Junior School News

Meet the 2026 Junior School House Captains

We are proud to announce the induction of our Junior School House Captains and Vice-Captains. We also want to recognise all Year 6 students who put themselves forward. Even for those who missed out, the experience of preparing and delivering a speech is a valuable step in developing leadership skills. Congratulations to those elected to represent their Houses this year.

I receive and commission you as Junior School House Captains and Vice House Captains of this School in 2025.  May God guide and bless you in the work of this Office.  I counsel you to act with firmness, lead by example, to seek humility and above all to serve your fellow students and your School in every way you can.

Junior School fundraising success

Thank you to our community minded Junior School Students who initiated the Harcourt Fire Fundraisers. With the help of their parents, they organised the Zooper Dooper sales in Junior School last week and over the weekend organised a Lemonade Stand that raised another $947.55, bringing their total funds raised to $2,123.61!

The money they raised was donated to the Harcourt Progress Relief Fund. A wonderful effort!

Junior School: Meet the Teachers Evening 

On Thursday 5 February, Junior School parents gathered in a friendly and relaxed setting to socialise and connect with one another while also meeting their children’s teachers. 

Mr Don Thompson kicked off the event by welcoming everyone to the new school year and introducing the teaching staff who will support our Junior School students in their educational journey. Following this, parents moved to classrooms for an informative session about what to anticipate in 2026. 

It was delightful to see so many familiar and new faces, and we eagerly look forward to a fantastic year ahead!

RULER: Social and Emotional Learning at Girton

RULER is a systemic approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) developed by the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence.

It is a program used to help students, families and educators build emotional intelligence. The program aims to infuse the principles of emotional intelligence into the immune system of schools, informing how leaders lead, teacher teach, students learn and families support students.

RULER is an acronym for the five skills of emotional intelligence:

• Recognise emotions in oneself and others
• Understanding the causes and consequences of emotions
• Labelling emotions with a nuanced vocabulary
• Expressing emotions in accordance with cultural norms and social context
• Regulating emotions with helpful strategies.

Why do we use it at school?

Research has shown many benefits of the RULER approach including:

• Development and increase of emotional intelligence and social skills
• Improvement in academic performance and classroom climate
• Fewer attention and learning problems- Greater social and leadership skills
• Less anxiety and depression
• Less stress and burnout
• Better performance at school
• Teachers at RULER schools have better relationships with students, less burnout and are more positive about teaching.

"Emotions drive learning, decisions, relationships, health and much of our everyday effectiveness."

-Marc A. Brackett, Ph.D.