Girls and staff have returned refreshed and ready for all that is before us in Term 3–Open Day, Interhouse Athletics, the final QCS exams in the state of Queensland and an extraordinary range of personally meaningful activities for our girls and their families. Personally, I enjoy the quiet and steady industry required to meet the often intense demands of Term 3, knowing that, while we begin in the relative cold and dark of winter, with each day we are closer to the warmth and freshness of spring at term’s end.
Tomorrow marks 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing on 20 July 1969, and closer to home, a year since the establishment of the Australian Space Agency (ASA). In acknowledging the Agency’s first birthday, Dr Megan Clark AC, Head of the Agency, observed that ‘very few things inspire quite like space’—I know that many of our girls, including those who have just returned from Space Camp in the USA, would agree.
As an infant in 1969, I have no recollection of being with my parents in front of a small black and white TV in country Queensland, watching Neil Armstrong make history but it is good to know that, 50 years later, space exploration remains a priority for nations around the world, and that the Australian Government continues to reinforce its commitment to transforming and growing a globally respected Australian space industry.
Earlier this month, the ASA announced its Advisory Group, with Professor Margaret Sheil AO, Vice Chancellor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, internationally renowned astrophysics researcher, among those appointed to guide and support the Agency’s objectives. With an ASA goal of tripling the sector (to $12 billion) and creating 20 000 new jobs by 2030, many Grammar girls, both current and future, with a deep interest in, and fascination for, space will have the chance to pursue this area of study and further Australia’s contributions to the industry.
We have commenced construction on our new Science building and are excitedly looking forward to unveiling it, before the start of the 2021 academic year. Leading the Lendlease construction team is Construction Manager and past student, Cherise Czislowski (De Vere, 2002), who will be onsite every day for the next 18 months, speaking regularly with the girls about the project as it evolves.
I hope you enjoy reading Mr Stephen Woods’ final instalment for Insights in this week’s BGGS News. Our Director of English concludes his time at Girls Grammar today, after 12 years in this very important academic position in the School. Mr Woods and his wife are returning to Hong Kong for the next, hopefully rewarding, stage in their lives and careers. The School has been so fortunate to benefit from an educator who has, with all of his academic, pedagogical, literary and, might I say, comedic talents, brought so much to the teaching and love of English among both the staff and the girls of BGGS in his time at the helm of the English Faculty.
We all look forward to a successful term ahead.
Ms Jacinda Euler
Principal
