From Ms Allum

It has been such a delight to see our girls and hear their laughter and chatter as they begin their staggered return to school. We have now had one full cycle of rotation and so have seen nearly every girl at least once.  The gallery below captures some of their joy and excitement of their first days back on campus.

As we continue to adjust to this dual method of teaching and learning, today’s In This Together article from Ms Saunders shares some tips about how students can manage this.

In This Together

Supporting learning at home as we start to transition back to face-to-face schooling                                                                                  

On Monday, the staff at SCEGGS heard such a wonderful sound in the secondary school – the sound of Barton and Badham girls and all of Year 12 joyfully coming back to school for the first time this term! And while it was so lovely to hear the enthusiasm and the excitement that comes from returning to school, we also know that most girls in the secondary school are only onsite for one day in three – so how do parents continue to help their daughters learn best on those other two days at home?

Routines are Important

• Your daughter might be at home for two days in a row – but it is definitely not the weekend! So, help her to make sure that she gets up at the usual time.
• Avoid last minute sliding into Zoom Form Time with a piece of toast and a glass of orange juice. Allow time for her to eat as usual, shower and organise her workplace in readiness for the day ahead.
• Some students are even going for a walk before Form Time (replicating the morning walk to the bus and then to school on a normal school day).
• These transition rituals are important for us to be mentally prepared for the shift from home brains to teaching and learning

The importance of sleep

• Make sure your daughter goes to bed at the regular time – keep long movies or time online for the weekend.
• Avoid screen time in the hour before bed and encourage calming, relaxing activities like reading, listening to music or some mindful meditation.
• Teenagers need 8-9 hours of sleep each day to function effectively.

Establishing a good Learning at Home Environment

• Shared spaces at home mean we all still must be flexible and aware of each other’s needs.
• The work environment should be quiet and uncluttered with all equipment within easy reach.
• Students work best at a desk or a table … not the bed or sofa or floor!

Take a break

• Learning at home and spending more time online, while learning new technologies, can cause cognitive overload. Students (and teachers) need to purposefully plan for breaks and transitions in their day.
• Schools have breaks naturally built into their schedules – moving between classes, breaks at recess and lunch time. Your daughter needs these same breaks in between her lessons too – just as she would walk from one side of the school to the other!
• Encourage your daughter to stand and stretch, to go for a quick run around the garden, to do star jumps by her desk or dance for three minutes in her bedroom to her favourite song in between classes.
• Have healthy snacks on hand so that energy levels can be maintained.
• Discourage screen activities in breaks like social media or gaming – this does not give the necessary respite from on screen activities and can make returning to work more difficult.
• Establish an end of school day activity that marks the end of school time – taking the dog for a walk, going for a run, phoning friends etc

Zoom Etiquette

I marvel at how quickly we have all adopted and adapted to online learning technologies. You can support your child’s learning by encouraging appropriate behaviours:

• Encourage your daughter to be on time for digital lessons the same as you would for face to face lessons.
• We love seeing where you have been on holiday but rapidly shifting backgrounds or students spinning their images around are distracting and inappropriate.
• We know your daughters love their cats and dogs but too frequent pet “show and tells” or leaving the Zoom lesson to allow the dog outside is not helping your daughter to learn.

Being a Learning Coach: Accountability or Nagging?

• Parents don’t need to “police” every lesson – your daughter’s teachers or Year Co-ordinator will be in touch if they have concerns about your daughter’s progress or completion of work.
• Check in with your daughter about the day ahead and ask her how it is all going and what they are doing.
• Clarify with your daughter what work is due each day/week and help her prioritise tasks.
• Help your daughter to break down large tasks into smaller more manageable chunks if she needs this support
• Reward work completion and independent organisation as appropriate.

And finally, we would like to thank you for walking side by side with us on this learning journey and for supporting your daughters, our students, as we have together explored new ways of learning and teaching. Your role as a learning coach has been invaluable both to your daughters and to us – and we are all looking forward to seeing them all return to school increasingly more often in the weeks ahead!

