In Blinkbonnie House Assembly this week, I presented the Prep girls with certificates celebrating their demonstration of the Quality “She is prepared to take a considered risk”. In keeping with this theme, Mrs Ashen read a picture story book to the girls called What do you do with a chance? which I will share with the Senior School community on Tuesday next week as they commence their two week orientation program in which they start their 2022 subjects.

It has been a week of endings and beginnings at Lowther Hall this week. Across the School, girls are completing final assessments and finishing up programs for the year as their teachers begin to prepare them for the next step in their journey.

It has been joyous to have all the girls back on site at Lowther Hall this week and to hear the laughter and energy that they bring to the space...

Today we celebrate World Teachers’ Day – a day which provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the individuals who work with the girls at Lowther Hall to help them learn and thrive.

This week has been a very positive time as we have welcomed various cohorts of students back onsite at Leslie Road. In preparing for their return, we have been thinking particularly about how we can keep the girls safe, and I have been impressed with the ways in which all students have embraced the various safety measures in place to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19.

11 October was the International Day of the Girl, a date that we certainly are excited to recognise at Lowther Hall. Of course, being a girls’ school, every day at Lowther Hall is the day of the girl, but the date provides an opportunity to reflect on some of the benefits of being part of a girls’ school community.

Term 4 has started very positively, with the return of our Year 12 students to face to face classes and the start of the processes by which we recognise and farewell the class of 2021.

Today marks the final day of term and we finished in our usual manner by gathering (virtually of course) all girls from Kindergarten to Year 12 for the end of term assembly. This is a special time for us to celebrate the fact that we are a Kindergarten to Year 12 community, all together on one campus, and I usually delight in watching the older girls respond to the young voices of the girls in Blinkbonnie House as they all sing the School Song together.

Despite the disappointing news that lockdown and as a result, remote learning, is to continue to the end of term, the publication of the 2021 National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results this week provided reassurance that the global COVID-19 pandemic has had no significant impact on students’ literacy and numeracy achievement at Lowther Hall.

Despite not being physically present, it has been a busy and exciting week at Lowther Hall. Staff and students alike have been buzzing with the excitement generated by the Lowther Literary Festival and we have been privileged to have a number of author visits and special events to inspire and foster a love of reading within our community.