While it has been a short week, it has been an incredibly busy start to Term 4, as always, at BGGS. From the joyous Father and Daughter Dinner (Week 1) and House Afternoon Teas for Year 7 2022 students (Week 2) through to our inaugural Giving Day last week, and this week’s commencement of external exams for our Year 12 girls, the term has begun well.
Of course, we look ahead now to milestone events—Valedictory Dinner, Speech Day, and our goodbye to the Year 12 girls as they walk up Gehrmann Lane and through the white picket fence for the last time as Grammar girls. We enter this period with a sense of familiarity, of comfort in the traditions of Term 4. These traditions—be it the ‘hat throwing’ at Speech Day, the war cry before exams—reinforce students’ sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves, a Girls Grammar sisterhood that spans generations.
The stability and certainty such traditions provide—especially at this moment in time—helps to counter the flux of Term 4. Our Year 7 girls will soon no longer be the youngest in our School, our Year 11s are preparing to be our future student leaders, our Year 12s, now immersed in exams, are preparing for their lives as Grammar Women, perhaps sad to leave the ‘known’ of BGGS, while equally excited about adventures that await.
Next week, at Assembly, we will recognise Remembrance Day, and its enduring significance to our nation. Another tradition that brings us together, and provides a moment to pause, to reflect on the sacrifices of those who died in conflict, and to understand more deeply the impact of these events in shaping who we are today. We will also celebrate our volunteering parents, alumnae and friends who enliven the BGGS community in so many ways through their generous support at our annual Volunteer Thank You Reception.
As we look ahead to Speech Day, and our tradition of gathering as a School to recognise achievement, and celebrate that for which our School stands, we acknowledge how fortunate we are to be in a position, it seems, to end our year well, and in person. Certainly, we have imagined throughout the year that may not be possible.
I hope our families, as we near the festive season and end of the year, find some comfort in their own traditions, in those rituals that shape us individually and bind us as a community.
Ms Jacinda Euler
Principal
