Principal's news

I hope all of our families and students enjoyed a relaxing term break. It was great to welcome our students back last week and to be enjoying some sunshine and brighter, longer days.

DAV debating success 

Congratulations to our Year 10 debating team who won their quarter final last week and are now in the semi-final this week, making them one of the four top teams in the state! Good luck for this week and thanks to Chanie Stock (Debating Coordinator) and Glen Trevaskis (Team Coach) for their dedicated support of these students.

Year 12s

Our Year 12 students are heading into their final school days, having had trial examinations last week. We were impressed with their dedicated, calm and focused approach last week and know that they will be making the most of the revision lessons ahead. We are looking forward to their last days with us and celebrating and honouring them on their last school day. I know you all join me in wishing them the very best for their upcoming examinations.

Presentation Evening

Our Presentation Evening will return to Robert Blackwood Hall as an in-person event this year on Tuesday 22 November. A reminder that this is a compulsory event for all students. We warmly invite all our families to attend. We will be writing to parents and students soon, about the arrangements for buying tickets and the details of the rehearsals for this event. We are thrilled to be able to gather as a community and celebrate such a successful year.

COVID restrictions

We no longer require staff or students to wear masks, except on a voluntary basis and from Friday, there is no longer a requirement to isolate if you test positive for COVID.

The community is urged to continue to stay home when feeling sick with any type of symptoms, in order to reduce infection to others of any bugs or viruses (including COVID). There is no doubt we are all experiencing more illnesses as we return to full activities, crowds and travel, after such a long period of relative isolation. 

Anxiety and depression

The Alliance of Girls Schools shared an article last week about the rise of anxiety and depression in young women. You may access it here:

As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, there is for all of us an ‘unravelling’ or adjustment to our new normal, as we also realise, the full extent of what we have all endured in the last 2–3 years. We have all been living in a hyper-vigilant state for a protracted length of time, on alert for the next change or development and living with a chronic sense of dread. This takes its toll on our minds, bodies and mental and physical health. As a result, many have struggled to find balance and calm. 

For young people, the loss of control they experienced, with all of their routines, structures and normality thrown up into the air, has had a big impact. The toll of the last few years is showing itself through gaps in learning, difficulties concentrating, anxiety around outcomes, family separations, generalised fear and anxiety, problems with sleep, social introversion and a lack of energy, fitness and resilience. Just as our bodies are struggling with a plethora of viruses seemingly ever present; our minds, hearts, souls and spirit may also take a little time to heal. Young people are no exception to this.

Please know that we at Shelford walk beside our families at this time. Should you need advice and support through a conversation, please reach out to our counsellors, Judy McKay and Charlotte Edmonds, or a classroom teacher, Coordinator, or Deputy Principal. 

We are happy to be in a position to help others in the community through our Compass Care Ukrainian refugee appeal. 

It is a great privilege to lead this wonderful community at a time of such historical significance. It is also an unprecedented time, full of firsts and new learning for us all. No-one has a guide book on how to do it or how we should feel, so let’s be patient and kind to each other and most importantly, to ourselves.

Katrina Brennan

Principal