It was such a delight to finally enjoy our Centenary Gala event last Saturday night at Leonda.
The first two weeks of Term 4 have flown by, and I cannot believe that once again we are saying our best wishes to the Year 12 students, the Class of 2022. On Monday we held a special assembly to acknowledge all the Years 10 – 12 students who have achieved academic excellence awards, been recognised as citizens of the school and also those who have shown great commitment to our co-curricular program. The number of students who were highlighted in this assembly is testament to the outstanding dedication our students give to all their endeavours. I could not be more proud of them all. At this assembly we also thanked our School and House leaders for 2022 and announced the new student leaders for 2023. Please read below the full list of students who will be taking on new roles in 2023.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our School Captain, Teagan Diep and her Vice Captains, Isabel D’Souza and Charli Lincke for their outstanding leadership of the Senior School and all the student leaders throughout this past year. They have led with grace, good humour, and gratefulness. They have worked well as a team and their initiatives to re-connect the Senior School through their theme of CARE have been fantasTIC.
On Wednesday evening we held our Centenary Concert and Years 10 – 12 Presentation Evening at the Melbourne Recital Centre and this too was a spectacular event. We presented our School Colours awards to 7 students who have shown exemplary commitment to all areas of the co-curricular program throughout their time in the Senior School. This is the pinnacle of awards for co-curricular activities. We also recognised our VCE students deemed the highest achieving student in each subject with a book prize and in some cases, students were recognised for their leadership, commitment and service with named prizes. The Rhodes Cup winners Taylor House was announced and the 2022 Marcian was presented to Mrs Dunwoody. This part of the evenings program was followed by the magnificent music ensembles. The entire audience was in awe of each orchestra, band and choir. Thank you to all involved in making this event so memorable.
This morning our Class of 2022 enjoyed their Celebration Day with the theme of Toy Story. Decorating year level areas with a barrel of monkeys, toys for the “yard sale”, handing out potatoes and chocolate coins to the staff and students on their arrival. There were many fabulous outfits including “Woody, Bo Peep, Buzz Lightyear, Slinky, Mr Potato Head and a very generous Hamm – Piggy Bank.
And at 3:25pm the tradition of counting down to the final bell under the clocktower took place again in the quadrangle with students from Years 7 – 11 able to watch in person. Each year the school bell only rings twice. Once at 8:25am on the first day of school for the Year 12’s and once on their final day at the end of the day. It is always heart-warming to hear the students then singing all the hymns that are special to them including Shine Jesus Shine and the Blessing song.
Cathy Poyser
Deputy Principal / Head of Senior School
Families who were unable to attend or watch the live stream of our special Awards Assembly held on Monday are invited to use the link below to view this event.
One of CGGS’ greatest assets is the collective strength of our student leaders, and during a Special Assembly on Monday 10 October, and again at the Centenary Concern and Year 10 – 12 Presentation Evening, we had the opportunity to thank our 2022 School Leaders for their outstanding contributions in their various roles.
Our 2022 team of School, House and other Leaders have courageously, and honourably lead our student community, working collaboratively to add to the connected and supportive culture that exists at CGGS. Through many amazing initiatives, activities and individual moments, they have left a legacy of which they should be very proud, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank each leader for their contributions.
As part of these two assemblies, we also announced the 2023 School Leadership Team, including the School Captains, School Positions, House Positions, Captains and Mentors.
The appointment process for leadership is a rigorous one, considering a clear set of eligibility and desirability criteria based on past involvement, coupled with individual and collaborative group interviews, written applications and student and staff votes. It is a transparent, lengthy and thorough process, and one that could not happen without the dedication of the teachers in-charge of leadership positions, and in particular the Heads of House – and I express my gratitude to all staff involved.
I also acknowledge and congratulate all the Year 10 and 11 students who put themselves forward to be considered for a leadership position. Whether appointed into a formal leadership position or not, we hope that all students know they are valued, and we look forward to working with them in a range of capacities going forward.
Congratulations to our 2023 Student Leadership Team, lead ably by our 2023 School Captain Amy Dingle and School Vice Captains Scarlett Giang and Tara Rastogi.
Videos for Change is a way for young people to develop confidence, practice social advocacy, and build valuable 21st-century skills they need for a better future.
This year, for the second year in a row, CGGS was delighted to enter teams in both the Junior and Senior divisions.
We are very proud of all of our teams and extremely proud that three of these have again been selected as national finalists.
The competition required participants to create a one minute video that creates empathy, builds awareness and inspires action.
Our CGGS student videos were selected from hundreds of videos submitted from across the country which went through two rounds of initial judging and are now sitting with a group of external judges with expertise in social media, mainstream media and film and documentary making.
The video Extinguished by Elysia Wang, Amanda Lee and Kaitlyn Law has made the final in the Junior High School category for students in Years 7-9, placing it in the top 10 of submitted videos. Both Quicksand from Laura Tong, Katrina Tong and Heidi Lim and Maskerade from Wendy Zhang have made it to the finals in the Senior High School category for students in Year 10 – 12, placing them in the top 12 submitted videos.
In the making the finals, these videos are also eligible for the People’s Choice Award, where members of the public can view all of the finalists and cast votes towards their favourites.
Voting will go from the 17th – 24th October, with winner’s being announced in November.
Please visit the link here to Videos for Change for more information on the competition and look out for the opportunity to support our students in the People’s Choice Award in the coming weeks.
Kate Manners
Head of Strategic Initiatives
It was so fantastic to be able to hold our Year 9 World of Work seasonal learning experience in the last week of Term Two.
