eNews Archive Issue 15 - 20 May 2021

One of the speakers I listened to was Dr Lisa Damour, who spoke about what the events of the last year taught us about how to support and inspire female students. Dr Damour highlighted how the global pandemic has created opportunities to normalise the experiences of stress and anxiety and, in doing so, opened new paths for cultivating resilience in girls.

Dr Damour spoke about the definition of mental health that has taken hold over the last five to ten years. That is one knows that they are mentally healthy when they feel calm, relaxed and feel good. She argued that this is a problematic definition of mental health, as it is one that is not fully attainable and sustainable and can cause difficulties. Dr Damour expressed that she would like to reset this definition, to be mentally healthy meaning that you have the right feeling at the right time and that you are able to manage it effectively. She explained that of course there are times when a person feels sad, angry, lonely and concerned, and if this occurs in a moment that calls for this emotion, that is completely normal.

I was interested in what Dr Damour said about anxiety and again how this is a completely normal emotion. An example she gave is of a student who comes to her ‘freaking out’ about an upcoming assessment. When asked if the student has studied for the assessment, and the student’s response being ‘no’, her answer is that anxiety is what the student should be feeling, that this is her body’s response to this situation, and once the student starts to study they will feel much better.

Many reports tell us that anxiety in young people is on the rise, and there is much for us to do in this space to care for and look after our children, particularly if they are feeling these emotions at a time that doesn’t correlate with when they should be feeling these emotions. I urge our students to access support in these situations, and sometimes having a conversation with a support person here at school can help to start this process. Often the first place to start is a student's classroom teacher or Form teacher, but please know that the Student Counsellor or School Chaplain are also available to be contacted.

• Student Counsellor - Sharon Stone: SStone@stmargarets.qld.edu.au
• School Chaplain - Reverend Susan Crothers-Robertson: SCrothers-Robertson@stmargarets.qld.edu.au

Karen Gorrie

The subject for this week’s session was “A High-Performance Approach to Study” presented by Scott Francis. This session was based on the overall theme that effective study is a combination of the time spent, but most importantly the intensity of the effort during this time. He provided the participants with strategies to increase and enhance the effort that is needed during study time. He also discussed three fundamentals that support effective study: sleep, engagement in class and mindset. It was nice to share this presentation with senior students who attended the evening. They all walked away with some new ideas as to how to become better at study practices. If you missed this evening, details of how to access the recording are in the Dean of Studies’ article.

As we move towards the end of Term 2, we are preparing to start the staffing and timetabling process for 2022. The Dean of Studies and Acting Dean of Academics have both included details in their articles of the Subject Selection Evenings being held next week for our current Years 8, 9 and 10 students. At these subject selection evenings information will be shared about the 2022 Years 9, 10 and 11/12 subject selection processes and changes. I look forward to attending these evenings to talk to parents and students about subjects and plans for 2022.

Nicole Devlin

In the Prayer Space, students are invited to enter into a time of quietness. Students are encouraged to pray, reflect or think about things in their own lives, to reflect about others, the world and their relationship with God.

This term, the Prayer Space theme is “Reconciliation” and will be held during Reconciliation Week. The concept for this Prayer Space was created by Reverend Gillian Moses, the Chaplain at St Aidan’s and me. It is based on the story of Thomas Pamphlet who was a convict and a castaway on Moreton Bay. He and fellow convicts escaped and were cared for by the Quandamooka people at Amity on Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island). If it was not for their care, the convicts probably would not have survived.

One of the stations in the Reconciliation Prayer Space will be the bark canoe; the Quandamooka people gave Pamphlet and his friends a bark canoe. At this station the students will be invited to think about the Torres Strait and Aboriginal culture and our hopes and dreams.

Peace in the Middle East

God of mercy and compassion,

of grace and reconciliation,

pour your power upon all your children in the Middle East:

Jews, Muslims and Christians,

Palestinians and Israelis.

Let hatred be turned into love, fear to trust, despair to hope,

oppression to freedom, occupation to liberation,

that violent encounters may be replaced by loving embraces,

and peace and justice could be experienced by all. Amen.

Family Services

Term 2

8 June: 6pm, Year 9 Family Service (PDF 117.3KB)

Term 3

5 August: 6pm, Year 10 Family Service (PDF 134.6KB)

Susan Crothers-Robertson

Friday night provides the Year 8s with the opportunity to host a sleepover in the dorms for their ‘Day Girl’ friends. This evening of fun and frivolity not only allows the girls to show off their ‘home away from home’ to their friends, but also gives them the chance to reciprocate the many invitations from Day families our Boarders enjoy. Day girl sleep overs happen in Years 7, 8 and 9, and Friday night is extra special for our current Year 8s as they missed out on their Year 7 sleepover last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Angela Crowe

The aim of this profile is to help students to:

• Understand how they learn and receive information
• Appreciate their areas of strength
• Identify their interests
• Investigate transferable skills such as personal organisation and creativity
• Stimulate their thinking about possible and exciting career ideas

This Friday, the Heads of Faculty, Ms Naomi Holley (Director - Careers and Portfolio Pathway) and myself will be speaking to the Year 10 students about the QCE, QTAC, the Portfolio Pathway and subject selection for next year. The girls will also attend the Careers Expo.

