From the Upper School
A Message from Mr Riley, Head of Upper School
It has been a busy week of events (including plenty of dancing for Year 10 on Friday night), leadership interviews, and preparation for the litany of events ahead in this short term. We wish our public speakers well at the Festival of Speech this weekend and hope our Year 9 Pioneers enjoy settling into Vision Valley in preparation for their four-week stay from Sunday.
Over the break, I have been reading a great book on negotiation, titled ‘Never Split the Difference’. As parents of young adolescents, I am sure you are well versed in negotiation skills and conflict resolution! Nevertheless, I thought I might take the opportunity this week to share three ideas that have resonated with me and which you might like to try at home.
- Mirroring – when listening to a frustrated party it can be helpful to repeat 1-3 important words from the sentence they have just said and then pause. Known as mirroring, this often prompts the frustrated party to further explain their annoyance and helps you empathise with what is really triggering their upset.
- Get to the “no” first – when negotiating we often try to get to what a party will agree to (say “yes” first) or compromise on. Often, this is something that they are happy to give away or is not really at the root cause of their reticence or obstinance. Instead, author Christopher Voss, suggests you really need to identify what their absolute “no” is, as this sets the parameters from which we can build understanding and work to resolution from.
- Aim for “that’s right” rather than “you’re right”. This can be a challenging one for parents as students often fail to recognise the wisdom (and likely past experience – good or bad) that you bring to the conversation and situation. Rather than having them agree with you or your standpoint (“you’re right”) you want to encourage them to align their values and standpoint with what is morally right (as signaled by the phrase “that’s right”). It is a subtle shift, but an important one.
I’d love to know how you get on if you are willing to try the above and would highly recommend the book for an interesting and effective quick read.
A message from Mrs Hunt, Deputy Head of Upper School
Drama Tour
During the holidays Ms Sweetman, Mrs Boyd and I had the pleasure of accompanying 30 students to London, Stratford Upon Avon and Paris for the Drama tour. Seventeen of the students were from the Upper School, and I was most proud of how the girls embraced the opportunities presented to them and always upheld the College values.
As you would expect, travelling is exciting, but it can also be challenging for a young person to be so far away from family in a foreign country. The girls showed care and kindness in the way they interacted with each other and maturity during times when…..a little more patience was required. I valued our time away, loved what we affectionately referred to as our ‘Drama tour family’ and enjoyed seeing the girls connect across different year groups.
Peer Passport
This week our current Year 10 Peer Support leaders were given an opportunity to teach our newly appointed 2023 Year 10 Peer Support leaders some ‘Get to Know You’ and Ice Breaker games and activities. Our new leaders are looking forward to using some of the games and activities during Links Day to help establish a friendship and bond with Middle School students. Additionally, they will assist in the smooth running of some of the events.
A message from Mr Levin and Mrs Richter, Heads of Year 9
In Week 1 of Directions, the topic was ‘Presenting yourself well: Careers Tool Kit – Pitch for a job interview’. This lesson equips students with the basic techniques they need to be successful at job interviews. Students practice relaxation techniques to reduce nerves and tension, and list actions they can take to properly prepare for job interviews. Students demonstrate and describe appropriate ways to enter and exit job interviews, and also describe the fundamentals of the S.T.A.R (situation, task, action and result) interview technique.
A huge congratulations to Year 9 student Sabrina Cooke who has won an Immerse Essay Competition. There were thousands of entries from students all over the world, yet Sabrina’s essay has been recognised as one of the highest calibre entries of this year. Her prize is a scholarship to attend an Academic Enrichment Program at either Oxford or Cambridge University. A fantastic achievement Sabrina! We wish you well for this program!
A message from Ms Beaumont and Mrs Stephanie Attley, Heads of Year 10
A big welcome to Week 2. We wanted to say a huge thank you for your perseverance and organisation around the Shormal event. It went off without a hitch and it was a huge success! The students had a ball dancing and socialising with their Shore counterparts, and we could not be prouder of how the girls conducted themselves on the night.
