Last Thursday afternoon, Year 4 took to the stage with two Australian icons; singer, songwriter and author Josh Pyke, and singer, actress and Play School host, Justine Clarke. Bringing song, music and language to the stage, the girls celebrated their participation in a new initiative for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF), Busking For Change!
Just like a real concert, tickets were sold and there was even a range of merchandise made by the students to give the concert an extra authentic feel! There were stickers, key rings, bookmarks, bracelets, posters and even signed photos by Josh and Justine!
Developed by Josh Pyke, the idea behind Busking For Change is simple; learn to sing, play and dance to a particular song, and when it’s been mastered, ‘busk’ or performing it, to raise money for the ILF. The 2022 song is titled “Words Make the World go Around” and was written by Josh and Justine with boys and girls, just up the hill at the Gawura school. To celebrate the first year of UNESCO’s Decade of Indigenous Languages, Year 4 were also encouraged to learn to sing the song in an Indigenous language, learning the whole song in Kriol.
To support their fundraising efforts, Year 4 aren’t just hosting last week’s concert, the song is designed to be shared, and that’s exactly what they’re going to do! They will continue to hone their performance skills and are going to record a Film Clip, and they’d love your support! If you make a donation to their fundraising page, when the Film Clip is complete, they will share it with you!
Just like with The Great Book Swap, all the money raised from the Busking For Change will support the ILF in continuing their mission to help instil a love of reading in young children and gift culturally appropriate books to rural communities.
Following the concert, the girls are so excited to share that the current fundraising total is over $5100!
A huge thank you goes to Mrs Cleworth! Without her, Year 4 wouldn’t have achieved any of this! She has supported the girls every step of the way and embedding the song into both music and choir lessons.
Thank you also goes to Mrs Siljanovska for choreographing the movement and Mrs Blakeway and Ms Boatswain for their support and encouragement with merch and posters!
Lastly, Year 4 want to thank YOU; all the girls, families, and Year 4 parents, who generously donated via the concert ticket link or through gold coins last week. Without you the girls wouldn’t have raised this fantastic amount for the ILF! Thank you!
Rebecca Woodcock Acting Head of Student Wellbeing (Primary School)
From the Chaplain
The SCEGGS Podcast “Walk The Mile” Episode 26: Are you a poet and you don’t know it?
Words can be very powerful things. They can be used to encourage, enquire, empathise and enrich. They can also be used to destroy, confuse, offend and humiliate. This episode is a conversation with our Head of English, Jenny Bean, and one of our exiting Year 12 students, Lucia Gelonesi. We discuss all things English: the benefits of studying it, the reasons why we do study it, the power of literature and a vision for it as well. I hope you enjoy listening to some words about words.
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
School Chaplain
Visual Arts
SCOPE #10
We are proud to present the latest edition of SCOPE, the School’s Art magazine, edited, organised and written by Visual Arts students. A special mention to the contributors for this edition, Matisse Asher (Year 11), Leyla Bensan (Year 10), Janet Zheng (Year 10), Zara Buchen (Year 10), Lara Enright (Year 11), Jemima Hanning (Year 10), Bianca Rozsa (Year 10) and Akira Nicholson (Year 10). The editorial team focused on Women in the Arts for this edition and there are fantastic articles to read, reviews of exhibitions by SCEGGS students in Years 7 to 12 and analyses of shows at the Art Gallery of NSW, SH Irvin Gallery and The Cross Arts Project and some excellent essays on Modernist women painters.
Matisse, Akira and Leyla have done a wonderful job as the lead editorial team and we congratulate them for such a dynamic issue!
Michaela Gleave: The influence of an idea on the physical properties of the world
The release of a monograph on Michaela Gleave, our Visual Arts Assistant, is launching at Sydney Contemporary this Thursday!
Formist Editions is thrilled to release the publication The influence of an idea on the physical properties of the world, which investigates Michaela’s diverse practice and preoccupation with concepts of space – be it physical, unearthly or intangible – often referencing natural phenomena and tricks of perception. This debut publication reveals Michaela’s deep curiosity in better understanding the structures and frameworks that shape our known universe, and the human experience central to it.