Next Thursday evening, a Year 11 2022 Subject Information Evening will be held, starting at 6:00pm in The Loft. Parents may attend the session or view via live stream. Ms Erin Buckingham, Acting Head of Year 10 communicated this information to families this week. A reminder also to parents and guardians of Year 10 students, you can access information about the Years 11 and 12 Curriculum and subject selection through The POD Year 10 Year Level page, by clicking on the CETLE Students link in the Need to Know section. This will take you through to the CELTLE (Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence) page and from here, select Students. All information can then be found under Subject Selection.

As mentioned previously, Ms Naomi Holley, Ms Lesa Fowler, Ms Caitlin McCluskey, Ms Liz Johnston and I will meet with the Year 10 students to plan and discuss their senior pathways. It has been great to see the girls so engaged in their profiles and discussing careers and subjects for school and beyond.

A thank you must go to Ms Naomi Holley (Director - Careers and Portfolio Pathways) for her management of the Careers and Futures program at St Margaret’s.

Changes to Year 10 Curriculum for 2022

This week, all parents of Year 9 students would have received an invitation to an Information Evening on Wednesday 26 May. At this evening, information will be shared with parents about changes to the Year 10 Curriculum Program for 2022. These changes are being made to engage all students in a process that will assist them as they move towards attaining their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE). Nicole Devlin spoke to all Year 9 students on Thursday this week about the changes and all received a copy of the Year 10 2022 Curriculum Handbook. We look forward to sharing this information will all Year 9 parents in The Loft or Online on the 26 May at 6:30pm.

Year 12 2022 English and Music Extension

Year 11 students have the option of studying English and Literature Extension or Music Extension. Extension subjects are only offered for Units 3 and 4 and will commence in Term 4 this year. Music students and high performing English and Literature students will be invited to a meeting in early Term 3 to learn more about the courses. If your daughter is interested in these subjects, please ask her to see Mrs Walker for Music Extension or Ms Layton for English and Literature Extension for more information. Students who choose to study an extension subject will be required to drop one of their existing subjects at the end of Unit 2.

Nikki Townsend

PISA Field Trial

Attached is a brochure regarding the PISA 2021 Field Trial (PDF 822.3KB), in which St Margaret’s is participating. Seventy-five (75) students have been randomly selected by PISA from Years 10 and 11. In the coming days, the selected students and their parents will be contacted regarding the requirements for this trial.

Subject Selection

Next week, we are holding various subject selection evenings. Tuesday night will be the Subject Selection Evening for Year 9 students in 2022 (current Year 8 students). This year, we are offering the opportunity to attend in person or live stream the event and will be facilitating a Q&A panel with the Heads of Faculty. For those watching at home, you will be able to ask questions via the live stream link and have these answered in real time. To prepare for this evening, we would ask that you and your daughter read through the Curriculum Handbook which students will receive in Form time on Friday and is also available on the website and the POD.

Caitlin McCluskey

Students from Years 7-12 engaged in many texts, wrote literary essays and received affirmations for their efforts, abilities and achievements while involved in the Churchie Literature Challenge ‘Crime and Punishment’. Likewise, Year 10 students participated in the Ethics Olympiad, a national competition which took place virtually. The teams defended a position they believed to be right and demonstrated that they thought carefully and deeply about the case. Their efforts and achievements reveal an appreciation for diverse points of view, critical thinking skills and collaborative skills. The videos created by the Secondary House Captains and Primary House Leaders for Giving Day have shown creative collaboration and commitment to their Houses. Students are to be commended for the kind, caring and energetic way that they have contributed to Giving Day through their baking, serving and participation in events. The community spirit shown reaffirms their appreciation of each other and their role in creating the dynamic learning environment of St Margaret’s.

Nicole Walker

Consent is a concept that has received a lot of media attention over the past months and provided the school with the impetus to reflect on our wellbeing programs. Evidence of where respectful relations, in turn, consent, is taught in each of the year levels is shared on the year level POD page. The flow diagram below illustrates how our programs contribute to respectful relationships:

A key aspect of teaching consent is to teach children to have the confidence to say ‘no’ to their peers. Through the teaching of our anti-bullying program, we ensure our students know easy phrases and actions they can use if not comfortable, for example, putting their hand out like a stop sign and saying "stop, I don’t like that".

