On being a ‘Grammar girl’

Head Girls address ‘Parent information evening’ 23 February 2017

Lucinda Duke (12H) and Elizabeth Prins (12B)

Elizabeth Prins: Good evening Ms Euler, parents, friends, and guests of the School. My name is Elizabeth Prins and this is Lucinda Duke and we are the Head Girls of Brisbane Girls Grammar School in 2017.

Over the past 142 years, Brisbane Girls Grammar School has been a leader of excellent scholarship, producing young women who are able to contribute confidently to our world. This evening, Lucy and I hope to share with you all our personal experiences at Girls Grammar and how the School has helped us to celebrate diversity, embrace gratitude, and promote teamwork over the past four years.

Lucinda Duke: I’ve always been someone who has loved school, loved learning, I used to think that I was just perhaps a bit of a nerd, but at Girls Grammar that love of learning is simply the norm. The range of subjects and this intensity to learn felt like I’d finally found my place. In Year 8 alone, I got to try out Multimedia and Interactive Technologies, Drama, Music, Art, German and something I was particularly excited to come to this School for, Latin. I am now in my fifth year of studying Latin and it is still one of my most enjoyable and enriching subjects. A subject I would never have had the opportunity to study at any other school in Brisbane.

Another major development for me academically, was finding my place as a girl in STEM. Right now, I study Maths C, Maths B and Chemistry, and I hope to continue a career in Science after I leave school. However I didn’t originally have this passion. In primary school, I had always thought that I wasn’t good at science, that science was boring, something only a few boys in my class could enjoy. I had always limited myself to the category of someone who liked English and writing, but never as someone with a real interest or even talent for science.

But it didn’t take long in my first year at Girls Grammar for that attitude to get a reality check. Soon after being exposed to what science was actually like and to an environment and teachers who were quickly able to instil in me the confidence to do well, I became open to truly enjoying science; particularly as a young girl. Soon science was not only my subject of highest achievement, but my favourite subject. You’ll find similar stories of many girls who have never been so broadly exposed to the kind of support and encouragement in academia before they became a Grammar girl.

Elizabeth Prins: While we both highly value our academic commitments, we also take part in a number of co-curricular activities. Our Dean of School, and well-known legend, Mrs Harvey-Short spoke to us at whole school assembly a couple of weeks ago about the importance of co-curricular involvement. Mrs Harvey-Short highlighted the fact that at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, sport, arts, and service are not part of our extra-curricular programme, but our co-curricular programme. Because every aspect of our school community is valued equally as highly as the rest, and the same applies to every single Grammar girl.

My best friends and I provide pretty good examples of the variety here at the School. By Week 2 of Year 8 I had met a kindred spirit in a girl called Rosie. We met in class and became instant friends despite our very different interests, hers being drama and singing, and mine being soccer, tennis, softball and Grammar Environmental and Conservation Organisation.  A little while later, we both individually met another girl, Catrina. I met Catrina through band and Rosie met her through Touch footy and we instantly became the Three Musketeers, or due to our very mild physical similarities to them, Charlie’s Angels. I’m flattered to be Cameron Diaz.

Four years later, Rosie’s love of all things artsy lead her to be Arts Captain, Catrina’s competitive nature lead her to the role of House Captain, and my borderline obsession with all things Girls Grammar lead me to having the honour of being Head Girl.

Because whether your daughter is a future Olympian, or she just really enjoys anything from yoga, to rock-climbing, to calligraphy, every girl has not just one opportunity, but many to showcase her talents and her skill-sets and to be a part of the Girls Grammar sisterhood.

Lucinda Duke: Like Lizzie and so many other girls in the school, I have loved my co-curricular experience at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. Over the past four years I’ve been involved in volleyball, softball, multiple choirs, and ensemble groups, first playing flute and now, bassoon. In all these groups I have made friends and gained skills beyond just playing the right notes. I have also learnt how to listen and cooperate as part of a team, to have self-discipline and take responsibility for myself and understand my impact upon those around me. But something that has profoundly affected me as an individual, is my involvement in debating.

Before coming to Girls Grammar I had zero experience. All I knew was that I had enjoyed a little bit of public speaking and that debating might be something fun and new to try.

Fast forward to last year, where my team finished our season undefeated, having won the Brisbane girls debating competition as well as the overall Queensland competition, where we very much relished knocking Brisbane Grammar School (our brother school next door) out on our way to winning the Grand Final. Now, in my fifth season of debating, I have made countless connections not only with the girls in my own team, but with students from other schools I have debated against.

I have also had the privilege to be coached in particular by two Grammar Old Girls; Grammar Women. I am now fortunate to consider both of these strong, intelligent young women as mentors in so much more than just debating. These relationships and invaluable confidence and consideration of the world around me are gifts of my co-curricular experience that I shall carry with me well beyond leaving school.

Elizabeth Prins: Not only have I been involved in sport and music but also in service. In fact, two of my most fond memories over the years have been when I was involved in service at Girls Grammar. During our Year 10 community service programme I helped the teachers at Red Hill Special School over the holidays. When my mum picked me up after the first day I said that I had never felt so physically or emotionally exhausted in my life. But I loved it. The experience was rewarding in a way that I never could have imagined.

I had a similar feeling at the end of last year when I made sandwiches for the homeless with our school’s service group the Ecumenical Coffee Brigade (ECB). ECB is one of many service groups here at Girls Grammar, all of which are very popular and are almost entirely run by students themselves.

This is one of the many things that I love about this School; the fact that students contribute hugely to the running of the school. Girls Grammar is one of the only schools that I know where student leaders are chosen solely by the girls, and where goals for the year are decided upon by a Council made up only of elected student representatives.

Lucinda Duke: We have so many student-led occasions, including our fortnightly formal assemblies, in which the students are the predominant speakers. But one of the best examples of a student initiative this year, was one heralded by our 2017 sports captains, who came up with the concept of ‘permission to play’. It’s a simple idea really, in the Year 7 girls’ first week of school, each one of them was given a handball with the words ‘Permission to Play’ written on it. A major transition from primary school to high school is the sudden loss of playtime, a time where they could have fun and be active. So often girls come to high school and feel that at break time they just have to sit around and eat their lunch because that’s what everyone does, that’s what a high school girl does. But permission to play is all about letting girls know that they can play, they can have fun being active, and with handball on a recent trend with the senior girls already, this initiative seemed like a perfect fit. This message along with many others we want to send to these young girls is so much stronger and has such a greater impact because it comes from us, it comes from the girls around them.

Elizabeth Prins: As a Student Council this year we developed three main goals, to celebrate diversity, to embrace gratitude, and to promote teamwork. All of these goals can be summed up with our motto for the year, Out of the Blue. Over the next year, we hope to celebrate our diversity within the Blue, be grateful as individuals who emerge from the Blue, and promote teamwork as a school community, as Grammar sisters, as the Blue.

I am the first Grammar girl in my family, but I know that I will not be the last. Because I will look back on my school years with nothing but enjoyment and love for this school and its spirited and diverse environment. Once a Grammar girl, always a Grammar girl.