are staying home because they are household contacts or for other non-COVID related reasons that range from representing the school in sport to flooding houses!

While we are aware that other schools have different levels of COVID within their community, we are thankful that the incidence of COVID within the SCEGGS community remains low at this stage. For example, on Wednesday this week, there were 74 students away from school (25 in Primary and 49 in Secondary). Only 13 of these students have tested posted for COVID (four in Primary and nine in Secondary) and these students come from six different year groups. While these numbers remain low, we will continue with our original approach of not emailing you every day to report case numbers.

We will also continue to monitor these daily absences carefully, and would remind parents:

• To monitor your daughters for symptoms each and every day and keep them at home even if they have the mildest of symptoms. Do a RAHT test as soon as possible.
• If your daughter is away from school, please email absences@sceggs.nsw.edu.au as soon as possible with the reasons for her absence so that we can classify these accordingly.
• If you have a positive RAHT test or PCR test for your daughter, please notify the School of this positive result by emailing absences@sceggs.nsw.edu.au as soon as possible (this is a legal requirement under the current health orders) and register this positive result with NSW Health too.
• If your daughter is unwell and away from school for other health reasons, and has received a negative RAHT result, it would also be helpful to include this information in the email.

These steps will assist us in continuing to monitor the situation closely, identifying any changes in the spread of the disease in our community and then informing you accordingly.

All girls from K-12 should also bring home an additional FIVE RAHT tests this week to assist in the ongoing monitoring of COVID at SCEGGS. We would encourage all families to use these at least once per week, and at any time their daughter has any symptoms.

Jenny Allum

Music Matters

Ash Wednesday Service – SCEGGS Madrigal Ensemble                                              

It has been a long time since choristers and congregation could freely sing without masks.  Last week’s Ash Wednesday Service in the Great Hall  certainly marked the occasion with beautiful congregational singing led by members of the Madrigal Ensemble.  Members of the Ensemble also performed two beautiful items;  Ave Maria by Arcadelt for the anthem and the blessing The Lord is My Shepherd by Grant arr. Geehl.  Thank you to Miss Allison Harrigan for her direction of the performance and Mr Kurt Ison for his accompaniment from the organ.

Assembly Performance – Holst Wind Band

Congratulations to members of Holst Wind Band for this week’s musical item in assembly. The band performed the popular title song  No Time to Die.  The song was written by Billie and Finneas Elish and was featured in the 2021 James Bond film of the same title. The version that was performed by Holst has been arranged for wind ensemble by Michael Brown. Thank you to Mr Michael Tierney for his direction of the performance.  Well done Holst!

You can hear the performance here.

Mozart’s “Magic Flute” for Stage 2, 3 and Year 9 Elective Music Students

Primary Music started the week with a musical journey to the magical world of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Brad Cooper, a Tenor with opera Australia visited Years 3-6 on Monday, presenting each year group with an interactive workshop experience, explaining the story of the Opera, and the music and composition style of Mozart. The students also took part in reading and acting scenes, becoming princesses, princes, and bird-catchers! We learnt how the productions have been staged in the past from 1791 until today, the most amazing one being directed by Julie Taymour (Director of The Lion King), for the Met Opera in NY. There were puppets, HUGE serpents and bears, and incredible costumes! The students created sound effects as Brad related the story to us and we loved singing along to the famous Queen of the Night Aria. We watched the incredible Diana Damrau using her coloratura register and incredible physical effort to sing the difficult arpeggio passages. The use of the voice in Opera uses special techniques that we practised with Brad – breathing and supporting our voice using our torso and intercostal muscles. A wonderful morning of singing and learning together about this magical Opera.

Lanneke Jones 

SCEGGS Eisteddfod

• The entries for the SCEGGS Eisteddfod closed last Friday with a schedule organised for primary and secondary heats.

Heats – Week 7 (Vocalists & Yr 12), Week 8 (all other heats)

• Vocal heats and Year 12 instrumental heats will be held in Week 7 (Friday 11 March).
• Instrumental heats will be held in Week 8 (Monday 14 March – Friday 18 March) during regular Music class lessons for Primary students, Year 7 students and Elective Music students.
• All other heats will be held during regular class lesson time.
• Students will perform for the external, specialist adjudicator in a music studio – there is no audience.
• Due to timetabling restrictions, adjudicators do not provide written reports or any other feedback.
• TIME LIMIT: 5 MINUTES
• Click here for the Instrumental Heats Timetable
• Click here for the Vocal Heats Timetable

Highlights Concerts

• Adjudicators select between 15-20 performers to perform at each Highlights concert (Primary & Secondary).
• Primary Highlights concert: Friday 25 March at 4:30pm.