We are now helping students to make the link with words they use to stop bullying that can also be used in other situations when a child feels uncomfortable. Also, we encourage students to talk to a trusted adult if anything happens that makes them feel uncomfortable.

Group Chats

Group chats with friends is an area that children need guidance in, in relation to demonstrating respectful relations. Kirra Pendergast, online safety expert, recommends for children under 13 years using group chat need to be supervised by strict parental controls and vigilant parents. As she states, “group chats can be where drama, nasty behaviours, exclusion, cancel culture and bullying can thrive”. At school, we help children build intellectual muscle by teaching them the life skill of politely exiting a social situation that they feel uncomfortable in, both online and off. I encourage parents to support us by doing the same thing at home and to check your child’s online history on a regular basis.

In summary she offers the following valuable tips:

Helping young people take control

Keep group chats positive, helpful, and supportive. These are not places where we have a whinge about someone else, reveal our intimate secrets, send inappropriate images or create drama, gossip, or spread rumours.

Teach your child how to leave

Often kids are in multiple chats at once. If the chat is getting toxic, bullying is happening or images circulated, or anything that may be deemed illegal, take a screenshot and log out, so they do not find themselves in a “guilty by association” situation if something gets reported. Sometimes they have got no other option but to leave a group chat - the notifications have become too much, the conversation has become increasingly irrelevant, and their phone has become cluttered with too many group chats for them to keep across them all.

Make sure they know they should not feel compelled to respond straight away or be a part of every single interaction.

Leaving a group chat without warning can offend the remaining group members and become an awkward situation for our text-obsessed generation.

Teach them the skills to know how to leave a group chat that is not helpful or is harmful in any way, including the actual words to use should they need to leave. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a significant factor in a tween/teen’s life, so you will need to navigate around that as well.

Kids have come up with statements such as “sorry guys, this is getting pretty nasty, I am out of here” as words they can use when they need to remove themselves. However, not all kids have that confidence, and many would prefer to remove themselves from the chat. Again, not always easy for young kids, but we do want them to always be in charge of their online interactions and how those interactions may affect their reputation and digital footprint.

Remember that just because there are only six participants in a private chat does not mean that the chat will remain private. There are plenty of ways these chats can become very public.

These are just a few tips, if you would like more information you can follow up through this link: Home (safeonsocialtoolkit.com).

Year 6 parents and students are being offered an eight-module course through the eSmart Digital Licence and we strongly encourage parents to complete it along side your child.

Angela Drysdale

Music Support Group Raffle

The Music Support Group has organised a special raffle to be drawn on the evening of the Classics in the Cathedral concert on 4 June.

Prizes include:

• Apple IPAD 7th Generation Wi Fi 32GB Space Grey
• Yungaba Acrylic on Canvas Painting by local Brisbane artist, Jenny Lishman
• 10 Tickets to EPIC SOUNDS performance by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
• Gourmet Hamper by Wild at Heart Gift Hampers
• Bottle of Pol Roger Champagne
• Bottle of Bollinger Champagne
• QPAC Voucher
• Voucher to VANO Hair Studio
• 2 x Tickets to Gold Class Movies

All proceeds will contribute to the purchase of music instruments/resources for students involved in the St Margaret’s Music Program.

Tickets may be purchased via RaffleTix.

Thank you for your support!

Music Tour 2022

Flexischools is now open for deposits to be paid to secure a place for the proposed Music Tour to New Zealand in 2022 (PDF 1017.9KB). The Rhapsody Rotorua Music Festival will occur for one week in Rotorua, New Zealand during the June/July holidays in 2022. As part of the festival, students will perform in a variety of community and professional settings, as well as participate in numerous music workshops facilitated by professional musicians. A number of schools from around Australia are involved in the festival with students having the opportunity to interact and build friendships with other music students from the Pacific region. There will also be opportunities to build cultural awareness through special experiences organised by the Festival convenors, as well as experience some fun activities unique to the area. The tour will be open to Secondary students who are involved in the following ensembles: Sister Helen Wind Symphony, Exultate and Chamber Strings.

Final costs are still to be confirmed and will be dependent on final numbers committing to the tour. As an approximation, we are aiming to keep the final tour cost under $4,000. To secure a place on the tour, an initial deposit of $210 is required. Deposit payments can be made via Flexischools: www.flexischools.com.au. (The deposit is fully refundable if insufficient numbers sign up for the tour.) To confirm your daughter’s involvement, payment needs to be made by Friday 4 June 2021.

We look forward to having many girls involved!

Boarder Musicians Recital

Thank you to all our Boarder musicians who performed at the Boarder Musician Recital held on Monday evening in the Arts Centre Foyer. It was a wonderful evening filled with many entertaining and engaging performances. All students who performed are to be congratulated on their efforts!

Music Support Group

The next Music Support Group meeting will be held on Tuesday 25 May at 5:00pm in the Primary Music Room (second floor of Chaseley). Parents from both the Primary and Secondary schools are welcome to attend.

