Newsletter Term 2, Week 8 16 June 2022

The stakes feel high this year for a variety of reasons. It is the first continuous assessment period for two years after the pandemic hit. For some students, it is their first attempt at formal examinations, and for others managing competing demands in multiple subjects is a new and testing experience. Our Year 12’s completing their Unit 3 subjects are almost two thirds of the way through their final year at Strathcona.  

It has been a complicated period for many students. Illness and absence have left some feeling underprepared and the intensity of the sustained effort required to get through these assessments and exams has felt especially hard this year. Encouragingly, most of our students have managed this period well. Over the last few weeks, I have noticed an increased number of students working together in the library, meeting with teachers at recess and lunch and working closely with their Year Level Coordinator or Head of House on a plan for study or improved organisation. I have also met and spoken to numerous parents who have ridden the wave of this period diligently with their daughters. For some (possibly most!) it is more akin to the swells at Bells Beach rather than the tranquility of Port Phillip Bay. 

When reflecting on how our girls have coped with this period, I am again revisiting the notion of academic buoyancy. Academic buoyancy is a “students’ capacity to effectively respond to academic setback, adversity, and challenge” (Martin & Marsh, 2009). A student who shows academic buoyancy is better equipped to deal with isolated poor grades, or periods of poor performance. They are more likely to be able to deal with the everyday stress and pressure of schoolwork and are more likely to manage dips in confidence or motivation. A student who is academically buoyant can handle minor critical or negative feedback and work through it rationally (Martin & Collie, 2017). 

You may or may not be surprised that research points to girls having significantly lower academic buoyancy than boys. Whilst girls typically have higher motivation and engagement than boys, they present with higher levels of anxiety around their schoolwork and, regardless of the depth of academic adversity, the impacts on their wellbeing can be significant. I have witnessed these impacts firsthand multiple times this term in girls across Years 7-12.  

A common thread which binds most students at Strathcona is their commitment to doing well, work hard and try their best. However sometimes, regardless of effort, a test, oral or SAC doesn’t quite go as well as they had hoped, and this can cause some students to feel completely overwhelmed. The notion of academic buoyancy is so relevant in these instances because generally the catastrophe that the student perceives this disappointment to be, is not the reality. A challenge that seems altogether insurmountable is merely an opportunity to overcome.  

The Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia are currently engaged in a 3-year study with UNSW into boosting the academic buoyancy of girls. Early recommendations from this research include teaching students explicitly how to recognise academic adversity and how to adjust their thinking, emotions and behaviour to manage it.  This is something students need to practice both at school and at home, with the adults in their lives providing numerous opportunities to independently problem solve academic challenges or deal with disappointment. We look forward to following this study and its recommendations as they develop.  

As we turn our focus towards Semester 2, we first encourage students and families to take a well-earned rest over the Term 2 Holidays. Resilience and academic buoyancy cannot be properly developed without time to recover, and indeed time spent in ones’ “performance zone” must be complimented in equal parts with time spent in the “recovery zone”. We hope that students return to Strathcona after the break refreshed, reinvigorated, and ready to tackle the tides that come our way in Term 3.  

Kind regards

Amber Sowden, Dean of Students

Martin, A. J., & Marsh, H. W. (2008). Academic buoyancy: Towards an understanding of students’ everyday academic resilience. Journal of School Psychology, 46(1), 53-83.  

Andrew Martin: https://www.researchgate.net/p...  

Rebecca Collie: https://www.researchgate.net/p... 

We were blessed with a lovely sunny clear say for our Senior School Athletics day in May, it was great to see so many of our students participate in all the Track and Field events. Congratulations to Arnold House who, for the 2nd year, took home the Cup.

The Junior School also hosted their Athletics day on the 25th of May out at Bill Stewart Athletics track, where all year levels where able to participate in a range of Track and Field activities. Congratulations to Findlay House for winning their House Athletics Cup.

Junior School Year 5 and 6 students also participated in their own Inter School sports this term on a Tuesday with Basketball for the Year 6 students and T-ball for the Year 5 students. It was great to see so many of our students giving each sport a go.
Term 3 is just around the corner and already it is gearing up to be another busy term with sport. Our GSV Athletics squad have already started their Tuesday and Thursday morning trainings in preparation the GSV carnivals which will happen in term 3 and trials are beginning for Term 3 GSV sport including Soccer, Volleyball for all students and Badminton for our Inter and Senior students.  

Saturday Netball started in earnest in Term 2, with over 230 students playing across Year 4 to Year 12, we have a total of 25 teams who compete against other schools and clubs on a Saturday at Macleay Park in Balwyn North, the season is going very well and it’s great to see the players getting back on court for what will be a full uninterrupted season.

GSV cross country returned in its full capacity this year, with both the preliminary and championship carnivals taking place. Through the students’ efforts in the preliminary carnival, we qualified for Division 2. The Championshp Carnival took place at a new location, at Cruden Farm which saw our students running through a range of different terrains. It was a challenging course, but well done to all of our students who represented our school so well at both of these events.
We wish all our students the best of luck in their chosen sport for the Term to come and congratulate all who participated in a sport or sports during term 2.

