It has been delightful to have our Kindergarten girls back on-site this week and it was also lovely to see the VCE students who were at school to sit the General Achievement Test on Wednesday. Of course now we are excitedly anticipating the return of the girls in Prep to Year 7 as well as the Year 11 and 12 students on Monday. We feel so sorry for the Years 8, 9 and 10 students who must patiently endure another two weeks of remote learning before they will join us in person!
In these challenging times I have sometimes caught myself wishing the year away and I wonder whether this has been your experience too. We understandably focus on the better times we hope will come and urge this current year to finish as soon as it can. It is important, however, that in doing this, we don’t forget to celebrate the many accomplishments and milestones that have been part of 2020. To this end, we have carefully tried to reimagine a number of significant events and rituals that usually take place during Term 4, to allow us, even under these COVID-19 circumstances, to celebrate key moments in the journeys of the girls this year. I do hope that many members of our school community will join us via live stream for these events, beginning this week with the gift exchange between our Year 12 and Prep girls on Monday and the commissioning of our 2021 Prefect Body on Wednesday. It is also more important than ever in times of uncertainly and change that we remind ourselves of our values and our identity. These are reinforced through the rituals which I have already mentioned and also through the wearing of the uniform with pride as we all return to campus. I thank parents in advance for supporting us over the next few weeks with the upholding of uniform standards amongst the girls. Finally, as we head toward the final weeks of the year, it is essential that we continue to look after each other. Over the next few weeks, girls in Years 5 to 11 will undertake the annual Social and Emotional Wellbeing Surveys which will allow us to gather detailed feedback as to how they are travelling. This information will then be used to tailor the year level programs and develop the pastoral approaches for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. I look forward to sharing the excitement of the coming weeks with you all.
Ms Elisabeth Rhodes
Principal