Secondary Highlights concert: Friday 25 March at 6.00pm. A variety of awards are made at these concerts:

1. Outstanding Musician of the Primary School/Secondary School
2. Wran Prize for Up and Coming Vocalist (Secondary only)
3. Acknowledgement Awards

Any questions please contact Ms Heidi Jones.

Music News about Old Girls Dr Aristea Mellos and Georgia Scott

Caccini Circle – Collaboration Between Old Girls and Women Composers

Dr Aristea Mellos (Class of 2005) is an artistic co-director of Sydney Bach Society.  She shares with us her inspiration for the Caccini Circle and how it led to her collaboration with another Old Girl, Georgia Scott (Class of 2008).

Late last year, I began thinking about the Sydney Bach Society’s programming for 2022/23 and it struck me that it was very male heavy. Period ensembles almost exclusively perform works by men (Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Scarlatti etc…). To address the gender imbalance in our programming, I applied for a grant with Create NSW to establish the Caccini Circle – an ongoing commissioning project that invites Australian women to compose works inspired by Baroque repertoire for some of Australia’s best performers.  The grant was approved, and we’ve just announced the project to celebrate women’s history month.

The 2022/23 composers I applied for funding for were Georgia Scott, Jane Sheldon, Kenya Wilkins & myself. Each composer has been assigned an ensemble or soloist. Our performers include the Marais Project, violinist Christina Lieberwirth-Morris (a colleague of mine from my Con days now based in Germany), our resident duo (and Eastman School alumni), guitarist Dr Josinaldo Costa and violinist Timothy Lee, and pianists Erin Helyard and Stephanie McCallum.

Here’s a link to our website which has more info.

Pauline Chow
Head of Music

Visual Arts – SCEGGS Staff Exhibitions and NAS Holiday Workshops

This week’s banner is by Year 11 student, Coco Riminton, part of a larger Body of Work she is working on depicting the Australian Landscape.

Michaela Gleave: Exhibiting at The Blake Prize and Dominik Mersch Gallery

Michaela Gleave is not only the Assistant to the SCEGGS Visual Arts Department but also a highly regarded contemporary artist whose conceptual practice spans numerous mediums and platforms including digital and online works, installation, performance, photography, sculpture, and video. Her projects question the nature of reality and our innate relationship to time, matter, and space, focussing particularly on the changing intersections between art, science and society.

Michaela is in two shows that open this week: she is a finalist in the prestigious Blake Prize at the Casula Powerhouse and is in a group show at Dominik Mersch Gallery in Rushcutters Bay.

View her work for the Blake Prize here (12 March – 22 May 2022)

And for Liminal at Dominik Mersch Gallery (11 March – 9 April 2022)

Eliza Gosse: Exhibiting at Olsen Gallery

Eliza Gosse, our painting tutor, is currently showing her latest work bumpy roads and tip top sandwiches at Olsen Gallery in Paddington. The exhibtion is on now until 19 March. We encourage Eliza’s painting students and SCEGGS families to visit if they can! Congratulations to Eliza: her entire collection of works sold out before opening night.

Eliza is a SCEGGS Old Girl (CLASS of 2012) an alumna of the National Art School, Sydney, graduating with a Master of Fine Art in 2019. Eliza is a multiple award recipient and has been a Finalist in the Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2020); Mosman Art Prize (2020, 2017); Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2020, 2019, 2018); Waverley Woollahra Art Prize (2019, 2018); Little Things Art Prize (2018, 2017); and the Lloyd Rees Memorial Art Award (2017). A portion of her HSC work was purchased for the School collection in 2012 and can be seen on the stairs leading up to the Chapel in Barham.

Calling all Future Makers: NAS School Holiday Workshops are back!

11-14 April 2022

Join in the new Future Makers Programs at the National Art School. There are fantastic workshops available in the April School holidays ranging from experimental etching, wheel throwing ceramics, to comic book mania, and large scale constructed city sculpture! The workshops provide students aged 6–16 with opportunities to engage with artists, art-making and other forms of creative production on site at NAS and online in your own home.

Bookings via this link.

Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts

House Drama 2022

Congratulations to Christian House who for the second year in a row were triumphant in gaining first place for House Drama 2022. The event took place last Thursday and it was wonderful to commune as an audience once again for student performance.

