From Ms Allum

I really enjoyed seeing all of the entries for the 125^th birthday book competition. They were all so engaging!

Here are the results:

We received over 60 entries from girls of all ages creatively expressing what learning at home has been like for them. I thank and congratulate each girl who captured and shared this experience – I am confident it is one most of us will not be forgetting anytime soon!

Most entries were in the form of photographs however we also received some lovely creative writing pieces. Mrs Pretorius reflects on these here.

As I had indicated, all entries will be kept for archive purposes and Chris Gleinser, our part-time photographer in residence for 2020, will select several Highly Commended submissions and a few to be included in the 125^th birthday book.

Well done to the following girls who were Highly Commended by Chris and will receive a certificate for their efforts:

The next four girls have been selected by Chris to be included in the 125^th book. Congratulations to Zara Perkins, Mila Filus Rasmussen, Natalie Assaad and Scarlett Gibson-Williams!

We look forward to seeing your works published as part of SCEGGS’s history!

How is your daughter travelling to and from school?

Did you know that if every family just in the Secondary School drives their daughter to school next week, and they all stop directly outside the Jacaranda Gates for just 20 seconds, it will only take us about three hours for all the girls to be dropped off at school?!?

We definitely need a more cunning plan than this! So, what can you do to try and make transport arrangements work best for everyone in the school (and our city more generally)?

Public Transport

We all have a responsibility to keep everyone in the wider community as safe as possible. If your daughter is travelling on public transport, please talk to her about the important role she will play in this by following these important guidelines on public transport:

• Stay home if you are sick
• Cough or sneeze into your elbow
• Allow as much distance from adults as possible
• Spread out along platform, stops and wharves
• Do not crowd lifts or escalators
• Check capacity of your service before boarding
• Wash or sanitize your hands as soon as you arrive at school

Distinctive green dots will be used on trains, buses and ferries to show passengers the safest places to sit and stand.

Information about these arrangements is continually being updated on the Transport NSW website here. 

Driving

In a nutshell, anything you can do to help us minimise the number of cars in both Forbes Street and Bourke Street this term is going to make a difference!

• Can you organise with those who live near you to carpool with two or three other students? One full car is much better than 4 cars all with one student in them!
• Is your daughter old enough for you to safely drop her nearby so that she can then walk the last 5-10 mins to school?

Most importantly, we need ALL DRIVERS to use the FULL LENGTH of the drop off zones in Forbes Street and Bourke Street so that more students can be dropped off at the same time – a short walk up the Forbes St hill for the girls is definitely not the end of the known universe!

It is also pivotal that all drivers follow the road safety rules in both the morning and afternoons. We really need your co-operation with this to ensure safe pedestrian movement and reasonable traffic flow:

• Never stop on Pedestrian Crossings or in the ‘No Stopping’ areas surrounding the crossings.
• Never do U-turns or overtake over double lines in Forbes Street.
• Please do not double park.
• Please do not use the Horizons turning circle to turn around. This is their private property and they have asked specifically for us to emphasise this again with our parents.

It is going to take us all a little while to get use to the new travel arrangements, so please be patient and take extra care if you are driving. And if you daughter does arrive a little late as Sydney starts to iron out these transport teething problems, please reassure her that there is no need to worry! She will just need to sign in at the General Office or Primary Office when she arrives … but we understand that this is going to happen until we all get a little more used to the new arrangements.

Thank you so much for your patience and cooperation in advance – I am confident that we can work this out together with a little planning and organising … and some patience and a smile!

Holly Gyton
Deputy Head of School

SPECIAL REPORT: Coronavirus – The Transition Back

As students prepare to return to SCEGGS full-time tomorrow, we enter a new period of transition and adjustment. Many young people may be excited at the prospect of returning to school; others may feel mixed emotions. Reactions will differ depending on how well they cope with stress and change. Keeping a check on your child’s mental health and wellbeing as they adjust to new routines will be vitally important.

There is still a lot of uncertainty ahead of us, so focusing on the things you can control or enjoy doing or even value, can help establish predictability and familiarity for the whole family. Adult carers need to provide young people with reassurance by acknowledging any concerns and fears they may have at this time. Consider this to be a normal reaction, however it may be best to focus more on their feelings and emotions, rather than the practicalities at this stage.

Here is the link to your special report. In this Special Report, we share a few ideas to help ease this time of transition and adjustment. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the School for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Bethany Lord
Director of Pastoral Care

Creative Writing

SCEGGS students’ heartfelt, thoughtful, inspirational responses to lockdown and isolation                                                                

In what has been a trying time world-wide for countries and governments trying to contain the pandemic that has been in force since February this year, we can be forgiven for not listening to what young people, our children, our students think of the changed way of life since isolation and lockdown has been in force in Australia. Or can we? “Out of the mouths of babes” may be a cliché but how true it is.

In both the 125th book photo competition launched by Ms Allum and responses from my own Year 7 English class in response to a stimulus, SCEGGS students have written heartfelt, thoughtful, inspirational responses to lockdown and isolation during these unprecedented times. Click here to see a sample of what SCEGGS students are thinking and feeling, many as young as Year 7. How refreshing, and thought-provoking are these comments from the generation who, within the next two decades or so, will be our country’s workers, leaders, thinkers, and policy makers. 