The publication will be launched at 7.40pm on the Opening Night of Sydney Contemporary 2022, Wednesday 7 September, at the Formist Editions booth (D01) in the Future Hall (Bay 20) at Carriageworks. The book launch coincides with three performances of Gleave’s Cosmic Time at 6, 7 and 8pm on Opening Night. Theinfluence of an idea on the physical properties of the world will be available from Formist Editions at Sydney Contemporary, and via the Formist Editions online store, formisteditions.co.
Edward Burtynsky | Australian Premiere: In the wake of Progress
Students are invited to immerse themselves in the mesmerising patterns and epic panoramas of our planet in an absorbing new work from acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. This is currently on show as part of the Sydney Festival in Taylor Square, down the road from SCEGGS. In the wake of Progress tells the story of human industry’s impact on Earth with exquisite artistry and extraordinary scale, urging us to rethink our legacy and seek a more sustainable future. 40 years in the making, In the Wake of Progress combines the most powerful photographs and film footage of Burtynsky’s career, characterised by award-winning aerial work and dramatic industrial landscapes. Co-produced by Canadian music legend Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed) and set to a stirring original score by multi award-winning composer Phil Strong, the result is a deeply moving 22 minutes.
“Burtynsky’s photos have the texture of neo-Expressionist paintings: darkly gorgeous portraits of devastation.” – The New Yorker
Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts
Music Matters
ASBOF – Amati Strings and Holst Wind Band
The SCEGGS Secondary competitions (Amati Strings and Holst Wind Band) will take place on Sunday 11 September at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Please see below:
Tickets for the ASBOF Competition are now on sale. The tickets for this event (25% discount when purchasing online) can be accessed via the ASBOF website.
The ASBOF Web App is also accessible via the website and gives parents access to the full Festival Draw.
Please see below for the information and ensembles that are involved in this year’s competition:
Sunday 11 September – Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Amati – arrival time of 10am
Best wishes to our Secondary ensembles!
Congratulations – Primary Piano Concert
Congratulations to all the budding pianists who performed in the Primary Piano Concert last Thursday 1 September in the Great Hall.
Mia Anderson
Alice Apathy
Lily Apathy
Defne Aslan
Anastasia Atgemis
Cleo Ballard
Chloe Buttigieg
Alice Cameron
Viola Heery
Ying Huang
Mackenzie Jothy
Mimi Macris
Grace McLaughlin
Aerin Murphy
Anara Murugesan
Amelie Officer
Eve Parker
Olympia Polyviou
Victoria Poniros
Stasia Serafin
Josephine Smith
Sophia Surridge
Isabelle Tawfik
Eve Tawfik
Claire Tesvic
Luca Tuigamala
Grace Walsh
Charlotte Willis
Olivia Worldon
Aleisha Yeung
Many thanks to our SCEGGS piano teachers, Lisa Adamik, Natalia Deasy, Catherine Lie & Chloe Waldron Reilly, and to the external piano teachers who have prepared these performances. Thank you to Ms Heidi Jones who organised the concert and to Mrs Bronwyn Cleworth for her assistance. Well done girls!
AMEB EXAMINATIONS – Violin Practical Examinations
Congratulations to the following girls who recently did their AMEB practical examinations for violin:
Susanna Brown – Grade 2 Comprehensive
Serafina Kwok – Grade 3 Comprehensive
Special thanks to Ms Stephanie Holmes for accompanying them in rehearsals and on exam day.
Anne Sweeney Director of Strings
Term 3 Calendar of Music Events
Week 8
ASBOF Competition – Sunday 11 September (Amati Strings and Holst Wind Ensemble)
Week 9
Stage 3 Concert, Thursday 15 September, 6pm, Great Hall
Pauline Chow Head of Music
From the Primary School
It was so wonderful to be able to welcome so many Dads, Grandfathers, and significant male figures into the Primary School on Thursday morning for our Father’s Day Breakfast. This was the first “in real life” Father’s Day breakfast we have been able to have, so it was an absolute delight to be joined by over 200 people who enjoyed a range of tasty treats for breakfast, barista coffee from a coffee cart, playing games together on the playground, making key fobs from nuts and bolts and listening to a beautiful singing performance by our K-2 girls.