This week we had one of our only Year Assemblies for the term and the students were given a whistle stop tour through all of the fantastic events coming up. The Upper School Leaders spoke about the Disco on the 11th on November, and Steph Attley and I also launched the Urban Challenge activity which students will be participating in during the Future You Festival.
In the lead up to examination week (week 4) we also had Ms Stanfield and Mr Plaskett visit to discuss examination requirements, study tips and the Illness and Misadventure process in the case of absences over this period. Some subjects are now releasing notifications for examinations, and we encourage all students to take the time to sit down and look over their notes, identify gaps in their learning and write down questions they can ask their teachers to assist their revision. Examination periods can be very busy periods for our students and in Directions classes we have been working on self-care and organisational tips to build healthy habits in the lead up to this big week.
Year 10 have been invited to take part in the School K-12 Opening Evening on Thursday the 10th of November (3:30-5pm) assisting parents as tour guides around the school. This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their leadership skills in a new setting. Interested students can email Ms Beaumont or Ms Attley to signal their interest in this opportunity.
Save the Date: Shaping Your Future
From the Secondary School Parent Group
Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend the PPA meeting the other evening, including the compressed Secondary School Parent Group AGM. It was lovely to have a chance to catch up, find out more from Dr Hadwen about what is happening in the College and to thank everyone for their year’s effort and welcoming in the group for the year ahead.
As such, I would like to thank the parents who held formal roles on the SSPG committee this year including Julie Xie, Pam McPherson, Jane Stewart, Pilar Yemma, Susan Ma, Vicki Volikas, Gi-Nin Baikie, Dushi Cooke, Malini Srivastava, Sunny Hre, Carol Bai and Vanessa Middleton. Also, a big thank you to all the parents who took on informal and support roles, organising and supporting events, attending coffee mornings and forwarding on emails and requests for assistance.
Group Leaders – Brigid Robson and Priscilla Macpherson
Record Keeper – May Tai
Year 12 Co-ordinators – Jane Stewart and Melissa Markson
Year 11 Co-ordinators – Susan Ma and Pilar Yemma
Year 10 Co-ordinators – Pam McPherson and Zoe Green
Year 9 Co-ordinators – Christel Vgne and Monika Surana
Year 8 Co-ordinators – Shiva Rich and Carol Bai
Year 7 Co-ordinator – Kai Jones
Care and Support – Vanessa Middleton
Once again, thank you to everyone for all your help and support. We look forward to a chance to see you at the end of year celebrations and events for the start of 2023.
Written by Priscilla Macpherson
from the Upper School Parent Group
It’s hard to believe it’s already Term 4! It was a very busy Term 3, and this term will likely only get busier. Hopefully everyone is staying dry.
Our lovely year co-ordinators have organised some get togethers, and we’d love for you to attend!
Year 10
Ginin and Vicki would like to invite you all for a coffee/breakfast at Brick Lane Espresso, West Pymble on Friday 28 October after school drop off from 8.15am onwards. Please RSVP by calling/texting 0412371224. If you are suddenly free on the day, please feel free to pop in.
Key Dates
Term 4
Sunday 23 October Year 9 Residential Program Community Day at Vision Valley
Friday 28 October Year 10 Study Day
Monday 31 October Year 10 Yearly Examinations begin
Friday 4 November Year 10 Yearly Examinations completed
Friday 11 November Upper School End of Year Celebration Disco
Monday 14 November Year 10 All Well Testing
Monday 14 to Thursday 17 November Year 9 Outdoor Education Program
Tuesday 15 November Jacaranda Day
Friday 18 November The Great Return – Year 9 Residential Program
Monday 21 to Friday 25 November Year 10 Future You Festival
Friday 2 December Speech Day and Final Day of Term 4
Mr Tom Riley