Brad King

Age Group Results:

12 Years – 4th

13 Years – 3rd

14 Years – 1st

15 Years – 8th

16 Years – 3rd

17 Years – 6th

Congratulations to the following girls for recording outstanding individual results:

• Ava Thompson (12 Years) - 8th
• Priya Madders (13 Years) - 10th
• Matilda Lee (14 Years) - 3rd
• Milla Roberts (14 Years) - 7th
• Millie Campbell (14 Years) - 8th
• Isabella Harte (16 Years) - 1st
• Sally Bambling (16 Years) - 9th
• Chloe Fenwicke (17 Years) - 2nd

A huge thank you must go to Mrs Susan Uhlmann for her coordination of the team, Mr Eric Brown and all the of coaches for their tireless effort. Additional thanks to Ms Erin Buckingham and Ms Stephanie Cowie for their contribution to the season. Lastly, thanks to all families for the terrific support of the girls on the day and over the season.

Autumn Fixtures

There are two more weeks of the Autumn season for our Touch Football, Basketball and Soccer teams. To accommodate for the wash out rounds, teams will be playing on the below dates. Please ensure you view all draws on each individual POD page.

• Friday 21 May vs Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School - Touch Football, Soccer and Basketball
• Monday 24 May vs Somerville House and St Hilda’s School - Touch Football (please check draws for teams and venues)
• Friday 28 May vs Clayfield College - Touch Football and Soccer

Athletics

All training will be delayed by one week; therefore training will commence on Monday 31 May. This is to accommodate for the final week of Autumn fixtures. For up to date information on the season, please see the Athletics POD page.

Congratulations…

Lauren Packer (Year 9) and Elle Gordon (Year 10) who represented the Metropolitan North Regional team at the recent Queensland School Sport State Championships for Netball at Bundaberg.

Helen Lobegeiger

Giving Day is live!

Today, Thursday 20 May, is St Margaret’s Annual Giving Day. For just 24 hours, all donations to the St Margaret’s Building or Scholarship Funds will be doubled thanks to the generosity of our matching donors.

Your Building Fund donation will help us to ensure our facilities can continue to deliver the best education to St Margaret’s students. Your donation to our Scholarship Fund will provide some girls the opportunity of a St Margaret’s education they never thought they would have.

You can follow the live campaign at: www.charidy.com/everygirl.

There is much excitement across the School as the girls took part in a Coin Drive at the Sports Precinct during Morning tea, and a House Dance competition on Circular Drive during lunchtime. House competition is very much a part of this special day, so be sure to nominate your family’s House, or your old House if you are an Old Girl of St Margaret’s.

Enormous thanks to our extremely generous matching donors, and to all members of the St Margaret’s community for participating in this appeal.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact Lindsay Khushal, Director of Philanthropy and Stakeholder Engagement (Acting) on 07 3862 0884 or email: foundation@stmargarets.qld.edu.au.

Lindsay Khushal

Open Days scheduled for 2021

QTAC has now updated their Open Days and Expos page. Please click here to find out when the tertiary institution/s you are interested in attending has/have scheduled their Open Day.

GUESTS applications for Trimester 2 now open

Griffith University Early Start to Tertiary Studies (GUESTS) program is a great opportunity for motivated Years 11 and 12 students to sample their desired degree and make a start on their university studies. Benefits of the GUESTS program include two adjustments per course completed when applying for a Griffith undergraduate degree, academic credit and Griffith Credentials. Trimester 2 study will commence in July. Interested students should submit an online application by Tuesday 15 June. Click here to complete the application form.

START QUT – online/external units

Did you know that the START QUT program has recently added a lot of online/external units for you to study while in Years 11 and 12. Take a look at some of these units here. Applications close 31 May.

Year 13 online Career Expo

The Year13 Expo will again be virtual from 17-19 May. The Expo is a free, 100% online careers exhibition. Hear about your dream career from experts in their industry and explore exhibitors across work, study and travel. Click here for more information and to register.

Bursaries for female students

The National Council of Women of Queensland has launched its 2021 bursary program for female students. Visit the website for more information and to download the application form. Applications close on 2 June 2021.

Virtual Work Experience with the CSIRO

Gain first-hand, relevant work experience in a scientific environment to shape your future by joining CSIRO's virtual work experience program. Virtual work experience allows Years 10, 11 or 12 students to undertake science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects. Click here to see if you are eligible and find out more.

2021 Tertiary Studies Expo reminder

The annual Brisbane Tertiary Studies Expo (TSXPO), Australia's largest tertiary studies expo, offers a unique opportunity for anyone interested in starting, changing or upgrading their career. It will be held at the Royal International Convention Centre, Brisbane Showgrounds on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 July 2021, 10:00am to 4:00pm.

Liz Johnston