It was a very special morning, and we thank everyone who was able to join us.
A big thank you goes to Ms Woodcock for her help in organising the event.
Helen Dempsey
Head of Primary
Stage 3 Concert Information
We are very excited to present our Stage 3 Concert in The Great Hall on Thursday 15 September at 6pm which will be a showcase of our music classes, choirs and shared love of music.
This concert will include performances by the entire Stage 3 cohort, featuring class items, massed Stage 3 Choirs featuring Strings and Percussion, with additional performances by the Ukulele Ensemble, Cantare Choir and solos.
Each Year 6 and 5 student is expected to attend and take part in the performance. We would love all parents and families to attend.
Please note there will also be a daytime performance which all Primary School students will attend.
Performance day arrangements:
Thursday 15 September
Students will go home after school as usual, eat a light meal, and should be dropped off at the Diana Bowman gate at 5.30pm.
Students who would normally attend After School Care will be escorted to the Great Hall by a staff member who will also assist in helping them prepare for the performance.
Students playing in the Strings, Ukulele and Percussion Ensembles will leave their instrument at school on Thursday afternoon ready for the evening performance.
Timing
Commencing at 6pm, the performance will run for approximately 1 hour.
Car Park
The Joan Freeman car park will be open to all parents form 5.30pm. The car park will close promptly after the conclusion of the event at 8pm.
Costumes
All students will perform in their Winter Uniform WITHOUT their Blazer.
Students must bring with them their labelled sports bag with a water bottle that has been filled, a quiet, small snack and a jumper or blazer for them to wear in between items if they are cold.
Dismissal
Following the show, Year 6 girls will be dismissed from the courtyard and the Year 5 girls from inside the Great Hall. Students are asked to wait in their designated area at the rear of the Great Hall until they have been dismissed by a staff member. In the event of wet weather, students will be kept in the Great Hall and dismissed from the side door.
Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any queries regarding the arrangements. Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you at the show.
It was so pleasing to see a number of SCEGGS students from the Primary and Secondary School submit entries to the prestigious Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards. The theme “In my Opinion” elicited a range of provocative and thoughtful responses and encouraged students to draw both from their own experiences and the political landscape surrounding them. All students who participated are congratulated and will receive certificates acknowledging their efforts in class.
We would like to congratulate in particular Eleanor Lawrie who was Shortlisted for her poem “Rabbit” and Zoe Coudounaris who was Highly Commended for her poem “Alone this Girl sits.” The judges commented on the fact that “poetry has always been the most emotive of the written arts, yet you will find poems in this collection where the imagery and control of language serve to heighten the emotions rather than over-dramatise them, the mark of successful poetry.”
More information about the award winners for the Dorothea Mackellar Competition can be found here.
We encourage all keen writers to enter to internal SCEGGS Betty Behan and Gwen Cockell Prizes; so many opportunities await!
Betty Behan and Gwen Cockell English Prizes
Invitation to enter Speech night prizes
Each year SCEGGS invites students in Years 7 – 10 to submit their creative fiction and poetry writing into the Betty Behan Memorial Prize for Short Story and Gwen Cockell Prize for Creative Writing (awarded for Poetry). Named in honour of an old girl and former English teacher, these prizes are awarded at Speech Night and are a wonderful way of celebrating the writing of our students. Winning entries and extracts of commended pieces of work are also published each year in the Lux magazine.
Students are invited to submit work that they have completed in class, or which they have worked on independently over the year. Each year we are thrilled to have so many entries from the talented writers at SCEGGS. The closing date for entries is Term 4 Week 2 (Friday 21st October). Students can follow this link to read the instructions, upload their work and read winning entries from previous years.
Jenny Bean Head of English
SRC News
On August 25, the Year 11 SRC students were given the opportunity to attend the inaugural SRC Convention, organised and hosted by Cranbrook, to meet with SRC groups from other schools. This afternoon involved discussing the different proposals and improvements that various student leaders and committee members had contributed to their school community.
