Technology in the home has become normalised and young people today revel in it. However, there can be a disconnect in schools as students using technology are deprived of the autonomy, personalisation and familiarity of their own devices. Our students often hold the link to life-wide learning in their bags, what can schools do to harness it?
Are young people today more selfish than earlier generations? Historically we have made a distinction between self-interest and care for others; but recent studies show that our self-interest may best be served through adopting a more compassionate approach to each other and the world around us.
The incredible rise in technology over the last decade has led to social networking being woven into the fabric of everyday life, no more so than for our current generation of adolescents. Internet sites such as Facebook can be a vehicle for self-objectification in a unique and concerning way.
After the announcement of 'Embrace the new! Link the Blue!' as the 2013 motto and vision for the School, Marrapatta staff considered how our thematic approach to the outdoor education programme could support the student focus for the year.
Six times every year, as an English teacher — and, therefore, a white-hat-wearing good-guy — I find myself cast as the villain in a Western film. I push through the swinging saloon doors of the classroom, and the happy chatter stalls. Twenty pairs of eyes fix on me in a small-town silence tainted with a palpable dread. The beribboned townsfolk gasp as they realise I have come among them armed not with the usual arsenal of whiteboard pens, PowerPoint presentations, and lame jokes, but with the scourge of English students everywhere: a sheaf of graded papers.
In each year of my experience co-ordinating the Year 12 cohort the incoming Student Council expresses surprise and wonder at the intensity of the role and responsibilities of the Council. This body, and its predecessors, have existed for many productive years and is the 'engine room' of the student body. The Council's role is to provide a voice for the students; act as role models; be the prime conduit between the students, staff and community; and nurture the spirit of Girls Grammar.
Speech delivered at the Australia Day 2013 School Assembly Ms J Colwill, Creative Arts Faculty The tradition of noting the 26th of January began early in the nineteenth century and refers to The First Landing Day or Foundation Day. This was the day in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove to raise the Union Jack as a symbol of the British occupation of the eastern half of the continent. Prosperous immigrants in Sydney, especially those who had been convicts or the sons of convicts, began marking the colony’s beginnings with an anniversary dinner to celebrate their love of the land that they lived in. People have continued to migrate to Australia ever since. This is the story of one of them. Beryl was born in London on 29th April 1926. World War II started in 1939 when Beryl was 13 years old. As you can imagine, this was a time of great anxiety…