Christian entertained the audience with an engaging take on Dr Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who. Their adaptation assigned the piece an intelligent contemporary resonance and comment on de-forestation.

Langley House was awarded second place with their interpretation of another Dr Seuss narrative, creating How The Grinch Stole Summer. It was inspiring to see the imagination, originality and theatricality the students invested in developing the works for competition.

Barton came in third with their play titled A Koala Named Paddington.

Our guest adjudicators for the day were actor/writers Tony Taylor, Tony Sheldon and Old Girl Milla McInnes (Class of 2021) completed the trio of judges. The panel commented on the excellent work of the students and offered wise words pertaining to the creation of vivid stage pictures when communicating narrative.

Tony Taylor was an original member of the legendary Pram Factory in Melbourne, and the New Wave Australian theatre. He has worked with the major theatre companies including the Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare and Nimrod. He is also a playwright and has penned the play we are staging for the Junior Production – LEND US YOUR EARS.

Tony Sheldon has toured the world in Priscilla; Queen of the Desert – The Musical, receiving a Tony nomination on Broadway. This of course is in addition to his stellar career in Australia in works including Private Lives, Torch Song Trilogy, The Producers, I Hate Hamlet and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Milla McInnes was our Drama high achiever from the HSC course.

Drama Captain, Allegra Sintras, was MC for the day and was assisted by Eliza Newton and Amelia Moran in maintaining the energy of the crowd.

A huge thanks and appreciation to Ms Eddi Goodfellow and her SCEGGSTV team for their technical support on the day. They certainly make a vibrant contribution that lifts the magic of the day.

Congratulations to all of the Houses and their leaders for embracing the creative journey and ensuring that House Drama 2022 was one of the most successful days of competition and collegiality. Bravo!

Peter Eyers
Head of Drama

International Women’s Day

Students acknowledged and celebrated International Women’s Day across the School on Wednesday 8 March. Stay tuned for next week’s Behind the Green Gate to read about how our students marked this occasion.

SCHOOLTV Special Report: Managing Overwhelm

Due to the pandemic, recent world events in the Ukraine and the impacts of the floods in Queensland and NSW, the world we now live in is a very different place. The hyperconnected nature of our current environment means that we are constantly being reminded of the challenges we face via numerous media and social media channels. Our connectivity to the digital world exposes us to a barrage of messages that can leave us feeling overwhelmed. As a result, many children and their parents are reporting higher levels of stress and anxiety.

Unfortunately, our brains have not evolved fast enough to adapt to this digital landscape. The combination of constant access to information and having little control over the situations presented, can be stressful and overwhelming. It is therefore important for adult carers to check in with their children and be aware of what information they may have been exposed to. It may not necessarily be the information itself that is harmful, but more their inability to process and make sense of it. Providing children with the skills and strategies to cope will enable them to flourish and thrive, socially, emotionally and academically.

The blueprint for parenting, based on our own experiences, is no longer fit for purpose in raising kids as citizens of tomorrow. This can be inherently stressful and overwhelming, not only for parents and carers, but children alike. If left untreated or unmanaged, constant stress and anxiety can lead to a number of behavioural issues or health consequences.

This Special Report suggests a number of strategies to help manage any feelings of overwhelm that you or your child may be experiencing. We hope you take a moment to reflect on the information offered, and as always, we welcome your feedback. If this raises any concerns for you, a loved one or the wellbeing of your child, please seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to your special report.

We hope you take a moment to reflect on the information offered, and as always, we welcome your feedback. Should this issue raise any concerns for you, a loved one or the wellbeing of your child, please seek medical or professional help. Please also take time to explore previous issues of SchoolTV which can be accessed through the link to this special report.

Laura Connolly
Acting Head  of Pastoral Care

Secondary Sport News

Tildesley Shield                                                   

Good luck to our Tildesley Shield Team who are due to compete in the Tildesley Shield Sunday and Monday at Pennant Hills Tennis Centre (weather permitting).

NSW All Schools Triathlon

The NSW All Schools Triathlon is due to be held at the International Regatta Centre on Tuesday (Individual) and Wednesday  (Team Event). We are anticipating that this event will be postponed due to current flooding at Penrith. We will notify all participants as soon as we hear anything.