We learnt a lot by talking with other schools’ SRC representatives and found it interesting to hear what proposals other schools had been working on. For example, we had many discussions with other SRC members about the committee application process and how their schools make leadership opportunities available to students. As it was the day before Wear It Purple Day, we discussed with other schools what we had planned for this day. Other ideas mentioned included bake sales and clothes swaps.
Another key aspect of this afternoon included a talk and Q&A with Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC and Lucy Turnbull AO. This was a highly informative and engaging discussion about the qualities that a great leader possesses, and it was particularly interesting to consider these ideas in light of the upcoming Prefect and House Committee selections. The main takeaways from these discussions included the importance of maintaining authenticity and upholding your values whilst in a leadership position to assist those in your community.
Overall, we were all very grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend the SRC Convention, and we hope that these opportunities continue to be available for other students in future years. We learned valuable lessons about leadership in a social environment and we came away feeling proud of our progress as an SRC and of the passion each SCEGGS SRC member has.
Laura Davies, Ruby Cooney, and Alexandra Kuo
Mondovision 2022
Mondovision, SCEGGS’ own version of the Eurovision song contest with songs from all around the world, took place this term to a packed audience in the Great Hall.
After weeks spent learning a song in another language and arranging choreography, 12 groups battled it out at auditions for a place in the Mondovision Highlights concert on Friday. There was a diverse range of groups from Year 8 to Year 12, with performances in French, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin and Spanish.
Our judges, Miss Jackson, Miss Smith and Mr Barrientos were spoilt for choice but after careful deliberation, first place was awarded to a combined group of Years 8 and 11 Chinese students who dazzled the audience with their interpretation of the Moana theme song in Chinese. Congratulations to Elizabeth Lapham, Sophie McGrath, Jemima Louie Smith, Mietta Paipetis, Vivienne Henry, Louise Bein, Amelie Hewitt-Taylor, Ruby Hughes, Ava Martin, Chloe Ramchand and Chloe Yule who won the Mondovision trophy and a voucher to enjoy a Messina ice cream. Thank you to all the participants who performed with so much enthusiasm and talent, to Emma Juneja and Allegra Sintras for hosting the event like professionals and to all the students and teachers who came along and cheered on the performers.
Angelique Deleeuw Head of Languages
Primary Sport News
Term 3 Sport
As we round off the last games for the Term 3 Sports season, we wish the best of luck to all our teams competing this Saturday. In what has been a disrupted season due to ongoing rain, we hope that everyone has enjoyed their time playing AFL, Touch Football or Minkey (Year 3).
Well done to the teams who braved the testing conditions on Saturday morning. See below photos from our Year 6A Touch Football, Year 5A Touch Football and AFL girls who had a blast in the rain!
Year 6A Touch Football
Year 5-6 AFL
Year 5A Touch Football
Term 4 Sports Trials
As one thing finishes, another begins. We look forward to seeing everyone enrolled in Term 4 Sport at trials. The dates and times are as follows.
IPSHA Basketball Year 4
Training sessions will be held in Weeks 9 and 10 of Term 3 as follows:
Tuesday 13 September
3.15pm – 5pm
SCEGGS Sports Hall
Saturday 17 September
8.30am – 10am
Venue TBD
Tuesday 20 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
SCEGGS Sports Hall
For all Tuesday training sessions, girls will meet coaches on the SCEGGS Sports Hall at the end of the school day. Girls are to be picked up from the Sports Hall on Forbes Street at 5pm.
IPSHA Basketball Years 5-6
Training sessions will be held in Weeks 9 and 10 of Term 3 as follows:
Tuesday 13 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
CPSC Netball Courts Moore Park
Saturday 17 September
8.30am – 10am
CPSC Netball Courts Moore Park
Tuesday 20 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
CPSC Netball Courts Moore Park
For all Tuesday training sessions, girls will meet coaches on the SCEGGS Sports Hall at the end of the school day. Girls are to be picked up at 4.50pm from CPSC Netball Courts, Robertson Road or from outside the Sports Hall on Forbes Street at 5.20pm if returning on the bus.