Carol Saunders
Head of Academic Support (Years 7-12)

Sports News

Timetables for Week 4 sport activities are now available! Please click on the links below to select an activity or activities that interest you.

Week 4 Years 3-6 Sport Online Sessions

Week 4 Years K-6 Sport Face-to-Face Sessions

Week 4 Years 7-12 Sport Face-to-Face Sessions
Week 4 Years 7-12 Sport Online Sessions

Primary School students please note as per the email sent to parents yesterday:

Winter Uniform Reminder

Don’t forget that girls now have the option of purchasing pants as part of the winter uniform.

Students in Year 7 – Year 12 will also need to purchase the new striped shirt to be worn with the pants. The Primary School will continue to wear their current winter shirt.

The shirt is designed to be worn without a tie and without any badges. Outside the School grounds (e.g. travelling to and from school), girls must wear their school blazer over the shirt, jumper (if being worn), pants and possibly in a handful of other very formal occasions too. Within the school grounds, any combination of the vest, jumper, cardigan or blazer with the striped shirt is acceptable.

Girls have the option of wearing their shirt either tucked into the pants, or not tucked in if they would prefer.

Contact the School Shop to book your fitting today!

Visual Arts News

SCEGGSfest: winners announced!

We are thrilled to announce the joint winners of the inaugural SCEGGSfest Film Festival. Congratulations to Avalon Korda in Year 7 and Alexandra West in Year 8! Their entries were witty, inventive and absolutely nailed the brief!

We look forward to presenting them with their prizes and certificates soon.

The winning films can be viewed here. Please ensure that you are logged in with your SCEGGS Google profile to activate the link.

Darkroom students collect your film rolls!

Darkroom photography students are reminded to collect film from the Art Department Staff room as they return on site. Ian will be processing and printing as soon as you return your finished rolls of film.

Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts

From the Senior Library

“125 Years in 125 Days” We have just completed our eighth week of counting down to the School’s birthday!

This week we have been looking at some of the interesting clubs SCEGGS girls have joined over the decades. The Scuba, Science, Duke of Edinburgh, Tildesley, Cadets, Rowing and Computer Clubs were just seven co-curricular activities featured. We especially loved the photograph showing the Computer Club in the 1980s. Can you guess the year?  

The Duke of Edinburgh Scheme is still a huge part of the extracurricular program here at SCEGGS. We loved looking at an old newspaper article from 1975, which featured three SCEGGS girls cycling as one of their Award exercises. Their photograph was in the Wagga Wagga local paper, though the surnames were spelled incorrectly. 

Science Club is another fabulous extracurricular activity that has strong traditions here at SCEGGS. The image featured from 1982 was used for the 1982 and 1983 Prospectus. The photograph of SCEGGS girls rowing, in 1896, was such a wonderful image to feature this past week. 

Last week we asked people to guess the year the photograph, depicting a television and recording equipment, was taken. Our SCEGGS Old Girls guessed 1969 correctly on their Facebook page. First correct answer was Joanne D. Nelson. Robyn Kelso also remembered watching the moon landing in the classroom, on a small black and white television, in 1969.

Stay tuned for next week’s look at past School formals and dances, where you can decide how well the fashions have stood the test of times.

See the latest update showing our countdown via our Cognito Senior Library page. Scroll down and click on the “Celebrating 125” to view, or follow this link. Watch the video countdown as we pass the 70-day mark until birthday celebrations!

Dorothy Wilkinson Memorial Library and Archives

Duke of Edinburgh Award Updates

As always with the SCEGGS community, I have been thoroughly impressed with the resilience, adaptability and stoicism of our students and staff, and I have grown in confidence that we can progress through these times still able to pursue our goals and face our challenges. So it was with great interest that I received some information regarding changes to Award rules. These changes have been made to facilitate candidates fulfilling their relevant section in safe, practical and timely ways, so that the current difficulties do not hinder individual completions. It should be stressed that these rule changes are temporary (for the moment, until the end of the year), and may require permission from your Award Leader or Assessor to implement – always discuss planned changes, or unplanned disruptions, with me so as to avoid problems or wasting of time and effort.