Gayle Burgi, Sport Administrator and Netball Coordinator and Keira Wills, Head of Sport

Items in the Career News include:

• Army Support Gap Year
• Careers in Real Estate
• Richmond Institute of Sports Leadership Information Sessions
• Holmesglen-Saints Sports Program
• News from ACU

o Four New Commerce Degrees for 2023
o New Double Degree in Criminology and Law

• Environmental Science Degrees in Victoria in 2022
• Snapshot of The University of Melbourne (UoM) in 2022

These life skills particularly for our junior students cannot be underestimated. It is no surprise that our Strathcona girls want to assist and this week I have had more than 20 students at lunchtime working on this exciting project. As Emma Sakellaris stated in the 2021 Issues in Society Magazine “Australians are good givers” and this includes time as well as money donations. In Australia, more than 3 million people volunteer in charities. At Strathcona we want to harness opportunities where students can select where they give their time to a worthy cause.

Our focus for the Op Shop is to draw attention to the world’s finite resources and that with every garmet produced and sold there is a long chain of environmental impacts (emissions from factories, transportation of goods etc). In fact fashion is the third largest industry and is responsible for 8 per cent of carbon emissions.

So before next week we ask that any students volunteer their time or to donate clothing items to bring more attention to the topic of fast fashion. So far our community have generously supplied more then 500 items, some of these are brand new. We thank each of you who have been involved and we warmly invite students to next Thursday’s lunchtime event where there will be music and a presentation on the difference we can all make in the world of fast fashion!

This week the students worked on their preparation for a meeting with Green Collect one of the three charities the students will consider for their funding. Green Collect is a social enterprise who have proposed a project which provides employment opportunities to those which may face disadvantage. The students are also researching and considering grant proposals from Lively Community Limited and Weenthunga.

During our meeting the girls spoke and listened to Paul and Angela who shared about their various pursuits in philanthropy from chairing various charity board as well as founding an education fund for Children in Bali. The girls were inspired by the stories that the Wheelton’s shared and are now better prepared as they prepare to decide.

Our next step is to prepare to visit the not for profits and decide how much and where our funds will be allocated. Marnie, Amy, Isabelle, Alec, Annabelle and Naomi have all benefited greatly from this opportunity. Keira Wills and Janet Costello have also assisted in the YIP program for 2022.

Hollie Fields, Service Coordinator

Our week began with “Exam Day” – which turned out, for most students, not to be as stressful as they had imagined it to be. Many remarked afterwards that the guided meditation before the English exam helped to calm the nerves, but all students felt that their first experience was not too bad. I was particularly impressed with the steady and considered manner they approached the day, using the study session to seek help or read notes. Many also tested new techniques for study - cue cards, graphic organisers, sketchnotes and quizzes. We have spoken to students about the importance of retrieval practice - spending short amounts of time over a longer period to commit concepts to memory. For most, once the exams were over – the added benefit was the early conclusion to the day!

It is vital that students use their first set of exam experiences to reflect on what worked well for them, and to understand what would or could have been done better. These are the essential learnings and will guide and shape their exam experiences in the years to follow. A discussion at home, to supplement those we are having at school would be ideal.

We have had a surge of Tik Tok interactions and phone usage on the Campus of late and as a result I have spoken to students about the school social media and technology policies. It is a worthwhile reminder that phones should not be used during the day, unless instructed by a teacher. 

We are looking forward to an enjoyable end to our term, with excursions, artist-in-residence workshops and a visit by 6 League of Extraordinary Women mentors to guide our newly formed businesses in Envision.

Best wishes,

Karyn Murray, Head of Tay Creggan

Tay Creggan, our Year 9 campus, is proudly part of Open House Melbourne 2022. This event will now be held online.

Take a virtual tour of the magnificent heritage building, Tay Creggan, and learn about its interesting history narrated by a Strathcona Girls Grammar student.
You can also take a tour of Tay Creggan in Minecraft. This has been cleverly created by two of our Year 9 students.

More information will be available closer to the day on our website.

You are warmly invited to the next Strathcona Centre for Learning Futures event with guest Speaker, Tay Pappas.

Tay Pappas will speak about her fascinating international experience helping to build a range of businesses, leading to her current role as General Manager at Kip&Co. This will provide participants with insight into what it takes to build a company’s brand and the kinds of opportunities young people can explore as they build their own careers. Tay is looking forward to questions from the audience.

Tay Pappas is the General Manager of indie lifestyle brand Kip&Co. She has deep experience in retail and strategy and a passion for building incredible Australian brands. Tay began her career as a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group, before taking on strategy roles with the Just Group in Melbourne and pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Copenhagen. She joined Mecca Brands in 2012 to lead the four-person merchandise team, and in her eight years with Mecca helped to scale the business across strategy, store development and buying, finally returning to the Head of Merchandise role with a team of 45. In 2020 she joined Hairhouse Warehouse as Chief Commercial Officer, driving the merchandise strategy and Hairhouse’s private label brands.Pursuing her love of brand building, Tay joined Kip&Co in 2021 in the newly created role of General Manager, to work with the founders to scale the business, drive rapid growth and sustainably bring colour and fun to homewares and apparel for every corner of the home and every member of the family. Tay lives in Balaclava with her husband and three girls, and loves travel, food and all types of music.

We look forward to welcoming you to this event