IPSHA Cricket Years 4-6
Training sessions will be held in Weeks 9 and 10 of Term 3 as follows:
Tuesday 13 September
3.15pm – 4:50pm
Moore Park Synthetic Field
Saturday 17 September
8.30am – 10am
Moore Park Synthetic Field
Tuesday 20 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
Moore Park Synthetic Field
For all Tuesday training sessions, girls will meet coaches on the SCEGGS Sports Hall at the end of the school day. Girls are to be picked up at 4.50pm from CPSC Moore Park Synthetic Field, Robertson Road or from outside the Sports Hall on Forbes Street at 5.20pm if returning on the bus.
IPSHA Tennis Years 4-6
Training sessions will be held in Weeks 9 and 10 of Term 3 as follows:
Tuesday 13 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
Parklands Tennis Centre, Robertson Road
Saturday 17 September
8am – 9.30am
Parklands Tennis Centre, Robertson Road
Tuesday 20 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
Parklands Tennis Centre, Robertson Road
For all Tuesday training sessions, girls will meet coaches on the SCEGGS Sports Hall at the end of the school day. Girls are to be picked up at 4.50pm from Parklands Tennis Centre, Robertson Road or from outside the Sports Hall on Forbes Street at 5.20pm if returning on the bus.
Year 3 Football
Trial sessions will be held in Week 9 and 10 of Term 3 as follows:
Tuesday 13 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
Moore Park Synthetic Field
Tuesday 20 September
3.15pm – 4.50pm
Moore Park Synthetic Field
For Tuesday sessions, girls will catch the bus to and from SCEGGS. Girls can be picked up at 4:50 pm from Moore Park or approximately 5:20 pm outside the Sports Hall on Forbes Street.
Term 4 Sport Nomination Forms
A big thank you to all of the families who have returned their Sport Nomination Forms for Term 4. If you have not, please contact Tom Mitton or Brittany Robbins.
Holiday Clinics
Tennis
SCEGGS’s Exclusive Tennis Coaches Justin and Vince are hosting a SCEGGS JUNIOR SCHOOL ONLY tennis program this upcoming school holidays.
All standards are welcome and programmed for; Beginners, Intermediate and Frequent Players.
$210.00 Two-Day Price / $110.00 One-Day Price, plus GST
Justin and Vince are the long-time and current coaches of the SCEGGS Tildesely Tennis Team and run certain PE tennis classes for SCEGGS junior school.
Please take a look at the attachment here and feel free to contact us if you have any questions/inquiries.
AFL
For those girls who are looking for a bit more AFL in Term 4, there is an AFLX Competition running at Moore Park on Monday afternoons from 10/10/2022 – 12/12/2022. We would love to get a SCEGGS team together to compete; whether you are an experienced player or have never played before, we would love to hear from you! For more information, visit here.
For those interested in signing up as part of a team or as an individual, please email me.
SCEGGS Training sessions after school plus Saturday Sport
After a week’s worth of cancelled Saturday sports (mostly), now more than ever it is important to keep up to date with all sports cancellations/changes. Please stay subscribed to the @SCEGGSSport Twitter feed for the latest updates relating to cancellations.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on 0435 138 037. Alternatively, if you have any news or photos that we can highlight in the newsletters, please email TomMitton@sceggs.nsw.edu.au.
Tom Mitton PDHPE and Sport Coordinator: Primary
Secondary Sport News
Term 4 Touch Trials
All students are to check their emails sent from Ms Thompson regarding Touch Trial for next term.
Saturday September 10 – Moore Park Synthetic Turf
11am -12.30pm
Seniors Years 10 & 11
12.30pm – 2pm
Senior 1sts & Junior 1st Trials
Tuesday September 13 – David Phillips Sports Complex Daceyville
3.15pm – 5pm
All Year 7
AFL
Congratulations to our six SCEGGS students who represented the Easts Bulldogs that won the Sydney Under 14s Division 1 grade. They defeated the Willoughby Mosman Swans in the grand final 52 – 8.
The team consisted of Claudine Hambly, Yve Mitchell, Zara Torrance, Delilah Hooper, Sadie Juneja and Rosie Pallett. The team is coached by Yve’s mum, Margot. It was a great match in tough muddy conditions at Macquarie Uni Oval.