The long of it can be found here.

A summary of the new guidelines which will directly effect SCEGGS girls is below:

1. Award Leaders can waive the requirement for a Bronze Practice Journey OR where a Practice has been previously completed, it can be counted as the Bronze Qualifying Journey. “This option is intended as a last resort.”  Here at SCEGGS, I will be interpreting this as follows:
   my preference will be, as always, for candidates to complete one Practice and one Qualifying Adventurous Journey

   and this will be our ambition into the future. However, given the current situation where we may be unable to conduct a full set of Qualifiers before the end of the year, students may approach me individually to request this be implemented.

   For the current Bronze candidates who have yet to complete their first Expedition, we will be making every effort to provide that opportunity sometime this year, depending on the easing of restrictions by the Department of Education, Health Authorities, SCEGGS itself and National Parks. 

   2.  Recognising the Silver practice journey as the Bronze qualifier. “The Bronze qualifier can be deferred for Participants who are committed to continuing to the Silver level. These Participants can move on to do all of their Silver Award activities. At a later date, the Participant’s Silver Practice AJ will be used to count as their Bronze Qualifier. Once this is complete, the Participant will be awarded their Bronze.” Again, this should be seen as a last resort, where a student has been unable to complete their bronze due to the current situation, but wishes to move on to starting their Silver award in Year 10. Please do not assume this will happen automatically but will need to be discussed with me. It obviously only applies to the Expedition, not Volunteering, Skill or Physical Recreation.

There are other rule changes which are less likely to effect SCEGGS candidates, but I would still suggest girls read the linked document in case they are affected – particularly for current Golds, and also Old Girls who may be completing their Award. I also include the following, as a reminder of what hasn’t changed:

To conclude, my ambition is that everyone complete their Award normally, that we maintain the standards that previous years have followed, and enjoy all of the experiences and learning opportunities that are possible. However, these rule changes provide girls with solutions should they genuinely be unable to complete all Sections due to the current Covid19 related disruptions.

To the Silver candidates, sit tight and listen out for announcements over the next few months, we will be prioritising your Expeditions when possible to get you finished this year.

For the current Gold candidates, I urge you to stay positive and optimistic concerning your Award; we have experienced a setback this year (actually three – fire, flood and plague), but I will be working hard to help you achieve your goals as best we can. Please come and discuss with me your current situation or email me if you prefer.

I will also take this opportunity to point out that I have taken on some teaching hours, namely in the History Department, so girls will find me there for the near future (not in PDHPE), and you will see me around school more often should you need to chat.

I urge all the girls to continue with their Awards – there are some marvellous initiatives to undertake Volunteering, Skill and Recreation online. I would also like to encourage you to keep fit and healthy, by walking in nearby bushland or parks, in preparation for when our hikes resume and to take a break from screens.

A walk in nature walks the soul back home.

Joanne Bower
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Leader

Music Matters

Rehearsals for Students Onsite!

This week the Music Department have resumed rehearsals for students whose day at school coincides with the day of their ensemble. We have started the week with choir in the Secondary School and Chamber Strings in the Primary School.  I know that ensemble conductors were thrilled to have students’ ‘face to face’ interaction whilst also catering for those who were able join in remotely. 

We understand that some families have difficulties with reliable internet access.  Parts and tracks for the different ensembles are available on the Music Co-Curricular page on Cognito. We encourage all students to access these resources for their ensemble to share with their teachers online or to practice at home.

Onsite Zoom Instrumental or Vocal Lessons

To help maintain the regularity of lessons, Secondary students may come down to the Diana Bowman studios to have online lessons with their tutors.  Tutors must inform the Music Department with the names of students and the time of the lessons.  Students will be supervised by a member of the Music staff during their lesson. 

Pauline Chow
Head of Music