Senior School News

The Easter Bunny visits Year 12

The Year 12 Easter Egg Hunt is a rite of passage and a much‑loved tradition that marks the final Easter of our senior students’ school journey. Today's hunt brought lots of laughter and some friendly competition!

Music in Year 7

This term in Music we have been working on naming the notes, rests and dotted notes, the staff, simple time signatures, ledger lines, slurs and ties and the treble clef notes and bass clef notes. Our main assessment this term is making a 16 bar-long music score on the app Musescore. We must either use the notes on the C major pentatonic lines or the A minor pentatonic lines. We are using all the information that our teacher, Mr Turpie, has taught us to make a composition that reflects a mood colour, such as blue for a sad, slow song or red for a fast-paced song with loud and accented notes.

Mitchell Hawker (7 Frew)

Year 8 ACHIEVE Peer Teaching presentation to Junior School classes

Over the past five years, Year 8 Achieve students have participated in a valuable and engaging initiative in partnership with Junior School. As part of this program, each Year 8 class works collaboratively in small groups to design and deliver a 20-minute lesson to a Junior School class. This activity forms an important assessment task linked to the Respectful Relationships Unit studied in Term 1.

As part of the assessment, groups select a topic and translate their understanding into an age-appropriate and engaging lesson. This term, Year 8 presented a range of well-planned and thoughtfully structured lessons focusing on areas such as practising positive self-talk, building self-esteem, celebrating individuality, and developing strategies to manage and resolve conflict.

The quality of the presentations was outstanding. Students demonstrated great organisational skills, creativity and confidence, delivering lessons that were both interactive and meaningful for their younger peers. 

The program was very well received by all Junior School classes. The Year 8 students represented themselves exceptionally well, displaying maturity, respect and leadership throughout the experience. In turn, the Junior School students were highly engaged, cooperative and a pleasure to work with. Below are students from Year 8H Achieve delivering their lesson to Year 3V on Monday 23 March.

Year 8 Music: Pentatonic Composition

Students in Year 8 have been exploring C major and A minor pentatonic scales with their own original compositions inspired by images such as a Japanese Samurai warrior, a bustling city, an underwater scene, and a volcano. Yuzi Li (8 Millward) created a delightful composition titled 'A Beachy Day' with a great subtitle: 'Don't Forget Your Sunscreen!'. Yuzi's piece features C Major pentatonic scale with a flowing flute melody using long semibreve notes, a celesta (an ethereal-sounding piano) playing a spritely and jumpy melody with chords, plus bongos and maracas giving a percussive upbeat feel. Yuzi has captured the experience of a fun day at the beach with her imaginative approach to this music composition task. Well done, Yuzi! 

Year 10 VCE Music

Our Year 10 VCE Music students have been focusing this term on Ensemble Performance. The whole cohort has been learning Carlos Santana's famous 'Oye Como Va' piece with its Latin-inspired groove. In two smaller groups, they've been rehearsing Tara Larsson's 'Midnight Sun' and Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun'. Two very contrasting pieces that students have been arranging themselves. Listen out for the Year 10s performing these ensemble pieces at the Term 2 Open Day!

Sayonara to our Gojo visitors from Japan

Last week we farewelled students from Gojo Senior High School in Japan following a rewarding two‑week exchange. During their visit, Gojo students quickly became part of the Girton community, demonstrating respect, curiosity and compassion in classrooms, shared activities and homes.

The exchange reflected Girton’s 2026 theme, The Year of Noticing, as students from both schools connected through language, gestures and shared laughter, discovering how much they have in common. A highlight of the visit was the Gojo students’ dance performance at assembly, which they proudly shared with the wider school community.

A farewell afternoon tea marked the conclusion of the visit.

It has been a pleasure to return the hospitality that Gojo extended to our students and staff during their visit to Japan last year. We are already looking forward to visiting them again in September this year and continuing to strengthen the friendship between our schools.

Thank you to our host families for making this program possible by opening your homes, sharing your routines, and helping our visitors understand life in Australia.  Thank you to Ms Mo Watanabe for her leadership of this exchange, and to Mrs Liz Blanks, Ms Kanae Kerr and Mrs Maria Krelle for their ongoing support. Finally, to our friends from Gojo - while we’re sad to say goodbye, we’re grateful for the memories, the laughter and the learning that have filled your visit.

Senior School Formal 2026: Festival of Lights

Our Senior School Formal will take place on Thursday 4 June at the All Seasons Bendigo for students in Years 10 to 12. For this year's 'Festival of Lights' theme, we have planned an illuminating evening filled with glowing lanterns and an atmosphere of elegance and wonder.

Each ticket is priced at $88 per student, with the dress code of formal attire. A registration link has been sent to parents and carers via Consent2Go for ticket purchase.  RSVP deadline Monday 18 May.

Please note the event is scheduled at the conclusion of the Years 10-11 Exam week, allowing students to celebrate their hard work.  The following day is a pupil free day.

Ms Kristi Mitchell

Alumni and Community Relations Manager