NSW Snowsports Championships
SCEGGS had 15 students who competed at the NSW Interschools Snowsports Championships that were held at Perisher recently.
Highlights from the week were as follows
Division 1 Moguls: Scarlett Phillips placed 17th
Division 1 Alpine Team placed 6th overall: Scarlett Phillips (4th), Lily Punch (6th), Sophie McGrath, Jessica Vernon
Division 2 Alpine Team placed 13th overall: Abigail Grace, Hannah Marchant-Williams, Bianca Rozsa, Zara Grace
Cross Country Classic Division 1 Team placed 4th overall: Tilda Meggitt, Scarlett Phillips, Zara Buchen
Cross Country Classic Division 2: Abigail Grace, Zara Grace
Cross Country Classic Division 4: Gemma Shennan 10th
Cross Country Relay Division 1 Team placed 4th overall: Tilda Meggitt, Scarlett Phillips, Zara Buchen
Good luck to the following students who have qualified and are competing the Australian Interschools Championships this week: Lily Punch, Scarlett Phillips, Sophie McGrath, Evangeline Marr, Tilda Meggitt, Zara Buchen, Abigail Grace, Gemma Shennan and Jessica Grace.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Congratulations to Sienna Morris on her wonderful performances at the Ascham Friendly Event for Levels 3-4 Rhythmic Gymnastics on Sunday 28 August at Ascham.
There is a new IGSA website and platform for accessing wet weather, fixtures and team results. You do not need to register or sign up to be a member to access this site.
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 alisongowan@sceggs.nsw.edu.au
Alison Gowan Director of Sport
Science News
Biotech Triumph
On 29 August, we were fortunate enough to participate in the BIOTech Futures Symposium. BIOTech Futures is an annual competition which sees high school students from across Australia and New Zealand engineer solutions to address current problems in healthcare and the environment using biotechnology.
From around the end of June we started our project “3D bioprinted placenta for developing new generational treatments for high risk pregnancies.” After meeting with our allocated mentor Lana McClements who is a Senior Lecturer at UTS, we decided to focus on pre-eclampsia, a potentially fatal pregnancy complication caused by maldevelopment of the placenta. After 3 weeks of in-depth research, we developed a bioprinted placenta-on-a-chip which emulated the environment and layers of the placental barrier in a small chip-like device. This chip would allow for the successful testing of treatments without clinical testing or animal testing, which can be unethical and unsafe. We submitted a poster and video on the 31 July, and received great news on 22 August we were one of the 25 finalists!
On 29 August, we presented our solution live to a panel of judges and other BIOTech participants. On the day we heard from University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and President Mark Scott AO, The Hon. Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology and Minister for Skills and Training Alister Henskens, and Professor Hala Zreiqat as well as the fascinating presentations by other students. The presentations ranged from restoring touch with optogenetics and bioluminescence to moisture gloves to reduce the symptoms of psoriasis.
This was such a wonderful and educational experience, and we really enjoyed the challenge. Being able to participate really changed our thoughts on what we could do after school in the biotechnology sector and inspired us to pursue careers as women in STEM. We would like to thank Mr Hanson for giving us this unique opportunity, Ms Sharma for enduring all of our questions, and Ms Budden for accompanying us on the day.
Teagan Barrack, Rebecca Colwell, Sophia Chu, Janet Zheng
Year 10
French Café 2022
Bienvenue au Café Aux Trois Pigeons! On Friday, 2 September, the French Café reopened once again, with the girls in Year 4 hosting the girls in Year 3. It was a wonderful opportunity for the girls to be immersed in an authentic learning experience which inspired them to speak as much French as possible with the reminder anglais interdit! (English not permitted!). Many questions were heard such as Une table pour combien de personnes? (A table for how many people?) and Qu’est-ce que vous voudrez? (What would you like?). Our Year 4 hosts welcomed the girls in Year 3 with a friendly attitude.