On our opening day, we excited to welcome 2014 Old Grammarian Georgia Pleasant to CGGS to talk about her journey post-school, working in communications and starting her own small business ‘Styled be Gee’. Georgia will also share her best styling tips and tricks on making a good first impression in a job interview.
From here, the focus was on transferable skills, the currency of the future when it comes to recruitment. Led by Dr Forwood, students took a deep dive into eight transferable skills, what they look like and how we can develop these over time. Students were also introduced to the Learner Profile, a new digital initiative that students will contribute to throughout their time at CGGS, that will help to recognises the myriad of ways that students can show their success and achievements.
We also welcomed the Complete Works Theatre Company to share their tips and strategies of making the most of job interviews. Taking students through the importance of first impressions, body language and what great answers to potential questions look and sound like, this was followed with further tips on collaborative interview techniques and the importance of networking. Finally, we rounded Day One out with some practice in responding to the common question, ‘tell us a little bit about yourself’, a deceptive tricky opening line, common to interviews.
The second day of our conference had students introduced to the #myfuture Career Program at CGGS by Mrs Dolan. Hearing all about the supports, guidance and opportunities that the Careers space provides students throughout their schooling, as part of this session, the Year 9s undertook the MyCareerMatch interest assessment. This online tool, enables the identification of interests and strengths and also offers some suggestions about what Career options might sit alongside these.
Resumes and interview preparation was also undertaken in the lead up to one-on-one interviews with volunteers from within our CGGS Community. We were fortunate to welcome 20 volunteers from our alumni, parents and extended connections, who interviewed each of the Year 9s in a mock interview, providing both feedback and advice to students about the experience. Whilst there were lots of nerves, it was a great real life learning experience, enabling the students to put the theory of earlier sessions into practice. A big thankyou to our fantastic volunteers for giving of their time and expertise for this session.
Finally, Mr Clark designed a part-time work and pathways panel, where the students heard the school, post-school and career journeys of some of our staff. From part-time jobs, juggling, negotiating shift times with employers, juggling multiple jobs with university, travel and all the busyness of life, a big thankyou to Ms Semple and Mr Loff for sharing their stories.
Kate Manners
Head of Strategic Initiatives
On Friday 7 October, the Debaters’ Association of Victoria (DAV) held its annual awards ceremony.
Year 10 student Grace Barnes received the Swannie Award for highest scoring speaker in C Grade (Year 10) for the Camberwell division of the competition. She also placed in the top 5 of the more than 2,000 students who competed in C Grade from across Victoria. Grace is only the second CGGS student to win the Swannie Award in the past decade, after Salome Obeyesekere won the award for best overall speaker in D Grade (Year 8/9) in 2020.
DAV adjudicators praised Grace’s incisive logic and rhetoric, and her teammates have appreciated the leadership and teamwork she has shown in helping C Grade Team 1 become one of our two most successful teams in the past decade; the team reached the octo-finals round in a knockout competition against the top teams from across the state. Grace is now looking forward to getting involved in the Victorian schools trials to train and select debaters for next year’s national competition.
We are incredibly proud of Grace – and of all of our debaters – for the fine teamwork, critical thinking and communication skills displayed in the DAV and House Debating competitions this year.
Ian Lyell
Debating Coordinator
For approximately 10 weeks across Terms 2 and 3 in Year 9 Commerce, students were challenged with creating their own businesses, more formally known as the ‘Plan Your Own Enterprise (PYOE)’ task. This was an enormous undertaking that required students to develop a business plan from scratch, considering everything from the prime function, marketing, operation logistics, financial planning, and future prospects. This project aims to provide a real-world learning experience for Y9 students that promotes innovation, organisation, collaboration, and enterprise thinking. Whilst this task forms part of CGGS assessment, students were also encouraged to submit their report to the state PYOE competition that is run by Business Educators Australasia in conjunction with the Victorian Commerce Teachers Association and sponsored by Chartered Accountants ANZ.
We were thrilled to discover that our incredibly talented Year 9 students Maddie Tiong, Mut Yi and Sophia Xie from 9D made it into the state finals for their business ‘Seedi’. As described in their submission, ‘“Seedi” is an online business that aims to engage urban youths in urban gardening and contribute to a future that prospers from it. Seedi sells various plant subscription boxes, which include several types of seasonal and themed seeds and supplies instructions needed to grow them. We believe that promoting urban gardening is crucial to building a sustainable future, as our intention is to encourage teenagers and young adults to become more aware of the importance of natural resources and more involved in this pursuit of nature preservation, while cultivating their own plants at home.’
On Thursday 6th October, I had the pleasure of joining the girls on Zoom for the state finals presentation evening. It is with enormous pride that I can share that our CGGS group took home the 1st place prize in the state for their enterprise and will now continue to the national competition as the representatives for Victoria.
Ms Cook, Ms McEwan and I would like to commend and congratulate the entire Year 9 cohort for their diligence and passion in completing this task. Maddie, Mut and Sophia – the entire school community is behind you for the national competition, good luck girls!
Georgia Holland
VCE Legal Studies and Commerce Teacher
Aspiring political students from Camberwell Girls Grammar school recently attended an event ’Women in Politics’ . Dr Monique Ryan, Leonie Green, Jess Wilson and Dr Michelle Anada-Rajah shared their career journeys, why they chose to pursue this career, talked about the need to encourage more women to work in the field, and gave advice to future women looking at a career in politics.
Trish Dolan
Careers Counsellor
It was such a delight to finally enjoy our Centenary Gala event last Saturday night at Leonda.
After a busy fortnight of fantastic performances from our students, Mrs Dunwoody reflects on the importance of the performing arts.
This week Mrs Dunwoody speaks about the importance of a connected community and the events that have brought us together recently.
