From the Head of Junior School
Today, Australia celebrated World Teachers' Day, a day to recognise the wonderful work of our teachers everywhere. I am proud to work in our Junior School surrounded by committed, enthusiastic and, above all, caring teachers who work tirelessly every day to care for our students. They do this not for thanks or recognition, but because they have a passion for educating children. They extend themselves beyond their classroom duties to ensure that our students have a rich school experience.
Examples of this in just the past fortnight include staff who have:
- supported students and attended each night of the Junior School Production
- helped run the Prep Extended Stay on Tuesday and Tuesday evening
- presented to Prep parents of 2026 last Tuesday night
- attended the Tennis Hot Shots tournament with our competing students
- presented a Musical Storytime for our current Preps and our 2026 Preps
- attended the Tournament of Minds International finals in Sydney this weekend, and
- attended Regional Athletics with our students.
Before the end of term, our teachers will:
- attend two more camps
- accompany students to State Athletics events
- present the Prep Music and Drama night
- organise and run International Day, Transition Day and the Year 6 Presentation Dinner
- attend the Cricket Blast with our Year 6 class
organise the rehearsals for Carols and Speech Night.
Time out of the class is not less work for our teachers; it is usually more, as they plan and prepare lessons for their classes and then prepare for the additional events. Every one of our teachers is also involved in co-curricular activities with our students in addition to their teaching roles. I am very thankful for their commitment to teaching their classes and their commitment to all the extra activities that help provide as broad an educational experience as possible for our children.
Girton at Yale
This week, two of our Junior School teachers have taken their commitment to our school a step further than their normal classroom and co-curricular commitments.
Mrs Vanessa Juergens and Mrs Prue Milner have this week travelled to New Haven, Connecticut to present at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence RULER 2025 Implementation Conference.
They were invited to present in recognition of our committed work implementing RULER in our school since we introduced it in 2011.
RULER has been the foundation upon which we have built our approach to emotional intelligence. It has guided our curriculum development and the programs we have developed to build our emotional intelligence capacity.
Vanessa and Prue presented a talk entitled “Regulate to Elevate: Building Emotionally Resilient Students In- and Outside the Classroom.” As part of their presentation they showcased our HQ services and our use of a Body Break room for those students who need it as well as outlining our classroom and playground practices. Our playground Student Mentors and our RULER Ambassadors are also positive and practical innovations that have come from our emotional intelligence practice over time. I look forward to hearing all of the new ideas Vanessa and Prue will bring back with them.
Mr Don Thompson
Head of Junior School