As I am writing this, the VCE Mathematical Methods exam is about to commence and for many of our students this will mark the mid-point of their exam period. Over the past few weeks, I have been observing students working individually and in groups – in person and virtually – with their teachers preparing for the exams. The exams have been running smoothly and my sincere thanks goes to our Chief Exam Supervisor, Ms Jenny Turner, and her wonderful team of invigilators and the Senior Years team who collectively ensure that there is calmness to our exam centres assisting students to focus on the task in front of them. Many of our invigilators are former MGGS teachers who have been supervising the VCE exams for years. Good invigilators create a special sense of calm and order to the exam setting and provide the right tone for exam sitting; the value of this cannot be underestimated. Our current Years 11 and 12 students who are sitting their exams are a credit to their families and I have been so impressed with their attitude and approach.

As we begin our new COVID-19 normal across Melbourne, and as we re-open as a city and reunite with families and friends, it is only natural that we will begin to see cases within our community. Maintaining a safe learning environment for all in our community is paramount and MGGS continues to be a COVID-19 free site. While I would like to think of this as good management, much of this has been due to luck and good fortune. We closely follow advice using the Victorian Government Guidelines for Schools and DHHS protocols. Additionally, we have a thorough MGGS COVID-19 Safety Plan, and we continue to meet regularly as an Executive to discuss the health and safety of all our processes. It is comforting that Victoria is almost 90% fully vaccinated for those 12 years and over and all MGGS staff at School and caring for your daughters are vaccinated. As you can understand, for privacy reasons we will not communicate when there are positive cases within our community unless our School is an exposure site and if there is a requirement for the School to close or there are serious risks associated with possible transmission or exposure. I seek your support and understanding regarding protecting the medical privacy of our community.

A healthy sign of a scholarly school is the number of teachers who are engaged in outside professional associations, who are invited as speakers to state, national and international conferences, and who are examiners and assessors for the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA). This dedicated work complements their teaching, contributes to the professionalism of teaching, and enables them to be experts in their field. I am very pleased that we currently have 19 MGGS teachers who are assessing for VCAA this year. The 2021 VCAA Assessors include:

• Tara Ambrosio – English Language
• Luke Francis – English Language
• Kelsa Taleb – EAL
• Yvette Arnott – Literature
• Bei Jiang – Mathematics
• Hanyu Xu – Chinese
• Jiwei Xu – Chinese
• Fenglan Luo – Chinese (oral)
• Annarita Bardeggia – Italian (oral)
• Elisa Gennari – Italian (oral)
• Alessandro Micciche – Latin
• Jessica Priestley – Latin
• Eleonor Palacio – Spanish
• Caroline Foster – Classical Studies
• Andre Pitts – Economics
• Allison Bray – Geography
• Rhys Page – Global Politics
• Roseanne Tiziani – Global Politics​​​
• Lenny Robinson – Philosophy (Assistant Chief Assessor)
• Monique Sharp – Physical Education (Assistant Chief Assessor)

Our incoming students and their families for 2022 will be warmly welcomed to MGGS with carefully planned information evenings and orientation events. This includes our Prep, and Years 5, 7, and 9 intakes as well as a few young women at Years 10, 11, and 12. I understand it is often with great apprehension that many of our new Grammarians walk through the doors of our school for the first time. However, my experience informs me that it does not take very long for most to be settled as part of the rich fabric of our School culture. On reflecting on the last days of Year 12 for our young women it is easy to see the firm bonds of friendship that develop over the years at MGGS.

It would be remiss of me to not formally congratulate the students who submitted entries for The Anderson magazine cover competition.  Responding to the theme, Growth,  the resultant works ranged from exquisite ink drawings to designs featuring bold colour and organic forms. The actual works will be revealed when the School magazine arrives next month. While the quality of the work submitted was very good indeed, of course, there can be only one winner.  I would like to congratulate Ella Grant (Year 11) for her winning entry – a detailed work featuring an abundance of native flora, from wattle, eucalyptus, waratah, native lilies and daisies.  Zara Hunter (Year 11) is also to be congratulated on her work being chosen for the cover of the 2022 Student Diary.  Honourable Mentions were also received by Year 11 students Paris Drew, Isabella Gaudry, Zsa Zsa Laurie, Eden Wu and Nini Zhang. To these wonderful artists, Bravo!

As we head into the final straight of the year, I hope you are enjoying some of the simple pleasures we all now appreciate so much more – extended family dinners, a restaurant meal, a swim in a pool or walking outside with a mask. I certainly am enjoying walking the Merton Hall and Morris Hall campuses meeting with students and staff who are very happy to be back. We are indeed blessed!

Yours in learning,

Dr Toni E Meath
Principal