Term 2 has finally reached its last week! Our Grammarians have worked solidly this term and have been exceptionally hardworking. I have been extremely pleased by the efforts our Grammarians have made in these last few weeks, with our Morris Hall Grammarians impressing us all with their commitment to automatising their times tables, Wildfell and St Hilda’s students focussing on finishing projects, the Middle Years SWAT Team leading assemblies, our Senior Years taking exams very seriously and some of them taking the VCE General Achievement Test (GAT). From our youngest to our oldest Grammarians, as well as staff and parents, everyone is very ready for a well-earned break from school!
It was great to see our beloved Professor Katie Allen (OG Stephens, 1983) posthumously appointed a well-deserved Order of Australia (AO) in the recent King’s Birthday Honours – for service to paediatric allergy and gastroenterology research, and for her service to people and federal parliament as the member for Higgins. Katie Allen AO was an esteemed alumna, former Chair of MGGS School Council, and President of the Merton Hall Foundation. We continue to honour her legacy at MGGS with the Professor Katie Allen AO Oration Prize awarded to a Year 9 or 10 student each year, with the winner’s address delivered on Speech Night. To Katie’s family, I know this will be special to you, and we are thinking of you as a community.
The Senior Years Production of Little Women held on 11,12 and 13 June at the Lawler Theatre, Southbank, was brilliant and a highlight of the year. This beautiful family drama, based on the March family and set in the USA Civil War, was well cast with a younger and older group of Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy. A special shoutout to Drama Captain, Lily Ebbels, who played Mrs March, Xanthe O’Loan who played senior Jo and Ally Young who played senior Amy – all compelling! The supporting actors were well rehearsed and made the play flow. I am pleased with the choice of this drama as it allows our Grammarians to explore history through a politically gendered lens. Through creative collaboration in the rehearsing and producing of Little Women the senior students have developed strong bonds with each other, have worked hard and have been impressive in their commitment to polish the final product for the audience’s enjoyment. In this process, they have discovered more about themselves, about each other and about stretching beyond artistic limits. All student performances stood out as compelling and left me with the impression that these girls can do anything! On behalf of our community, I wish to acknowledge staff members Cherie Hozinka, Elizabeth du Blet, Vic Page, Olivia Wilson and Naomi Fogliani for leading our Grammarians and achieving outstanding fellowship, so fundamental to the success of the Senior Years Production. The joy in the making of this production has been highly visible throughout the School, and I sincerely thank them for their passion and dedication.
In this final week of Term 2, Year 9 Grammarians and staff are sitting on country in Northeast Arnhem Land with our Yolngu friends and Year 11 are enjoying the Retreat, which sets them up for the leadership of the School as the Class of 2027. We welcome Lynn Broadway back in the first week of the holiday and look forward to hearing of her adventures in Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. Thank you to Kerry Oldman, who has stepped most capably into the role of Acting Deputy Principal (Wellbeing) in her absence.
We farewell and thank teachers who are leaving Melbourne Girls Grammar at the end of the semester or early in the new semester. Carolyn Marshall (French), Monique Zohar (Science), Alex Sun (Music) Emily Byrne (Morris Hall), and Libby Strugnell (ELC) have been dedicated in service to Grammarians and we wish them well. Greta Corney (English) and Jessica Mackenzie (PE & Year 7 Coordinator) are also taking leave and we wish them safe journeys.
For the last week of term, the holiday period and for the first four weeks of Term 3, I will be on sabbatical leave and Lynda Wall will be Acting Principal, while Michaela Kelly will be Acting Deputy Principal (Academic). My sabbatical will be a mixture of representing the School, catching up with alumnae, some study and personal replenishment time. The sabbatical begins in New York with an alumnae event at The East Pole restaurant, then I will attend the Biannual International Coalition of Girls Schools Conference in Toronto, and visit our sister school, The Bishop Strachan School. Next, I travel to London to visit our sister school Godolphin in Salisbury and hold an alumnae event for our UK Old Grammarians at the Rebecca Hassock Gallery in London. As a fifth generation Australian with Celtic roots, I am excited to visit both Ireland and Scotland for the first time. I will be walking the Ring of Kerry in Ireland and the West Highland Way in Scotland. I am so looking forward to stepping out into this wild country! I conclude my sabbatical with some study at Cambridge University, where I will be staying at Trinity College and Newnham College. Newnham College is of course very special to MGGS as this is where our School’s founders, Emily Hensley and Alice Taylor studied. It will be a great honour to walk within these hallowed halls. I am grateful for this opportunity provided by our School Council.
Over the holiday period, our VCE students will continue to polish and study in preparation for Term 3 School Assessed Tasks (SACs) and the end-of-year VCE Exams. It is an important mid-year break for all students, staff and families.
In closing, thank you to those who have already supported our 2026 Annual Giving and I encourage all families to consider contributing to this very worthy cause of creating an Engineering Hub for our Middle Years students. All donations are fully tax deductible, and you will be supporting our Grammarians to experience something very special.
Donate now on charidy.com/mggsag26
I look forward to sharing my learnings from my sabbatical when I return, and until then be well and be kind.
Yours in learning
Dr Toni E. Meath
Principal