A Word from the Principal

Last Saturday night the College hosted our Year 10 students for their formal.  The night was wonderful with the students dressed up and looking spectacular. The meal was warm and enticing and the music brought much joy to the students who rarely left the dance floor. 

In contrast to this night of celebration are the state of events occurring in Afghanistan.  For our Year 10 students, the war and civil unrest commenced within Afghanistan before they were even born. It has been a long war with many phases. Initially the war (international) commenced in 2001, triggered by the attacks on foreign states - most notably the twin towers and Pentagon (2001) and the British subway bombings (2005). The first phase of this conflict was established to “topple” or constrain the Taliban from providing sanctuary for the terrorist arm  known as al-Qaeda.

For those directly involved in the conflict, it must be a very long 20 years.  Our students learn about the impact that the Taliban has when they look into the work of Malala Yousafzai, a young school girl who was shot on her way home from school in October 2012. Malala is a spokesperson for justice for women all over the world.  Her fight showed courage and maturity and a steely resolve. Another tragic event was the Peshawar school massacre (2014) where Taliban gunmen scaled a school wall and shot 141 children and staff. When we begin to link the Taliban rule to these incidents of violence we begin to suspect what the Afghan people are currently very worried about.  

It is not within my area of expertise to discuss or debate whether our troops, and those of other nations should be withdrawing from Afghanistan, it is however in my conscience the women of Afghanistan and those minorities who may now feel that they have no voice or no sense of future.  I am also mindful of the work of our soldiers in this space. For twenty years they helped provide structures to enable freedom - sometimes at a huge cost to themselves and to their loved ones.

Given how lucky we are to be celebrating a Year 10 formal, for our daughters to have been well educated and safe for eleven years of their lives. It is notable to celebrate this achievement when elsewhere in the world, young women are deprived of these opportunities. As Malala states “We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced”.  To our daughters - may your voices be strong, may you speak on behalf of those who are silenced. 

Uniform News

At the end of 2020 the College sought parent and student views through an online survey. A number of different topics were surveyed and the College Leadership, in conjunction with the Board have been analysing these results and making changes based on common recommendations. 

One of the areas which received  a lot of feedback was the College Uniform.  A further survey was conducted with the students in Years 5 - 10 around specific items within the uniform and the guidelines linked to this.

Subsequently from this information, the College will be changing the Secondary procedure in Terms 1 and 4 for the changing of formal uniform to sport uniform.  Students will now be permitted to wear their HPE uniform to the College on days when they have a 100min period of health related curriculum content which requires the students to be physically active eg: Health, Dance and Outdoor Education.  This change will be communicated to all secondary students over the coming weeks.

Another area which received a lot of feedback commentary within the uniform was the wearing of the College Boater. Both parents and students expressed the desire for the College to review the way in which the Boater was a compulsory element of the uniform. The current requirement is that students wear the Boater to and from the College. This is a rule that cannot be policed and enforced by the College easily as it occurs outside the College boundary.  The College Board is currently reviewing this rule and will be seeking specific feedback regarding this.  If you would like to provide specific feedback regarding the Boater, please do so before the 17 September via email.