From School Council 

Pride and respect. Two words that are bandied around a lot and that evoke strong responses and emotions from positive to negative. Negative when there is a perceived lack of either or both and positive when manifested.

I have been on the School Council for a number of years now and even though I no longer have a daughter at the school, I cannot help but notice our young ladies when I am out and about in the neighbourhood. A point in case was earlier this week when I stopped to have a coffee at the shops in Mentone as our local schools’ floodgates opened, disgorging wave after wave of students all in their various uniforms.

I had recently heard of a concern around uniforms and their length as well as having participated in a number of discussions on uniforms and uniform policy and I decided to pay closer attention to what the students were wearing and how they were wearing their uniforms. I can honestly say that I may have seen two young ladies during the time it took me to receive and drink my coffee that could potentially have reconsidered their hem length, out of a large cohort across at least five schools. More importantly what this exercise did provide me was a profound sense of pride in what I saw, as well as hope for the future.

I saw a large number of our students, socialising, making their way home, shopping, poring over their phones, interacting with others and their surroundings in a responsible, confident, respectful and delightful way. This made me stop and ponder on respect and pride and where it comes from, how it evolves and how we manifest these values. Our Mentone Girls students all gave off an air of confidence in themselves, respect for themselves and others as well as their surroundings and environment. 

As we all know confidence, respect or any other value requires, example setting, fostering and a safe and loving environment. We all do our utmost at home and then rely on our extended school family to further support and encourage them. Linda and her team have created that sort of environment at Mentone Girls. We may not have glitzy new buildings, state of the art wellness centres but we have a warm, loving, inclusive environment where our young ladies are provided a safe environment to grow, develop self-respect, practice respect towards others and our environment, test and understand boundaries. 

So, in conclusion, did everyone wear their uniform perfectly following the guidelines strictly? Maybe not and of course we should continue to encourage this, but infractions were very insignificant; more importantly the self-confidence these young women displayed, and the respect manifested to those around them and their environment is something our whole school community and family should indeed be proud of and continue to foster.

Rosa Ferrari

School Council