Principal's Post

Reflecting on our beliefs, building resilience

The Senior Executive Team recently attended an ASC Retreat along with School Chaplains at St John’s Retreat Centre in Shoalwater. We were asked to reflect on our values and beliefs and how we might ensure that we demonstrate these within our leadership roles at St George’s Anglican Grammar School. It was an interesting and informative weekend. In this light, I also recently read an article written by an American writer, Kevin Eikenberry, which discussed the power of reflection and finding the time in our daily busy lives to become more purposeful, more mindful, and more reflective in our actions and deeds. In the article, Mr Eikenberry considers how we often check our reflection in the mirror to ensure that we look well externally but are less ready to use such strong reflective tools to help improve us from the inside – in our minds, in our thoughts and in our behaviours.

Eikenberry speaks of the following focus questions being crucial to maintaining our reflective journey to keep us holistically well.

• What happened – both the process and the end result?
• How did I feel about it?
• Why did it happen that way (what contributed to the results)?
• How does this remind me of other situations?
• What will I now do differently in the future? 

Creating a framework for effective reflective learning by answering these questions helps us all to consider the experiences that we have in our daily lives from a number of different angles and pushes us to consider more carefully the crucial question of ‘Knowing what I now know, what will I or would I do differently?’

To continually reflect on our experiences in life takes time. To allow ourselves to truly improve we need to reflect on ourselves and our actions to allow us to continue to grow, develop and improve. 

At school we are constantly encouraging our students to reach their goals, to strive to achieve more and ultimately to unleash their full potential both within the classroom and beyond. To continue to learn and develop as lifelong learners, our students equally need to begin to harness the power of reflection in their lives. As our Year 11 and 12 students especially return from sitting their Semester One Examinations next week to their classrooms, I encourage them to consider the power of reflection and mindfulness as they receive the important feedback from their teachers on their academic results. I encourage them to carefully consider in reflective thought ‘Knowing what I now know, what will I do differently?’

Camping, creatures, careers!

This week we have seen the Year 8s enjoying the sunshine and outdoor life on camp, our Year 7s exploring the Zoo for a day of Science Learning and our Year 11 APEx students involved in the World of Work Week led by Mrs Sharan Tagore where the students were given a variety of insights into what opportunities might be available to them beyond school. These numerous experiences outside of the confines of the classroom have been sensational and I thank the staff and students for their positive involvement. There has most certainly been a buzz of excitement in and around the school in recent weeks. We’ve seen lots of smiling teachers, heard many students laugh out loud and there has been learning in abundance happening throughout the school – and we still have another four weeks of term to go!

Armed for Life with resilience

Mr Adam Pryztula presented to a packed Level 4 on Wednesday night talking about how we as parents can support our children to develop the pivotal character strength of resilience. Whilst resilience is often spoken about in the media, Adam’s personal story provided crucial words of wisdom for those families able to attend the Term Two Parent Guest Speaker Series. Adam has played a significant role in our pastoral and wellbeing programs for many years now at St George’s Anglican Grammar School and it was wonderful to have him speak with parents on this important topic for so many of our children. Thank you to those parents who attended this event. 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Tina Campbell

Principal