The menu included a croissant and a pain au chocolat, while the girls were able to choose either a jus d’orange or une grenadine from the drink selection. Through repetition of the questions in Year 4 and repeated answers to these questions by Year 3, the girls had many occasions to expand their vocabulary repertoire whilst building their intercultural awareness as well. It was a joyful experience as we received a surprise visit from the girls in Year 11 French. They were impressed with the committed and enthusiastic approach of our hosts! There are many wonderful French cafés near us too. With travel on our mind, you may decide to travel to a French-speaking country yourself. On your next French café visit, we therefore encourage you to ask your daughter how to order from a café menu in French. Au revoir!
Hannah Tu-Hoa and Lale Arbabzadah Primary French Teachers
Debating
Our Year 9 team are Champions of the Juniors division for Archdale Debating 2022! Congratulations to the team for their performance on Tuesday night – the three adjudicators were unanimous in their decision to award the debate to us on the negative of “that we should give more votes to people who are active in the community.” The team consisted of: Aasha Maunsell, Bianca Hardge, Emily Rowland, Georgia Tsangaris, Katharine Conaglen, and Lila Eversgerd.
Thank you also to all the SCEGGS debaters not in the final who showed up to support our Year 9s and to help with the hosting of the Grand Final. In particular, thank you to our Debating Captain Kiara Wijesinghe for all her work.
Imogen Harper Debating Coordinator
Public Speaking
Legacy Junior Speaking Award
The Regional round of the Legacy Junior Speaking Award was held on 23 August with Celia Watson representing SCEGGS. This was again on Zoom where contestants can view each other for the prepared speech but we do not get to hear the impromptu speeches.
While Celia did a great job in eloquently delivering her speeches she did not progress to the semi-finals. Well done Celia congratulations on getting to the regional level.
Sandra Carter Public Speaking Co-ordinator
UN Negotiation Competition
This term, SCEGGS began competing in the NSW Youth United Nations Negotiations Competition with five teams of two representing the school – Emma Juneja, Leyla Ozen, Catherine Park, Nicola Allen, Julia Richards, Hannah Guest, Sybilla Hooke, Lucy Thomsen, Helena Piazza and myself. The preliminary rounds were held over Zoom in the beginning weeks of the term, with teams first representing Ethiopia in negotiations with Sudan over the disputed Al-Fashaga region, and then representing either France or Australia in negotiations over the failed submarine deal between the countries. All teams worked hard at understanding these complex international issues and upholding the needs of the country they represented in negotiations, speaking eloquently to propose mutually beneficial solutions to disputes. A huge congratulations to all teams on their commitment and passion to this activity, especially given this was the first year SCEGGS competed.
Of the over 75 teams across the state, 8 teams were selected to make the semi-finals on Monday 29 August at UTS. Helena and I gained a place in the semi-finals, representing Turkey in a negotiation with Greece regarding the dispute over the sovereignty of the Aegean Sea. We were then one of two teams to progress to the Grand Final. We had 30 minutes to prepare to represent Pakistan in a negotiation against India regarding the ongoing conflict in the Kashmir and Jammu regions. This involved researching the nature of the conflict and the interests of Pakistan which we should prioritise in our case. Despite ultimately losing the Grand Final, we placed second overall in the state, which is a huge achievement, and we are very proud of how far we made it in the competition!
Youth UN was an incredibly exciting new public speaking opportunity for SCEGGS, and I hope that the enthusiasm for it will continue next year.
Bibi Kuo
Public Speaking Captain
Go Greener
Sydney Festival – Edward Burtynsky In the Wake of Progress
As noted in the Visual Arts article of this week’s newsletter, Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian and one of the world’s most accomplished photographers. His work, In the Wake of Progress, premiered at the Luminato Festival in Toronto in June 2022. This 22 minute film was 40 years in the making and explores the human industry’s impact on the Earth It is now being shown as part of the Sydney Festival.
This free event is screening on three nine metre screens at Taylor Square, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. Sessions begin every 30 minutes, starting from 5pm with the last presentation beginning at 9.30pm. This movie runs until 18 September. If you have the opportunity, this is a must see event and will make you think about what is happening to our world. Further information about this film can be found in this article from the Sydney Morning Herald.
