Welcome back everyone. It has been uplifting to feel our school hum again with the return of students and teaching staff this week. To see students walking around the grounds, greeting one another and engaging with staff, to hear the sounds of the chatter, laughter, teaching and learning in our classes and feel the energy of what makes our school unique is heartening. Students are at the heart of a school and I believe our 130 year old walls breathed a sigh of relief as students and teachers returned on Monday as it has felt very quiet and eerie walking through Paterson House and around the grounds without the girls.
It is wonderful to have so many new students join us in 2022 and I would like to warmly welcome all of you and your parents to the Girls Grammar family.
Welcome to our Year 7s who are the largest cohort of new students to Girls Grammar this year. The start of 2022 has been made that little more memorable for our Year 12s who not only commenced their final year of school, but did so via remote online learning.
It has been disappointing to cancel many of our welcome back events over the past few weeks and restrict the number of family members attending the first day back, but I thank everyone for understanding the health and safety reasons behind this. While on the topic I would like to remind families about our COVID-19 tab on our School’s website https://www.rggs.qld.edu.au. Under this you will find all correspondence relating to COVID-19 including information on any confirmed cases. Due to privacy reasons we will not be disclosing any details about the student/s or staff member, only whether there has been a positive case identified. As always, I encourage you to monitor your daughter for any signs of COVID-19 such as:
Fever (≥37.5C) or history of fever (for example chills, sweats)
Cough
Sore throat
Fatigue
Shortness of breath
Loss of smell or taste
Aches and pains
Headache
Runny or stuffy nose
Please do not send your daughter to school if she has any of the above symptoms, no matter how mild. If your daughter does return a positive case or she is classified as a close contact, please contact the school to make us aware. We can then ensure teachers communicate curriculum that can be continued on with from home if your daughter is well enough.
We will continue to follow our COVID-19 risk management plan which can also be found under the COVID-19 tab on the website.
Over the holidays the school has been a hive of activity. Mrs Mitchell and her facilities, cleaning, grounds and maintenance teams have been working tirelessly to complete projects and upgrades before the return of students. These include:
New carpet, paint and furniture in lower Luck classrooms which have beautiful colour schemes and flexible learning options with a variety of seating and desks.
Updates to the two Year 6 classrooms in upper CAB with new flexible furniture and learning spaces.
Stripping and re-polishing of the art room floor.
Completed custom designed textiles room so we have both food and textiles classrooms alongside each other on the lower level of CAB.
S-shaped seating with planter boxes on the Sails area, along with picnic tables and yellow umbrellas across the school.
The grassed area alongside the Sails has been opened at lunch times as a shaded outdoor seating space with more picnic tables and umbrellas, with yellow and white gingham picnic rugs on their way.
Jackson boarding house has received extensive upgrades to both lower and upper levels including new flooring, painting, ensemble beds, blinds, refurbished common room, art work and photos on the walls and each room is now air conditioned.
I would like to thank all members of our School community for making the delayed commencement of school such a smooth transition and for working with us to ensure the girls have a happy and healthy start to the academic year. I look forward to sharing in and celebrating the many successes of our students, staff and Girls Grammar community in what is our School’s 130th year of educating and nurturing young women.
Kara Krehlik
Principal
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