From the Principal 

Dr Nicole Archard

Cheering for each other!

I often discuss with the girls the importance of girls supporting other girls, and women supporting other women. This means being a champion of others by celebrating someone’s success (even if you are disappointed that you have not achieved the same level), offering others encouragement, and speaking positively about others. As adults this translates to women mentoring other women to help them progress in their careers and other areas of their lives. 

This week we announced to the Senior School girls that we are implementing our first Intercol netball competition with Mary MacKillop College. This will take place on Wednesday 23 August from 3.30pm to 5pm. This will be a great opportunity for the girls to cheer for each other and show their support. 

I also conducted an exercise at the Senior School assembly this week, where we played a game of ‘scissor, paper, rock’ with the whole Senior School. Each time a student lost their game against an opponent, they then had to follow that winner and become the cheer squad for them. We did this process until we were down to the last two players who were subsequently cheered on by the rest of the Senior School as two supporter groups. Needless to say, the gym was very loud! But I hope by doing exercises like this with the girls we can encourage them to cheer for each other and become each other’s biggest supporter.

At the end of last term, I also set the girls homework for the holidays, and I followed up on this homework this week. The homework that I set was to see whether the girls could go a whole day without saying an unkind word about another person, including gossiping behind someone’s back. Once they had mastered this for one day, they were then encouraged to see how many days they could go in a row and to take note of this, and then keep setting themselves challenges to see whether they could beat their previous record. 

There are many things we can do to help our girls learn how to be the champion of others. If we do this, then not only will they have more positive relationships in their lives, but they will also increase their own wellbeing outcomes. 

Dr Nicole Archard

Principal