Sporting Fixtures and Wet Weather

A reminder to regularly check the following organisations for sporting fixtures and wet weather arrangements:

• IGSA
• @SCEGGSSport Twitter for the latest updates relating to cancellations for before and after school training sessions
• Eastern Suburbs Touch Association Facebook page or their Wet weather number – 1 900 957 394

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself on 9052 2721 or 0418 491 521. Alternatively, if you have any news or photos that we can highlight in the newsletters please email me.

Alison Gowan
Director of Sport

From the Primary Classrooms

Year 3 Blue Bots                                                                

With many beeps and whirs, the Year 3 Maths lessons have been as busy as a beehive this week!  The Year 3 girls have been investigating 2D Shape and Position in Maths by coding “Blue Bot” robots. Their final goal was to create a maze fit for a Blue Bot to complete.

Working collaboratively in groups, the girls first explored the functions and capabilities of their Blue Bot and were challenged to draw two-dimensional shapes using only a Blue Bot and a pen holder attachment. They then were tasked with creating a maze fit for a Blue Bot, considering their shape and size in the design of the maze.

Coming together as a year group, the girls shared their mazes with their peers and enjoyed taking their Blue Bots through the different courses. We were so proud of the collaboration, problem solving and creative thinking we saw!

Katherine Lock and Kaitlin Ryan
Year 3 Classroom Teachers

SCEGGS Easter Vacation Care

With the Easter holidays fast approaching, we would like to take the opportunity to share our Easter Vacation Care Program with you.

The service will be operating from Monday 11 April – Tuesday 26 April, with school returning on the Wednesday 27 April 2022.  The service is open for current Primary SCEGGS girls and their school aged siblings only.

The vacation care program for April has a wonderful variety of excursions and incursions and exciting in-house days at the centre for all children to enjoy.

For safety and staffing reasons, we will be capping the excursions, so please book early!

If you would like to book your child into Vacation Care, please click here to generate your tickets.

Please note, that if you have not yet enrolled your child into our After School/ Vacation Care Service through the OWNA website or you are a new family joining SCEGGS in 2022, you will be required to fill out enrolment documentation prior to booking. 

Please reach out if you have any inquiries about Vacation Care, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Fran St John
After School Care Co-ordinator

Debating

Congratulations to the Years 8-11 Eastside teams for winning their debates on Friday.  Well done also to the winning ISDA teams: Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, Senior B, and Senior A.

This week both competitions will be held in-person. For ISDA, we will be welcoming Loreto Kirribilli to our school. For Eastside we will be travelling to The Scots College. The bus will leave for Scots at 4:30, and all students must be picked up at Scots since there will be no return bus. Audience members are welcome at SCEGGS, but unfortunately Scots is currently not able to host audience members.

Imogen Harper
Debating Co-ordinator

Go Greener – Environmental leadership positions in the school

We are pleased to announce that Nicola Allen (Year 11) has been appointed Maailma captain for 2022. She was chosen from an extremely impressive list of candidates with students from Years 10 to Year 12 applying. Nicola has been passionate about the environment from an early age. She was instrumental in setting up Greenforce, an environmental website written by students. We look forward to Nicola leading the Maailma committee and working on improving sustainability at SCEGGS.

The Sustainability committee meets with Ms Allum, Mr Worsley, Mrs Jackson, Mrs Thompson, Miss Tennant, and Ms Zipfinger every fortnight. The aim of this committee is to look at big picture of sustainability at SCEGGS. We are please to welcome the following girls to this committee:

• Chloe Medcraft (Year 12)
• Alexandra Kuo (Year 11)
• Bianca Rozsa (Year 10)
• Harper Jones (Year 6)
• Adison Lewis (Year 6)

Regenerating Australia in cinemas now

Damon Gameau produced a documentary a few years ago called 2040. His new documentary is called Regenerating Australia and is now in cinemas. This is a 17 minute film which takes the form of a news bulletin looking back over the decade on what action could have been taken to reduce climate change. It was based on a four month campaign talking to people about their hopes and dreams for the future. We hope to have a showing of this film in May at SCEGGS.

Sue Zipfinger and Angela Pizzinga
Maailma Co-ordinators

Inter-house Speaking Results

It is with great pleasure that we announce the 2022 Junior Inter-house Speaking Challenge Results:

Individual Results

Parents’ and Friends’ Association

Festival on Forbes                                                                          

We are excited to announce that current parent Bree Parker has been appointed our 2022 Festival on Forbes convenor. We look forward to Bree bringing her flair, organisational skills and sense of community to the Committee. If you would like to join the committee, please email Angelique Cooper or call on 9332 1133.

Class Parent Events