From the School Vice Captains

Halftime comeback: well done, you’ve made it through round 1 

Welcome back fellow Girtonians to semester 2! We are so excited to see what this semester has in store for us and have loved seeing you back at school. 

If  2020 was a sporting match, many would say that in the first half, the score/odds haven’t necessarily been in our favor. 

However we  highly commend the diligence and adaptability you have shown throughout the season.

We hope after some half-time recovery that you are ready to face the second-half head-on. Amongst the many challenges faced, we believe that there were some things learned in the first half that we can now apply to our game plan going forward.

Upon our ‘thorough’ analysis of our experiences, we have found two categories of things to consider going into the second half. 

1 - Things to continue in the second half 

Relationships with the people around us 

During this time, many of you have no doubt had the chance to bond with your family and friends (even your pets) at home, possibly over a heated game of monopoly or even a strategic game of chess hopefully without flipping the board or cheating. Continue to be intentional in your relationships with your family and friends. Having a strong support system throughout the rest of this year is invaluable. 

New-found skills 

With the extra time, the lockdown has given us the chance to disconnect from our normal routine and hopefully, you adopted new hobbies or habits. Whether that be having a better sleep routine, playing the ukulele, being more active or online yoga.  Putting some effort into maintaining these will help your physical and mental wellbeing.

2 - Strategy going forward

Self-efficacy

During online school, hopefully, you had some time to reflect on and identify some of your strengths and weaknesses. From learning about your working style,  we want to encourage you to be proactive and take more responsibility for your life and learning to maximise and get the most out of this half - the year is not over yet. 

Appreciation for the things you previously took for granted

From teachers, classroom, co-curricular activities, going to the pool, face to face interaction (even the ones you didn’t think you would miss), there was so much we took for granted. We encourage you to look at this Term through a lens of gratitude. Focusing on all the small positive things may help us cope a little better with the unpredictable future before us. 

Again we congratulate you on coming this far. We are confident that we can make the time we have over this Semester productive and fun.

Lucas O’Brien and Tadi Masiboy 

Senior School Vice Captains