Looking into the heads of young people can be a salutary experience. We are very fortunate at SCEGGS to have such passionate, forward-thinking, imaginative students.

Marilyn Pretorius
Head of English

Sports News

Primary School Sport                                                          

A reminder to parents that they must submit the online enrolment form  for each student by 4.00pm tomorrow, Friday 22 May.

Further details about Sport in the Primary School can be found here.

Secondary School Sport

Please click here to view the Week 5 timetable.

SPAN Event– Women in Technology and Innovation

A reminder to register for SCEGGS’ first SPAN event via Zoom, Women in Technology and Innovation with Old Girl Lucinda Barlow (Class of 1993) as the keynote speaker.

As the current Marketing Director of Uber and former Marketing and Communications manager of companies like YouTube and Google, Lucinda has over 20 years’ experience in the technology sector.

The event will be held on Thursday 4 June from 6.00pm – 8.00pm.

To register for the event, please click here and an invitation to the join the meeting will be emailed to you.

We hope that you can join us!

Visual Arts News

With full attendance on campus from Week 5, we are pleased to resume face to face co-curricular classes for the following courses:

Drawing with Babette Robertson on Monday and Digital Photography with Ella Condon remain online for the duration of this term.

Here are some images printed last week from Year 9 Darkroom students:

Year 11 landscape exhibition

Year 11 have installed an exhibition of their Term 1 work on the Australian landscape. We cannot invite viewers in to see this great show yet keep watching this space to see works from this beautiful, diverse series.

Year 7 portraits

Here are some wonderful portraits created by Year 7 students for their recent Visual Arts assignment.

Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts

From the Senior Library

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

It has been wonderful having students back in the Library. Students have been looking at the Countdown display and marveling over how the School buildings have changed or looking at plaid uniforms that they did not know existed!

We are now easily past halfway and what a lovely way to celebrate by looking at some of the Formals and School Dances over the decades. We began with a dance card from a SCEGGS Old Girls’ Union Dance, in 1921, showing the variety of popular dances of the day. This card shows “Billy” and “Cyril” vying for dances. Note the time of the last tram leaving for the Spit Road Junction. 

Click on the thumbnails below to view the full image.

The 1965 Final Year Formal was held in the School Gym, which was apparently decorated as a barn. The 1968 dance was held in the old Barbara Chisholm Assembly Hall with a band called The Executives. 

We especially loved the posed photograph from the 1972 Year 12 Formal, clearly showing the 70s fashions. We featured an example of the 1980s dances showing some Year 12s at the “Fifties and Sixties” style dance hosted by the Year 9s and attended by guests from Scots and Kings. The 1991 Year 10 Formal photograph showcases the fashions and hairstyles of the era.  Come and see the display in the library for other SCEGGS formal fashions from years past.

Next week our Boarders will be back on site. To celebrate their return, we are featuring special memories that remind us all of our Boarding School history.

Remember to view the countdown so far, via our Cognito Senior Library page. Scroll down and click on the “Celebrating 125” to view, or follow this link. Watch the videos as we continue to move closer to the birthday celebrations!

Friday’s quiz question: Can you guess the year this photograph was taken, featuring a well-known Old Girl from the 80s?  

Dorothy Wilkinson Memorial Library and Archives

Music Matters

It was lovely to hear the beautiful singing from members of the choir who were at school last Thursday 14 May.  Ms Allison Harrigan directed students from the choir to sing the hymn “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven” which was recorded as part of the video message from the school to Old Girls for Ascension Day.  The choir was accompanied by Mr Kurt Ison on the chapel organ.  The students also sang the school song “Girls of the Grammar School” which would also be featured in the video. It was wonderful to have music fill the chapel space again. Thank you to Ms Harrigan, Mr Ison and the members of the choir who sang that day.

Week 5 Co-curricular Rehearsals

After many weeks of online rehearsals, we would like to venture back to ‘face to face’ musical engagement with our ensembles. We will continue to reflect about the operations of our ensembles and we will communicate any changes as soon as we can.

Communication will be sent from Mr Peter Jewitt with regards to the venues and rehearsal times. If you have any concerns with the arrangements, please email Mr Jewitt, Ensembles Co-ordinator.

Onsite Zoom Instrumental or Vocal Lessons

To help maintain the regularity of lesson, 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

Careers Corner Newsletter

Issue 4  of the Careers Corner Newsletter is now available. This issue is jam-packed with information and dates for university information sessions that are being conducted online. Make sure you
register early for any of these sessions that interest you – and save the date in your diary too! 

Year 10 Immunisation Program

NSW Health offers all school students free vaccinations recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. These vaccines are important and protect students through to adulthood.

All Year 10 Students will be offered the meningococcal ACWY vaccine on Thursday 11 June. An information pack will be sent home to Year 10 parents which includes a consent form and a record of vaccination for parents to keep after their child has been vaccinated.

Please sign the consent form and have your daughter return it to Student Services by Monday 1 June, UNLESS you do not wish your daughter to be vaccinated. Please note: the nurses will be unable to vaccinate any student if their form is not signed by their parent or guardian.