From the Principal

It has been wonderful to welcome our students, staff and families back to Girton for Term Three. It has been a blustery, wet fortnight, and I’m proud of how positive the students have remained – particularly those who have braved the conditions to participate in outdoor sporting activities.

At our Start of Term Assembly last week, I spoke to our students about why what they learn at school matters, and that everything we learn academically and in terms of personal development is contributing to our future selves. I expanded on this at our Principal’s Assembly earlier this week, speaking about the process of learning. I spoke about the limited capacity of our working memory and how we need to rehearse and practise new knowledge so that it is transferred to our long-term memory.

How the brain learns is a fascinating and worthwhile topic to explore. After all, if our students spend so much time at school, it is important that they are learning effectively. As the term progresses, I will continue speaking to our students about learning, focusing on what researchers in the area of cognitive science have to say about how we learn best, and how that feeds into our curriculum and teaching practices here at Girton.

On Monday morning, we hosted a School Tour for prospective families. I and other leaders guided the tours, sharing information and answering questions. I would like to thank the students and staff who welcomed our guests with smiles and grace.

That evening, we welcomed our current Year 10 students to our VCE 2026-27 Information Evening. The evening started with a subject expo, during which students discussed their subject options with VCE teachers and started thinking about their preferred subjects and what they might do when their studies at Girton are completed. Acting Head of Senior School Mr Marcus Smalley provides more detail in his update in this edition of eLink. I would like to thank the students, parents and carers who attended this event, and the students and teachers who presented. We wish our Year 10 students all the best with their subject selections.

On Tuesday morning, we held the House Leaders’ Breakfast at our Junior School Campus. Our House Captains, Vice House Captains, School Captains and Vice School Captains across both campuses joined our Heads of House, Acting Head of Senior School and Head of Junior School for a morning of delicious food, words of welcome, and a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for Deputy Principal Mr Jay Weston. It was a privilege to speak with our young leaders and to watch them interact with each other, and it makes me feel confident for the future – our school and community are in good hands.

I would like to remind everyone that our Parent-Teacher Conferences commence across both campuses next week. For Senior School, we are trialling holding all conferences online (via Teams). We encourage parents and carers to review each child’s written feedback on assessments, classwork and homework, as well as the Effort and Dedication Reports, on Astra while considering whether to book a conference. To learn more about our Senior School Parent-Teacher Conferences, please visit this post on Astra. To learn more about our Junior School Parent-Teacher Conferences, please visit this post on Astra. Once this round of Parent-Teacher Conferences in Senior School is complete, we will be asking for feedback from parents and carers about the preferred mode of delivery.

We continue to prioritise our students’ safety. We encourage our students to use our wombat crossings as they arrive at and leave school, and as they move between buildings for classes. We would like to encourage parents and carers to model safe crossing behaviour during drop-off and pick-up times by using the wombat crossings and following the guidance of the member of staff on crossing duty.

In closing, I’d like to ask one more thing of you as a member of the school community. Your feedback is important to us and we have partnered with research agency McCrindle to undertake our stakeholder satisfaction survey for 2025. The survey will take 10 minutes to complete and can be completed on any device. We will share further information together with the survey link next week.

I thank you in advance for your participation and for continuing to help shape our school.

Dr Emma O’Rielly

Principal