Principal's Message

Dear parents, families & guardians

The world is changing. We live in challenging times, exciting times and often mind bending times. The theme of our assembly this week was “Global Connections”. It was also the International Day of Friendship on Tuesday 31 July, so the timing of the assembly was spot on. The International Day of Friendship is a United Nations (UN) day that promotes the role that friendship plays in promoting peace in many cultures. This is my address to the school community at the Assembly.

We connect with people in so many different ways now. When I was young, the way we would connect with others was to write a letter or visit friends and family in person. We travel more now than ever before and we are exposed to the unique cultures of other countries every day, so that there is no such thing as a “norm”. The consequence of this is that we have a broader perspective of the world and that we can see ourselves travelling or working in unfamiliar places in the future.

Now, the world is at our fingertips and we access it through our television, Netflix, or some other online platform. We have Smart TVs, Apple TVs and Play Stations that stream online content. We can reach out at any time and be part of a global community. News travels fast as well. If something happens on the other side of the world we know about it the same day.

Recently, I heard on the news that at 16 year old American teenager won $4.3 million after taking the top prize in a tournament in New York for the popular online video game Fortnite. This was a streamed event where Epic Games struck a deal to take over the New York tennis centre for three days. In terms of the global reach of this sporting event it was huge. We are talking about a virtual game entering the physical world and competing with real world sports for similar prize money. 100 people of various ages took part in the competition and the venue was packed. Everyone in the audience consented to being filmed by Epic Games, and the company was not the only one filming. The competitors and the spectators being beamed around the world. I read that one of the spectators was received over 600 likes on social media. He wasn’t playing, he was a spectator.

I guess what I am getting at is that we can be part of a global community without leaving the comfort of our school, home, workplace, suburb, city, country or venue (for that matter) these days. I wonder if any of us could have predicted with certainty the global community that we would be part of in 2019 and beyond.

The questions that come to mind are:

Will we be prepared for the global community of 2050?
What will that global community look like?
What role will we play in creating this global community?
Will we be entrepreneurs or will we just go along with the flow and enjoy the ride?

In terms of our potential, “the sky is the limit”.

We are also celebrating 50 years since the moon landing and we are all still stargazing along with Brian Cox on the ABC and exploring our solar system via probes and satellites which are beaming images back to earth. I was only eight years old when human beings first landed on the moon’s surface. It changed the way that I saw the world at that time. We watched it on television and looked up at the moon in wonder at night imagining what it was like up there.

However, this was well before the internet was born, and mobile phones and personal computers were found in every home. We weren’t globally connected by email, Facebook or Instagram. Even by the time I was 19 and travelling through Europe on a holiday, the speediest way to connect with family and friends back in Australia was by telegram or postcards. I remember some of the postcards getting back after I had arrived home. Now, we can instantly call, text and upload our journey and we are closer than ever to becoming a globally connected community.

So, by now you might be thinking. What has this got to do with global connections. Well, being future-ready is about building connections at home and around the world. The skills of critical and creative thinking that you use every day in your studies will prepare you for that global community. The experiences that we offer you here at MGSC provide you with the tools you will need in preparation for that world.

In the holiday break over 40 students travelled to New Zealand to participate in a music festival. We welcomed students and teachers from our Japanese sister school last year and we will be sending our students to Japan this term to stay with families and attend school over there. Our French language students travel to France to experience the culture and practice their language skills.

Later in the year we will have students travelling to NASA in Houston, Texas to check out the facilities and take part in scientific experiments. And last, but not least, we have approximately 40 international students from oversees studying with us and building connections and friendships that will last a lifetime. All of these events come together under one umbrella and that is global connections.

There is a saying that goes something like “we can accomplish more together than we can by ourselves” and that is so true. It is through finding commonalities with people from very different backgrounds that we are able to become part of a global community. It is through opening our minds to the unfamiliar that we are able to see life through a different lens other than our own. Our strength lies in working alongside and with others rather than alone.

As I said earlier, these are challenging times, exciting times and mind-bending times. We just need to remember to take the opportunities as they come and keep an open and enquiring mind. I am so proud to be part of a school community that is forward thinking, supports diversity and reaches out to the world around it. It is these qualities that we are here to acknowledge and celebrate on the International Day of Friendship, because it is through the demonstration of these qualities that MGSC students will continue to stand out from the crowd in the future.

Kind regards

Linda Brown