From the Principal

During our opening-of-term assembly, both our Senior School Captains and I (quite by coincidence!) chose to use our respective addresses to reflect on the importance of Girton’s camps program. A few weeks prior, we had travelled as a group to Camp Howqua to spend time with the Year 7 students who were attending their very first Senior School camp. This was undoubtedly a pivotal experience for them, and clearly it left an impression on us too.  

Our School Captains, Miffy Fisher and Charlotte Bett, spoke beautifully about the invaluable opportunity that school camps offer students to step outside their comfort zones. In my own assembly address, I focused on another benefit of our school camps – the unique opportunity they provide our students to connect with their peers in the real world, free from the omnipresent pull of technology. The importance of these experiences in a modern life that is dominated by screens was highlighted to me by a podcast interview I listened to over the school holidays, which has been on my mind ever since. The interview features an American social psychologist named Jonathan Haidt, who proposes a link between the rise of mental health issues among young people and their increased use of screens and social media.  

At the heart of the issue, Jonathan believes the proliferation of screens and social media have fundamentally changed childhood – with physical play increasingly replaced by on-screen experiences, and real-world interactions substituted with more isolating virtual exchanges. For young people who are still in the midst of their development, this can lead to issues such as social deprivation, sleep deficiencies and attention fragmentation. Jonathan suggests that the major impacts to mental health emerged following the advent of social media functions such as the ‘Like’ button, front-facing phone cameras for taking ‘selfies’, and high-speed data plans that removed limits on consumption. He believes these changes saw social media platforms become more about competition than connection, which opened the door for cruelty and comparison.  

While this ‘rewiring’ of childhood certainly paints a worrying picture for parents and carers, Jonathan suggests some simple and practical solutions to restore the balance – from placing sensible restrictions on the use of smart phones and social media, to providing young people with more opportunities to interact, gain independence and simply have fun in the real world. As a parent and a principal, I am thankful that our school provides a number of ways for our students to experience meaningful interactions and make genuine connections outside the digital realm – from our school camps to our co-curricular program. Enabling students to spend time doing meaningful activities with their peers is a simple yet powerful way that we can help to nurture confident and capable young people who are equipped to cope with the challenges of our modern world. 

For me, one of the most unsettling aspects of social media is the algorithms working under the surface to keep users engaged for as long as possible. However, I believe that having the right knowledge will empower us and our children to make more informed choices. That is why I am looking forward to the upcoming visit of social media researcher Dr Scott Griffiths on Monday 6 May. Dr Griffiths will be delivering presentations for our senior students, our staff, and our parents and carers to demystify the inner workings of social media with the hope of mitigating some of the negative impacts I mentioned above. I highly encourage you to attend the parent and carer session by registering through Astra by Friday 3 May. 

In addition to the presentation by Dr Griffiths, we are looking forward to hosting a number of other significant events over the coming fortnight, including our Foundation Day Service, Senior School Parent-Teacher Interviews and the Board Parent Forum. Last week, we also commemorated Anzac Day with moving assemblies in the Junior and Senior Schools, and many students representing Girton with pride at services around the region. I hope you and your family had a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming events this term.  

Dr Emma O'Rielly 

Principal